Pendle Hill Pamphlet Discussion: Abraham, Sarah, Hagar, and Us: Using Family Systems Therapy to Understand and Dismantle Oppression by Janaki Spickard Keeler.

Copies are at the Meetinghouse. Call Judy Mott if you’d like one mailed to you. Here are some passages to whet your interest:

• "When we look at the story of Abraham and his family, we see some basic human tendencies and shortcomings that are at work in all of us."
• “The story is in many ways a perfect illustration of the harm the misuse of power can do….It is a story of the ways in which each adult member of the family—Abraham, Sarah, and Hagar—is both traumatized by and complicit in the violence committed. 
• “We are collectively traumatized by living in systems that are built on oppression and complicity.
• “My country was founded by Christians who, taking guidance from stories like this one, reenacted age-old narratives of power through genocide, slavery, and exploitation.
• “…the scaffolding of self-protection I’d built by cutting off empathy…
• “If we take this story as an invitation to self-examination, we’re being called into a deeper faith.”