Parker Palmer
Parker Palmer
Parker J. Palmeris an author, educator, and activist who focuses on issues in education, community, leadership, spirituality and social change. He is the founder and Senior Partner of the Center for Courage & Renewal...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionEducator
CountryUnited States of America
daunting demands exempt expected knows life might nobody nor required tasks
When I was depressed, nobody expected anything of me, nor did I expect anything of myself. I was exempt from life's demands and risks. But if I were to find new life, who knows what daunting tasks I might be required to take on?
address among atheism freedom offers opportunity religion secular tradition wisdom
America's freedom of religion, and freedom from religion, offers every wisdom tradition an opportunity to address our soul-deep needs: Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, secular humanism, agnosticism and atheism among others.
call civility common debate good highest polite political power values
Political civility is not about being polite to each other. It's about reclaiming the power of 'We the People' to come together, debate the common good and call American democracy back to its highest values amid our differences.
democratic fascist invite literally movements
Fascist movements kill off their critics, literally or metaphorically, while democratic movements value, invite and even welcome criticism.
begin contradict critical deeply demands external inner inward movements oppressed people respect stop truth worthy
Movements begin when oppressed people make - and keep remaking - a deeply inward decision to stop consenting to external demands that contradict a critical inner truth, the truth that they are worthy of respect.
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We are a profoundly interconnected species, as the global economic and ecological crises reveal in vivid and frightening detail. We must embrace the simple fact that we are dependent on and accountable to one another.
choosing claims happens including mysteries pretend religious rooted worth
Every religious tradition is rooted in mysteries I don't pretend to understand, including claims about what happens after we die. But this I know for sure: as long as we're alive, choosing resurrection is always worth the risk.
arrogance god opposed political religious special standing truth
As a Christian, I'm passionately opposed to American pretensions that we have special standing with God; to political office-seekers who play on our religious differences; and to the religious arrogance that says, 'Our truth is the only truth.'
audience deformed instead members religious spectator sports
We have been deformed by educational and religious institutions that treat us as members of an audience instead of actors in a drama, so we become adults who treat democracy as a spectator sport.
believed founders range rejected wide
Whatever America's founders believed about Christianity - and they believed a wide range of things - they clearly rejected the idea of an established church.