GLIDE Values
Radically Inclusive
We welcome everyone. We value our differences. We respect everyone.
Rooted in the teachings of liberation theology as well as an African American tradition of acceptance of and within difference, being radically inclusive means acknowledging the humanity in the other. It says: You belong here with us. We are going places together. Opening our doors, our arms, our hearts to another, however different they may appear, leads to the opening of doors to ourselves. There is power in difference, in multiplicity, and there is, at the same time, a power in understanding the commonality deep in the root of all difference.
Watch our founders speak about being radically inclusive.
Truth Telling
We each tell our story. We each speak our truth. We listen.
It is only possible to be truly inclusive, truly loving and hopeful, if we have the courage and the honesty to tell our stories and receive the stories of others. Telling the truth of what we have experienced breaks the lie we were forced to swallow before, and calls the world to recognition and accountability: People told us we had not been raped, had not been underpaid, had not been profiled by the police or the banker or the salesperson, had not survived in spite of it all, had not flourished against the odds, had not found ways to be loving through all the pain. In truth telling, we feel our real feelings, and tell our story to the world.
Watch our founders speak about truth telling.
Loving and Hopeful
We are all in recovery. We are a healing community. We love unconditionally.
To accept the human being in the other is also to accept ourselves as human beings, beautiful and full of potential and at the same time always becoming, trying to overcome our own individual and collective limitations, weaknesses, and doubts. Being loving to one another is not the same as merely being “nice.” Being nice can mean evading the truth, denying the other and even a part of ourselves. Being loving is being accepting. Being hopeful is being in touch with the faith and resistance that is the cornerstone of our strength as a community. Being hopeful says: I believe in you, and I believe in us.
Watch our founders speak about unconditional love and recovery.
For the People
We break through barriers. We serve each other. We change the world.
In other words, we “walk that walk.” This means doing more than talking the talk of social justice. It means putting ideas into action – compassionate action on behalf of real people. “You don’t just talk about hungry people… You feed them.” We understand that talking is much easier than walking, but walking is motion, movement, action, living, loving – it’s a commitment to life. Walking that walk is a commitment to social justice for all people, with a special focus on justice for people who have the least money, power, and safety. For as human beings, we each deserve nothing less than respect, love, and justice.
Watch our founders speak about being for the people.
Celebration
We sing. We dance. We laugh together. We celebrate life!
This is how we live – by affirming the beauty and joy in ourselves as a diverse and loving community that can hold everybody and everything. Celebration is the antidote to the glum focus on what is wrong with us, and instead tells our story of strength, hope, resilience and power to change. A euphoric and ecstatic diversity of experience and expression that relates us to one another and brings us together as a people. A people of celebration.
Watch our founders speak about celebration.
