Nonviolence means avoiding not only external physical violence but also internal violence of spirit. You not only refuse to shoot a man, but you refuse to hate him.-------------------------------------------------------Gender-inclusive paraphrase: Nonviolence means...
Being an American means reckoning with a history, fraught with violence and injustice. Ignoring that reality in favor of mythology is not only wrong, but also dangerous. The dark chapters of American history have just as much to teach us, if not more, than the...
Violence never brings permanent peace. It solves no social problem; it merely creates new and more complicated ones. Violence is impractical because it is a descending spiral ending in destruction for all. It is immoral because it seeks to humiliate the opponent...
The word faith is often understood as accepting something you can’t understand. People often say: “Such and such can’t be explained, you simply have to believe it.” However, when Jesus talks about faith, he means first of all to trust unreservedly that you are loved,...
When God looks at our world, God weeps because the lust for power has entrapped and corrupted the human spirit. Instead of gratitude there is resentment; instead of praise there is criticism; instead of forgiveness there is revenge; instead of healing there is...
The story of Exodus begins with powerful Pharaoh's fear over a Great Replacement. "Look, the Israelite people are more numerous and more powerful than we" (Exodus 1:9). In the face of changing demographics, the tyrant turned first to violence and genocide.
If America’s original sin is slavery, the original sin of the church is anti-Judaism and antisemitism. Before the New Testament was fully written. we see evidence of it... If you look at the passion accounts in the four Gospels in chronological order, you see Rome...
The cross is not where God inflicts violence on Jesus in order to vent his wrath; the cross is where God in Christ endures human inflicted violence and forgives it all. The cross is not where Jesus saves us from God, but where Jesus reveals God as Savior.
This year, I am finding myself really needing Holy Saturday. I need this space where the shadows of death have not yet given way to new life and resurrection.I need a day where we sit together in those shadows and watch the disciples be unsure of what is coming next....
Genocide is biblical.Loving your enemy is biblical.But only one is Christlike.Slavery is biblical.Chain-breaking is biblical.But only one is Christlike. Patriarchy is biblical.Counter-cultural elevation of women is biblical.But only one is Christlike. Retributive...