For the Next Newsletter

It is October 28, 2025. My heart is heavy. My outrage is bubbling. To be honest I don’t know how to write about Gentleness today.

Between the draconian and undemocratic ending to the Alberta teachers strike, the prospect of millions of US citizens losing access to financial support for food through SNAP, the real possibility that ethnic cleansing will continue in Palestine, news of a category 5 hurricane set to ravage Jamaica, and whatever other troubling things might pass under my eyes today my heart is heavy.

How do we respond to all the {expletive deleted} that comes flying at us these days? How do we remain gentle and meek in the face of injustice and unfairness and suffering? Some days I think the better question is “should we remain gentle and meek?”...

In the end I think we should. I think we are called to respond passionately but gently. I think we are called to find a different path. We follow the one who told his followers to love their enemies, to turn the other cheek, to put away their sword. Jesus reminds us that there is the way the world usually works and there is the way the Reign of God works – and we are called to strive for the second one.

Which does not mean it will always be easy.

Maybe part of the problem lies in what we often think it means to be gentle. Maybe it is only me (though I guess I am not alone) but to be gentle carries with it the idea of letting others walk all over you. It suggests remaining calm and not getting worked up, not calling people out, not engaging in conflict. Certainly it seems idealistic and naive to suggest that we respond to the violence of the world with gentleness and expect to make a difference. In all of this I think I am wrong.

To be gentle does not mean we can’t be passionate or forceful or just accept things as ‘that’s just the way it is’. To be gentle is about how we are passionate and forceful about what we believe to be right. To be gentle means following the path of a Mahatma Gandhi or Dr. Martin Luther King. To be gentle is to model a different way of changing the world rather than letting the world change us.

We know that the world is not what it could (or should?) be. There are things that will make us rage. There are things that will make us weep. There are things that call for us to stand in the breach and protect the vulnerable in our midst. Do all those things. Be passionate about what it means to love. Be forceful about how we should live. But also be gentle. Be loving. Don’t let the violence of the world lead you to counter with violence. May God help us to live lives filled with all the flavours of the fruit of the Spirit.
Gord