Quotes & Sayings


We, and creation itself, actualize the possibilities of the God who sustains the world, towards becoming in the world in a fuller, more deeper way. - R.E. Slater

There is urgency in coming to see the world as a web of interrelated processes of which we are integral parts, so that all of our choices and actions have [consequential effects upon] the world around us. - Process Metaphysician Alfred North Whitehead

Kurt Gödel's Incompleteness Theorem says (i) all closed systems are unprovable within themselves and, that (ii) all open systems are rightly understood as incomplete. - R.E. Slater

The most true thing about you is what God has said to you in Christ, "You are My Beloved." - Tripp Fuller

The God among us is the God who refuses to be God without us, so great is God's Love. - Tripp Fuller

According to some Christian outlooks we were made for another world. Perhaps, rather, we were made for this world to recreate, reclaim, redeem, and renew unto God's future aspiration by the power of His Spirit. - R.E. Slater

Our eschatological ethos is to love. To stand with those who are oppressed. To stand against those who are oppressing. It is that simple. Love is our only calling and Christian Hope. - R.E. Slater

Secularization theory has been massively falsified. We don't live in an age of secularity. We live in an age of explosive, pervasive religiosity... an age of religious pluralism. - Peter L. Berger

Exploring the edge of life and faith in a post-everything world. - Todd Littleton

I don't need another reason to believe, your love is all around for me to see. – Anon

Thou art our need; and in giving us more of thyself thou givest us all. - Khalil Gibran, Prayer XXIII

Be careful what you pretend to be. You become what you pretend to be. - Kurt Vonnegut

Religious beliefs, far from being primary, are often shaped and adjusted by our social goals. - Jim Forest

We become who we are by what we believe and can justify. - R.E. Slater

People, even more than things, need to be restored, renewed, revived, reclaimed, and redeemed; never throw out anyone. – Anon

Certainly, God's love has made fools of us all. - R.E. Slater

An apocalyptic Christian faith doesn't wait for Jesus to come, but for Jesus to become in our midst. - R.E. Slater

Christian belief in God begins with the cross and resurrection of Jesus, not with rational apologetics. - Eberhard Jüngel, Jürgen Moltmann

Our knowledge of God is through the 'I-Thou' encounter, not in finding God at the end of a syllogism or argument. There is a grave danger in any Christian treatment of God as an object. The God of Jesus Christ and Scripture is irreducibly subject and never made as an object, a force, a power, or a principle that can be manipulated. - Emil Brunner

“Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh” means "I will be that who I have yet to become." - God (Ex 3.14) or, conversely, “I AM who I AM Becoming.”

Our job is to love others without stopping to inquire whether or not they are worthy. - Thomas Merton

The church is God's world-changing social experiment of bringing unlikes and differents to the Eucharist/Communion table to share life with one another as a new kind of family. When this happens, we show to the world what love, justice, peace, reconciliation, and life together is designed by God to be. The church is God's show-and-tell for the world to see how God wants us to live as a blended, global, polypluralistic family united with one will, by one Lord, and baptized by one Spirit. – Anon

The cross that is planted at the heart of the history of the world cannot be uprooted. - Jacques Ellul

The Unity in whose loving presence the universe unfolds is inside each person as a call to welcome the stranger, protect animals and the earth, respect the dignity of each person, think new thoughts, and help bring about ecological civilizations. - John Cobb & Farhan A. Shah

If you board the wrong train it is of no use running along the corridors of the train in the other direction. - Dietrich Bonhoeffer

God's justice is restorative rather than punitive; His discipline is merciful rather than punishing; His power is made perfect in weakness; and His grace is sufficient for all. – Anon

Our little [biblical] systems have their day; they have their day and cease to be. They are but broken lights of Thee, and Thou, O God art more than they. - Alfred Lord Tennyson

We can’t control God; God is uncontrollable. God can’t control us; God’s love is uncontrolling! - Thomas Jay Oord

Life in perspective but always in process... as we are relational beings in process to one another, so life events are in process in relation to each event... as God is to Self, is to world, is to us... like Father, like sons and daughters, like events... life in process yet always in perspective. - R.E. Slater

To promote societal transition to sustainable ways of living and a global society founded on a shared ethical framework which includes respect and care for the community of life, ecological integrity, universal human rights, respect for diversity, economic justice, democracy, and a culture of peace. - The Earth Charter Mission Statement

Christian humanism is the belief that human freedom, individual conscience, and unencumbered rational inquiry are compatible with the practice of Christianity or even intrinsic in its doctrine. It represents a philosophical union of Christian faith and classical humanist principles. - Scott Postma

It is never wise to have a self-appointed religious institution determine a nation's moral code. The opportunities for moral compromise and failure are high; the moral codes and creeds assuredly racist, discriminatory, or subjectively and religiously defined; and the pronouncement of inhumanitarian political objectives quite predictable. - R.E. Slater

God's love must both center and define the Christian faith and all religious or human faiths seeking human and ecological balance in worlds of subtraction, harm, tragedy, and evil. - R.E. Slater

In Whitehead’s process ontology, we can think of the experiential ground of reality as an eternal pulse whereby what is objectively public in one moment becomes subjectively prehended in the next, and whereby the subject that emerges from its feelings then perishes into public expression as an object (or “superject”) aiming for novelty. There is a rhythm of Being between object and subject, not an ontological division. This rhythm powers the creative growth of the universe from one occasion of experience to the next. This is the Whiteheadian mantra: “The many become one and are increased by one.” - Matthew Segall

Without Love there is no Truth. And True Truth is always Loving. There is no dichotomy between these terms but only seamless integration. This is the premier centering focus of a Processual Theology of Love. - R.E. Slater

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Note: Generally I do not respond to commentary. I may read the comments but wish to reserve my time to write (or write from the comments I read). Instead, I'd like to see our community help one another and in the helping encourage and exhort each of us towards Christian love in Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior. - re slater

Sunday, October 5, 2025

Recovery from Toxic Disruption - Part 4



Recovery from Toxic Disruption
PART 4

by R.E. Slater and ChatGPT-5


Toxic disruption devastates—but it also clears ground. In its aftermath, the illusion of permanence is shattered. From these ruins, new structures of trust, justice, and relational knowing can be built. A processual lens reminds us that reality is not static, and disruption is not final. The question is: what now grows in the open space disruption leaves behind?

Recovery must go deeper than rebuttal. It is not enough to correct falsehoods; we must reweave the fabric of public life—structurally, relationally, and ethically. Below are six interwoven practices of renewal:

✦ Democratic Resilience

Democracy does not run on autopilot. It must be cultivated—through civic education, transparent institutions, and active citizenship.

  • Recovery begins with practices that rebuild trust in process: for example, nonpartisan election audits, when open and verifiable, help restore public confidence in voting.

  • Transparency and accountability at every level foster a culture of participation rather than paranoia.

A resilient democracy does not silence disagreement—it provides structures for it to thrive constructively.

✦ Prebunking and Media Literacy

Research shows that misinformation is best countered before it spreads. This is the logic behind prebunking:

  • Short, clear messages that warn people about disinformation tactics—before they're exposed—can inoculate against manipulation.

  • When paired with school-based media literacy, citizens don’t just learn what to believe, but how to think critically and evaluate sources.

Prebunking builds cognitive resilience—an immune system for the mind.

✦ Local News Revival

In the absence of local journalism, misinformation rushes in.

  • Communities need reliable, rooted, and relational reporting to ground public discourse in shared reality.

  • Supporting independent journalism—through public funding, nonprofit models, or citizen co-ops—can revitalize public trust.

A free and vibrant press is not an accessory to democracy; it is its circulatory system.

✦ Epistemic Justice

Recovery must address not only what we know, but who gets to know and be known.

  • Indigenous ecological knowledge deepens climate action.

  • Immigrant, queer, and disabled perspectives strengthen the plural wisdom needed in democratic life.

Justice requires more than inclusion—it requires redistribution of epistemic authority. It recognizes that healing comes not from speaking for the marginalized, but from listening to them as co-creators of truth.

✦ Economic Realism

Toxic disruption feeds on despair. A democracy that ignores wage stagnation, disappearing industries, and health inequities creates a vacuum that demagogues are eager to fill.

  • Recovery requires material transformation: jobs with dignity, equitable healthcare, and investment in neglected communities.

Truth cannot flourish on empty stomachs or broken systems. Processual renewal means changing the conditions that make lies seem like hope.

✦ Processual Reconstruction

At its core, recovery is not a return—it is a reweaving.

  • Process thought reframes disruption as opening, not ending.

  • Reality is unfinished, and ignorance is not failure but a horizon of possibility.

To rebuild from toxic disruption is to practice:

  • Humility: We don’t know everything.

  • Creativity: Ignorance invites discovery.

  • Solidarity: We become through one another.

In this view, recovery is not just policy—it is participation in the rhythm of becoming.

✦ Conclusion: Renewal in the Wake

Disruption destroys, but it also reveals. It shows what was fragile, unjust, or hollow. And it offers the chance to begin again—not from nostalgia, but from a deeper wisdom.

Toxic disruption is healed not with fact-checks alone, but with structural courage, relational repair, economic justice, and processual imagination. From the ashes of distortion, we are invited to rebuild a world more worthy of trust—together.

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