Monthly Archives: January 2026

Protest can be Prophetic

Acts, Amos, Ezekiel, Jeremiah, Jesus, justice, prophecy, , ,

Image – “Christ Cleansing the Temple” by El Greco

The actions of three individuals arrested for protesting ICE activities during a worship service at Cities Church (Southern Baptist Convention) in the Minneapolis area early this year (2026) quickly became a topic of debate among Christians. The protesters chose this church, at least in part, because one of its bi-vocational ministers also leads an ICE field office. According to an AP account, the leadership of the Southern Baptist Convention has voiced one side in the debate over the propriety of protesting in a church during a worship service.  According to them, “compassion for migrant families cannot justify violating a sacred space during worship.”

I have devoted my professional career, my vocation, to the proposition that the Bible can and should serve as the vital and vibrant source of Christian faith and living when interpreted and understood rightly, but that it can also represent a dangerous and destructive factor when read and treated incorrectly (see The Curse of Ham: An Admonitory Case-Study in Misreading Scripture and the series on the Ethical Interpretation of the Bible published February through April, 2025). With respect to voices raised in opposition to the mistreatment of “the least of these,” the SBC leadership seems to have engaged in what I would call “selective interpretation” of scripture – the foundation of their faith tradition – which suggests, rather, that protest can be prophetic, even when conducted in the sanctuary.

Amos 7:12-17 records the admonition of Amaziah, the priest at the sanctuary in Bethel, for Amos to cease protesting/prophesying against Israel’s worship practices in the absence of justice and righteousness (Amos 5:21-24; cf. 4:4). Amos responded that he was only preaching the message God had given him to preach and that the fate awaiting Amaziah and Israel would be bleak. Over a century later, in his famous Temple Sermon (Jer 7 and 26), the prophet Jeremiah stood in the Temple on God’s instruction and denounced the Judeans for their unfaithfulness to God and their unethical treatment of one another (7:5-9) and for their unfounded confidence in their sacrificial piety (7:21-26). Their behavior belied their claims to be “saved” (7:10). Indeed, by their presence, they had turned the sanctuary into the gathering-place of criminals! Consequently, God warned them through Jeremiah, that, if they persisted in their misdeeds, the Jerusalem temple would suffer the same abandonment and destruction that once befell the sanctuary at Shiloh. Jeremiah 7 seems to focus on the content of the sermon; Jeremiah 26 apparently reports the audience response to it. The priests, prophets, and people seized (i.e. arrested) Jeremiah and charged him with treason (26:8-9, 10-11)!

Significantly, although they differ on chronological and other details, two of the Synoptic Gospels (Matt 21:12-13 and Luke 19:45-47; cf. John 2:14-16) draw direct parallels between Jesus’ act known as the “Cleansing of the Temple,” in which Jesus drove the money-changers from the Temple along with the animals (pigeons according to Matt; sheep and oxen according to Luke) on sale there for use in sacrifice, scattered their coins, and overturned their tables. According to both of the Synoptics, Jesus’ justified his actions with a statement combining the vision of a bright future found in Isaiah 56:7 (“for my house will be called a house of prayer for all nations”) and, tellingly, recasting the rhetorical question of Jeremiah 7:11 (“Has this house, which is called by name, become a den of thieves”) as the declaration, “but you make it/have made it a den of thieves.” It is equally telling that, as with Jeremiah, the religious leadership later interpreted Jesus’ attitude toward the temple as treasonous, even blasphemous (cf. Matt 26:57-66).

These three examples of many biblical instances of prophetic protest raised in a sanctuary setting (e.g. Ezek 8-11; Acts 4) suffice to demonstrate that voices of truth belong in the context of worship. Two ironies strike me. First, historically, baptists belong in the Protestant (“protesting”) branch of Christianity. Second, contemporaneously, many of those who decry this protest in a church do not decry immigration enforcement officers arresting worshipers.

May we have the courage to stand in the tradition of Amos, Jeremiah, and Jesus! May we have the understanding to distinguish between a false security in the structures and institutions, on the one hand, and a living faith that loves mercy and does justice (Mic 6:8).

Introducing Sophia Theological Seminary

community, education, environment, ethics, harmony and diversity, inclusivity, little b baptist, ministry, theological education, Uncategorized, wisdom

I am the founding dean of Sophia Theological Seminary.  This blog entry introduces Sophia.

A standard seminary curriculum overly fragments the subject matter into discrete and disjointed specialized disciples, too often leaving students on their own to integrate blocks of knowledge into a coherent and holistic understanding. Social forces undermine traditional community/communities and alienate individuals and communities from vital connections with nature, the land, and the rhythms of creation. Sophia re-imagines theological education to address these concerns through a curriculum emphasizing wisdom over data, a funding scheme stressing self-sufficiency and sustainability, and an ethos accentuating context and cooperation – in God’s good creation, in the world, and as a community.

Sophia Theological Seminary re-imagines the educational program based on the insight that the best theological education integrates the traditional fields of theological study, with one another and with life (of the individual, the community, and the world) and ministry. Consequently, its curriculum will be integrated across disciplines, seminar-based, and focused around specific, “everyday” ministry topics. Sophia recognizes that ministers of the Gospel need to be equipped with data, information, knowledge – in Sophia’s case, the traditional disciplines of theological education – in order to serve well the kindom of God, but it acknowledges further that, in the complicated and confusing modern context, ministers also need the wisdom “from above” to guide them in making their knowledge and skills relevant. Ministers need real community and experience in maintaining it; they need to harmonize with the rhythms of work and rest built into the created order; they need firm connections with the goodness of God’s world so that they can envision what redemption looks like.

Sophia expresses its core sensibilities as follows:

  • being a community of inclusive welcome [which] is foundational to the life, work, and self-understanding of the seminary.
  • theological education [as a] holistic endeavor, with a curriculum that is integrated across disciplines, both ‘classical’ and practical,” and that moves freely between “church” and “academy.”
  • theological education …undertaken with rigor, [with] all members of the community …considered to be learners in need of continued growth and challenge.
  • governance of the community [through] a collaborative partnership amongst all constituencies invested in the life of the seminary, each represented with a full and equal voice.
  • its heritage as little “b” baptist, understanding this heritage as historical, transcending specific denominational confines, [while] equally commit[ting] itself to ecumenical and interfaith work, locally and globally.

One other important aspect of Sophia’s structure addresses the problem of declining denominational economic support for theological education. This circumstance has necessitated that seminaries rely for funding primarily on increased student tuition and the generosity of donors, each with a negative consequence. Students regularly graduate from seminary now with student debt resembling that of law and medical school graduates, but with significantly less prospect for earning enough to repay the debt comfortably. One result is a decline in the numbers of those willing to take the time and incur the debt to earn a theological education. Donors, meanwhile, have begun to tire of seeing their gifts go primarily into the operating budgets of seminaries, rather than into endowments that could sustain the viability of institutions. Consequently, seminaries all over the country and from virtually every denomination are closing or otherwise curtailing their activities. The earnings of Sophia Seminary’s sister institution, Sophia Farms, a 501(c)3 vegetable farm operating with sustainable, responsible farming techniques, will go to fund the operating budget of the seminary. The marketing model addresses carbon footprint issues, embraces ecologically-responsible farming practices, and, through Sophia’s commitment to “tithe” produce directly to local organizations that address food insecurity and nutrition education, responsibility to the community. If you’d like to know more, visit www.sophiasem.org and www.sophiafarms.org.

Thinking Like Christ – Paul’s Call to Harmony Amid Diversity (Philippians), Part 4

harmony and diversity, Uncategorized, , , , ,

This is the fourth of a four-part study with the Covenant Class of First Presbyterian Church, Richmond VA in the fall of 2025.

I entreat Euodia and I entreat Syntyche to have the same mind in the Lord. Phil 4:2

Thinking Like Christ – Paul’s Call to Harmony Amid Diversity (Philippians), Part 3

church, egocentrism, harmony and diversity, missio dei, selfishness, suffering

This is the third part of a four-part study with the Covenant Class of First Presbyterian Church, Richmond VA in the fall of 2025.

Their destiny is destruction, they worship their appetites, and they revel in their shame…Phil 3:19