We’re on the home stretch now – our last stop before Philly.  We were hosted by an old Baptist congregation.  The decision to host was one that created much discussion among elders and leaders in the community.  They told us stirred an important and fruitful dialogue, and they were proud to say they learned to “disagree well” around the issues raised by our tour.  Some of the folks in the congregation who voted against hosting the JFP tour even came to the event and helped break a sweat to pull it off – a great testimony of mutual submission and community.  It’s always fun to see Catholics and Baptists and activists like Food Not Bombs working together, an eclectic mix.  We were housed by the lovely folks of Gabriel House Catholic Worker a new hospitality house in Richmond (another “Protestant Catholic Worker” as they decided not to reinvent the wheel but most of them come from evangelical roots).  Shane got some hang time with a good friend Bill Frankl-Streit of Little Flower. After the event, a young man came up, deeply moved and said he was one of the folks who had been “healed of the myth of redemptive violence” (the false notion that violence can bring peace).  Inked up and pierced, he confessed that he had a violent past and had done a lot of things he is not proud of, including one terrible act from which he is still under judicial constraint (for attempted murder).  He continued, “But it wasn’t the law that saved me, it was the Gospel of grace.”  One more extremist for grace saved from the violence of this old world.