Who doesn’t love the Dr. Seuss books? They’re particularly delightful to read aloud to children! One of the most fanciful is Horton Hears a Who![1] in which an elephant hears a cry for help from a speck of dust that, amazingly, contains a whole community of tiny creatures. Ultimately, Horton protects and saves the community from destruction after all members of that little world, down to the very smallest, raise their voices in a cry for help that is finally heard and respected by the “larger” world. The lesson is obvious: speak up to avoid tragedy.
For most Christian leaders the “speaking up” is done in a rather protected context, e.g. congregational worship, church classroom, conversations with believing friends, etc. And, it’s often difficult to discern precisely how we can strengthen one another’s voices in the big bad world at large. But, somehow, we need to be heard.
How can we do it? How can we manage to get a hearing from those who believe Christians are, at best, sentimental fools, or, at worst, ignorant obstructionists? How can we unite our voices such that we get a fair hearing from those determined to maintain the secular barrier to all things religious? How can we make it clear that we seek not, first of all, our own way, but the good of our neighbors and the protection of those most vulnerable?
Please join in with your own thoughts—together, as we counsel together, by God’s grace, perhaps we can powerfully innovate!
[1] Horton Hears a Who! was written and illustrated by Theodor Seuss Geisel under the pen name Dr. Seuss and was published in 1954 by Random House.
