Often, I find incredibly insightful quotes in the most unexpected places. In a movie-documentary on Netflix entitled “Testament: The Story of Moses,” Bishop Andy C Lewter, historian at the Full Gospel Baptist Church Fellowship, said, “What it takes to get free is different from what it takes to stay free.”… Continue reading
(24 minutes) What Jesus meant by “the Kingdom of God” is often misunderstood by those in and outside the church. By “entering the Kingdom of God,” he did not mean going to heaven when we die. Part of that misunderstanding is based on Matthew’s preference for the phrase “Kingdom of… Continue reading
(13 minutes) In part one of “The Eye of a Needle,” we acknowledged the addictive danger of wealth in Jesus’ teachings. We also recognized that his warning about the love and pursuit of money can be found in several parables and various teachings. He even saw wealth as the chief… Continue reading
“THE TRUTH WILL MAKE YOU FREE.” JOHN 8:32 Some time ago, Jason Micheli interviewed David Bentley Hart on Micheli’s podcast Crackers and Grape Juice. (The interview can be found on YouTube under the title “All Creation Afire as a Burning Bush.”) During the interview, Hart spoke eloquently about freedom as… Continue reading
In the first part of this series, I briefly argued that our freedom to choose is limited by our knowledge of our choices. We are free to choose only when we have an adequate and authentic understanding of the nature and consequences of what we choose. One may accidentally put… Continue reading
To “eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil” can be interpreted as trying to grasp everything without obtaining the necessary wisdom and experience required to have or be in proper relationship with anything. Continue reading
Equality and fraternity (the common good) have never enjoyed the same emphasis and evolution as liberty (defined as the right and ability of individuals to do whatever they choose.) Equality and the common good require restraints, justice, fairness, the experience of authentic community, and basic human decency to survive and thrive. Continue reading
In Tenacious Solidarity: Biblical Provocations on Race, Religion, Climate, and the Economy, biblical scholar Walter Brueggemann offers this definition of totalism: By “totalism” I mean a system of signs and symbols that make a claim of validity that is all-encompassing, that will allow no challenge or competition, and that will… Continue reading
All our early American leaders had read Montesquieu, who differentiated despotism from monarchy from democracy. In each of these forms of society he found a governing principle: for despotism it was fear, for monarchy it was honor, and for democracy it was virtue. Because freedom was practically synonymous with virtue,… Continue reading
In our first sermon on Genesis we said that the Bible is not a science book. We cannot expect the biblical writers to see creation as science understands the universe today. Ancient people basically understood the world as it appears. For example, it looks like the sun goes around the… Continue reading
