We, of the majority caste, are largely innocents. By "innocent" I mean clueless about the way history has privileged some and impoverished others. If we are to move toward a future beyond the fatal consequence of our transgressions, we must lose our innocence. We have...
02166 – What Hope is, is Not
Hope is never calibrated to the fervor of optimism or the distress of pessimism. Hope is fixed to a larger horizon and rooted in an expansive memory. Hope cannot be auctioned off to the highest bidder; cannot be put up for collateral; cannot be traded on the big board...
00278 – Separating Spiritual from Physical?
In short, our congregations are marked by a warped spirituality. We have been formed spiritually in ways that bracket the realities of violence and poverty and oppression, ignoring them (at worst) or confining them (at best) to the margins of our attention. We have...
00277 – Justice: The Foundation of Peace
In common English usage, “peace” means the avoidance or absence of conflict. It indicates the lack of something: war or lesser forms of overt violence. In Scripture, on the other hand, shalom indicates the active presence of multiple dynamics: well-being, harmony,...
00275 – Shalom!
The Hebrew term “shalom” is roughly translated in English as “peace.” But it can also mean salvation and liberation, safety and security, wholeness and completeness. Shalom happens when every relationship within the created order is set right, whether the scale be...