Courage means holding our own institutions accountable, resisting manufactured outrage, and defending our values when doing so comes at a cost.
I’ve noticed something about courage: we tend to admire it most when someone else is paying the price. We celebrate the whistleblower who exposes corruption, the protester who challenges injustice, and the person who stands up to an abusive institution. But when the criticism turns toward a church we belong to, a political movement we support, or a leader we’ve defended for years, our enthusiasm for accountability can suddenly become a lot more complicated. Apparently, courage is a wonderful virtue right up until it threatens our own comfortable little corner of the world.
We were given several important images in the Bible readings we covered in the main episode this week. Isaiah’s rotten vineyard, Paul’s advice about where we direct our attention, and Matthew’s corrupt tenants all raise a question that reaches well beyond religion: What are our values worth when practicing them carries a cost? Because courage isn’t about being fearless, and it certainly isn’t about being the loudest person in the room. It’s about what we do when fear, loyalty, and self-interest give us perfectly convenient reasons to look the other way.
So, let’s dive into that… in this episode of Afterthoughts!
