24 Comments

Dear Diana, can the middle ever be big enough to include both Jeep’s “middle” and the Tri-faith’s commons “middle”? If we are committed to a “bigger” or more expansive middle where do we draw the boundaries?

I really struggle with this in my own context where I am happy to include even those who would never include me but it is exhausting and I wonder when I will reach a point where I would prefer to include only those who are just like me.

Peace and love, Jeremy

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Kudos to Jeep for trying; thank you for fixing it. As a POC who grew up in Urban America in the 60's and 70's, the ad did not speak to my America nearly as well as your edits did.

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I love the concept of “Reunited States of America.” On the day after Mr Trump was elected in 2016 I wrote a poem about the Divided States of America entitled “Today I Fly My Flag at Half Staff.” I was shocked and devastated and afraid- but over these 4 years I have regained Hope. Thank you for your perspectives.

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Diane, very moving and so theologically sound. You have indeed fixed the Jeep Commercial with your "Better Middle". Thank you.

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It seems to me that Jesus touched and loved and healed people one by one. As then, our loving and touching and healing is a process, like breathing. I saw the ad as one calling together, one feeding, one loving, one touching. In the words of Voltaire, "The perfect is the enemy of the good." I choose to say it was a good commercial, and be grateful for it even as I say your response is another good step forward. Let's not focus on the ad's imperfections, or each other's? Blessings!

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Your re-write of the "Dear Jeep" advertisement touches my soul. Thank for an inspiring message for the day.

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Thank you so much for your input on this news item.

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I’ve heard that there are also many Baha’i and Hindu groups in Kansas and Colorado. Let us also not forget our atheist and agnostic sisters and brothers.

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Feb 9, 2021Liked by Diana Butler Bass

Thank you for pointing out the flag with the cross affixed to it. That really bothered me. I am excited to hear about the trifaith community in Omaha! I live near KC, so might need to visit this summer!

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I thought the commercial was powerful in its own way, but thank you for expanding the horizon.

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In our personal faith journeys, it is only hubris that smugly reflects on how much farther along the spiritual path I am than someone else is. I think we might want to extend a certain humility that withholds judgment on Jeep for what they did not do. They desired for the commercial to be a prayer, “the most spiritual commercial in the history of Super Bowls.” How beautiful is that? Surely it comes from some corporate awareness of how deep the suffering is in our nation right now and an ultimate hope that we might find healing if we find our common ground. For all that was not said, that truth was evident. As one whose citizenship is lived out in “Lower Alabama” in the reddest of red counties, I tell you that hearts on the extremes are yet frozen, and those who live from such space are lonely and full of fear. The imagery surrounding “Springsteen’s lament” was compassionate art, possibly a mirror to one who might begin to feel the bleakness within their fear and desolation and begin to venture out, to reach for the communion that exists already as a part of our very humanity. What we might know waits for them is invisible to them in their loneliness. Melting must occur before movement, and I think the Jeep commercial may have warmed some hearts. Why criticize that?

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Your perceptive understanding shines through with a depth of meaning that embraces all in a circle of compassion. What a perfect response to a less than perfect portrayal of hope.

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This was beautiful.

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How about throwing in a reference to Buddhism as well. I've heard there are a few, even in Kansas.

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I don’t normally disagree, and with most of this I don’t disagree. But the photo with the flag and cross is *not* the ‘American mainland’, it is mainland United States. Unfortunately this is also an issue in trying to heal and move forward. To continue saying ‘America’ is yet another, I’d say subconscious, vestige of Exceptionalism. The US has to stop thinking of itself as ‘America’, and recognise it is one among three in the Northern Hemisphere, and part of a larger continent of many countries. There is reconciliation to be had, but the reckoning needs to include a different view of *all* of America, not just the middle country.

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I loved the Springsteen Jeep ad, but I see what you did: You fixed it.

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