“The British poet Byron Percy Shelley wrote, ‘A man, to be greatly good, must imagine intensely and comprehensively; he must put himself in the place of many others…the great instrument of moral good is the imagination.’ In this way, moral good stems from moral imagination: the ability to imagine what life is really like for a neighbor, a stranger, an adversary, and yes, even ‘the enemy.’
So on this day after, as a person of privilege, my faith compels me to imagine what life is like for the poor, those who struggle each day for the basics of life: food, shelter, work. Since I am male and white, my faith pushes me to imagine what life is like for women and minorities in the world. Since I am white collar and well educated, my faith challenges me to imagine the life of a coal miner in West Virginia, or an unemployed factory worker in Ohio, or a high school educated single Mom in Wisconsin. A Christian, my faith inspires me to ask: what’s life really like in the United States for a Muslim, a Jew, an atheist, a Buddhist? A liberal, my faith dares me to imagine what life is like for my conservative parishioner.”
John Hudson, pastor of the Pilgrim Church (United Church of Christ) in Sherborn, Massachusetts, from a blog article titled “The Day After”