A lot to think about here! You write, “When we define love as trust we build a permission structure to bypass love for those we don’t trust.” — when I think of “trust,” I think “believe the other party is not deliberately trying to harm me” as well as “allow them to speak and act according to their own desires.”
Does the “trust” you’re describing here also include a desire for control and conformity?
Yes, trust has to do with faith rather than love, which is why I say that a unity in love as trust is really just another form of unity in faith. Since faith is the forming part of our belief system it doesn't make a good source of unity because it is always changing into whatever our strongest identifier is. If our identity is not in love then it is in some manner of the flesh which we will have to maintain coercive control over resulting in assured abuse of power.
Wow, yes. The “love” I see you describing here is really tribalism/codependence, which is definitely not Gospel love. It does give a sense of belonging, but always with the undercurrent of fear for those longing to be wholly accepted and known, bc something in them realizes the “box o’ belonging” isn’t big enough or true enough to ever let them fit into it.
A lot to think about here! You write, “When we define love as trust we build a permission structure to bypass love for those we don’t trust.” — when I think of “trust,” I think “believe the other party is not deliberately trying to harm me” as well as “allow them to speak and act according to their own desires.”
Does the “trust” you’re describing here also include a desire for control and conformity?
Yes, trust has to do with faith rather than love, which is why I say that a unity in love as trust is really just another form of unity in faith. Since faith is the forming part of our belief system it doesn't make a good source of unity because it is always changing into whatever our strongest identifier is. If our identity is not in love then it is in some manner of the flesh which we will have to maintain coercive control over resulting in assured abuse of power.
Wow, yes. The “love” I see you describing here is really tribalism/codependence, which is definitely not Gospel love. It does give a sense of belonging, but always with the undercurrent of fear for those longing to be wholly accepted and known, bc something in them realizes the “box o’ belonging” isn’t big enough or true enough to ever let them fit into it.