Category Archives: racism

Hamas!

creation, death penalty, ethics, Genesis, imago Dei, justice, racism, redemption, refugees, vengeance, violence

 

And God said to Noah, “The end of all flesh is coming before me because the earth is full of violence (hamas) because of them.  Now I am about to destroy them along with the earth.  (Gen 6:13, my trans.)

 

The Priestly authors of portions of the Genesis narratives of the beginnings of the human race did not clearly elucidate their understanding of humanity’s responsibility for “subduing” the earth, but they did include statements that rule out any notion that this responsibility could include exploitation. In the Genesis 1 creation account, for example, Continue reading Hamas! →

Crossword Two Down – A Seven Letter Word for “Nostalgia”

church, covenant, ethics, justice, racism, tradition

Amnesia

“Who will give us meat to eat? We remember the fish that we ate in Egypt for free, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic…Now we languish; there is nothing in sight except manna.”  (Num 11:4b-6)

Beginning in Exodus 19 and continuing through all of Leviticus and on to Numbers 10 (all or significant parts of three of the five books of the Torah), the Bible records the Continue reading Crossword Two Down – A Seven Letter Word for “Nostalgia” →

“Unto the ends of the earth”

Acts, church, Jesus, John, Jonah, racism

Acts 1:8

The story of the early church as told in the book of Acts testifies to the tenacity of tribalism as a major force in human society.  A prominent strand of biblical tradition traceable to the call of Abraham and his descendants to serve as the means for God to bring blessing to all the families of the earth (Gen 12:1-3), through the prophetic call for Israel to shine as light Continue reading “Unto the ends of the earth” →

“Outside Agitators”

church, interpretation, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Jesus, Matthew, Pauline epistles, poverty, prophecy, racism

In the previous entry in this blog, I argued that the most profitable approach to reading prophetic literature involves a variety of “pattern recognition.”  Yesterday, the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday, I took the opportunity to re-read Dr. King’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” his famed “I Have a Dream” speech, and the concluding chapter of his

Continue reading “Outside Agitators” →