Chad Crawford

Submitted by Stephanie Wert ... on December 15, 2006 - 8:39pm.

Beatitudes Society Summer 2006 Fellow, The Regeneration Project

I would like to describe my relationship with The Beatitudes Society by sharing about an adventure I had with the friends I met in San Francisco during my Fellowship. On one of the last weekends of our summer fellowships, we went to visit Muir Woods. After checking out the breathtaking Redwoods we all decided to hike to the top of the highest peak in the park. No one had a map, but saw which direction to go on one of the signs, so we were just going to wing it. We took several different trails and just kept heading the direction we thought was the right way to the top. Sometimes we made wrong turns but we always managed to get right back where we needed to be. Finally, we found a paved road that took us right to the top. When we got to the summit, we could not believe what we saw there—an expansive panoramic view of the northern part of San Francisco Bay and an exquisite lodge where we could sit and catch our breaths. They even poured us water out of wine bottles with fancy green leaves inside! I knew I wasn’t in Texas anymore. It was a far cry from the extreme poverty we saw everyday on the streets of San Francisco—but geographically only a few miles away.

I believe that there are people in my generation who want everyone to enjoy a better quality of life, who want to work to close the gap between the wealthy and the poor, who want to be better stewards of God’s creation. We believe that all of these visions are connected. Sometimes we have to take paths that haven’t been made yet, and sometimes we find roads that have been paved by those who have already been at it for decades, creating the society that my generation also wants. Because of The Beatitudes Society, I was able to work with The Regeneration Project, a group featured on this website that seeks to deepen the connection between ecology and faith. The influence of Rev. Sally Bingham, Bill Bradlee, and the others on staff has given me valuable experience to get religious communities involved in the struggle for environmental responsibility. In San Francisco, I made friends with other young people who are deeply committed to progressive Christianity. Together we shared both our struggles and achievements, and encouraged one another with our experiences. We all have similar hopes for reaching a peak in this world where everyone enjoys the same quality of life. To get there we have to follow the paths laid by our mentors as well as create some new ones of our own.

Strengthening the progressive Christian network for justice, compassion, & peace