What happens to a young man who leaves his home country, goes to Syria, trains as a jihadist, then returns home to wreck havoc? In Denmark... radical hospitality. (Read the article here.) Young men who return from their trek through radicalization in Syria return to find themselves enveloped by a community who have decided to treat "onetime fighters not as criminals or potential criminals or potential terrorists but as wayward youths who deserve a second chance." They are assigned mentors, educated, supported and clung to so tightly that it becomes extraordinarily difficult to live into the indoctrinated reality that chooses violence as solution.
Imagine the radical hospitality of not letting go. A child struggling to read in school enveloped so tightly by his or her community that reading becomes the connection to love and acceptance instead of the stigma that separates them from success. Our response to the teen who insists on antisocial behavior would be to mingle the mean right out of them.
Most challenging to not letting go in this culture might be the refusal to absorb the constant media messages of "other," "less-than," "at-fault," or any other message that pulls us apart.
If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you For even sinners love those who love them. If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. If you lend to those from whom you hope to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to receive as much again. But love your enemies, do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return. Your reward will be great..." (Luke 6:32-35a)Let's don't give each other up for Lent.
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