[On finding depth of meaning and experiencing transformation in Scripture: literal or *literary* truth…] If literalism is your bridge to Jesus, if it is the only way you access Jesus, then I promise you: I am not trying to take it away from you. I just hope that you...
01536 – Dominion Over the Earth
God gives us dominion over the earth, not domination.
01354 – Being There for Others
The church is church only when it is there for others...not dominating, but helping and serving. It must tell people in every calling what a life with Christ is, what it means "to be there for others." from Letters and Papers from Prison
01271 – Mammon (Money) is Powerful, Dominating
When Jesus uses the Aramaic term mammon to refer to wealth, he is giving it a personal and spiritual character. When he declares, "You cannot serve God and mammon" (Matt. 6:24), he is personifying mammon as a rival god. In saying this, Jesus is making it unmistakably...
01145 – Love is about True Justice
To truly love is to work for a just equity of power between nations, races, and genders, and in our day-to-day relationships and transactions. It is to oppose all patterns of power over another. This is why [Simone] Weil appeals again and again to the ancient symbol...
00819 – Jesus and “the Other”
Jesus doesn’t dominate the other, avoid the other, colonize the other, intimidate the other, demonize the other, or marginalize the other. He incarnates into the other, joins the other in solidarity, protects the other, listens to the other, serves the other, even...
00626 – New World Order Through Jesus’ Suffering & Death
“Messiah” does not mean “your personal savior”; rather, the Messiah is the one who will come to establish a new order of the world that will end suppression discrimination, hunger, poverty and misery. Jesus accepts this designation. Yet his response to Peter contains...
00488 – God’s Kingdom: A Utopian Dream?
As a political-religious metaphor, the kingdom of God referred to what life would be like on earth if God were king and the kingdoms of this world, the domination systems of this world, were not… The kingdom of God was not only for the earth, but involved a...
00052 – Friendship Does Not include Domination
Friendship is the reasonable passion for truly human fellowship; it is a mutual affection cemented by loyalty. The more people begin to live with one another as friends, the more privileges and claims to domination become superfluous. The more people trust one...