The week leading up to the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday is becoming increasingly important to me. (NOTE: Moving to Alabama has it’s jarring effects on just how deep the issue of racism still runs in our nation. Monday will be “Robert E. Lee Day” in Alabama and Mississippi.)
Continue reading “The complacency of the white church”Author: Dan
True justice is not into shaming “the other side”
Today’s cultural environment has a call for “justice.” The danger is that in some segments, that call is also coupled with a “calling out” meant to shame a particular person and drive them from our visual existence. David Brooks has an excellent column HERE to dive into that segment.
Justice has to move past vengeance and anger. It has to move to deeper change.
Continue reading “True justice is not into shaming “the other side””The meaning of nonviolent resistance
I was able to pick up a copy of A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and Speeches of Martin Luther King, Jr. while visiting the National Civil Rights Museum last year. It is a powerful compendium of Dr. King’s work in his words, not the interpretation of someone else.
He lays out his plan for nonviolent resistance and is clear this isn’t about cowardice. He moved this direction because he believed violence only created new social problems without correcting the old ones. His thoughts on nonviolent resistance had five basic principles:
Continue reading “The meaning of nonviolent resistance”The quest for freedom everywhere
The struggle for freedom on the part of oppressed people in general and of the American Negro in particular has developed slowly and is not going to end suddenly. Privileged groups rarely give up their privileges without strong resistance. But when oppressed people rise up against oppression there is no stopping point short of full freedom. Realism compels us to admit that the struggle will continue until freedom is a reality for all the oppressed peoples of the world. — Martin Luther King, Jr., A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and Speeches
Re-evaluating “Living in Babylon”
Over the past week I have been trying to slow down my thoughts and put into motion what I needed to have written 3-4 years ago. It’s been a vision and word that has been urgent, but I’ve been timid. I preached on it and was ignored. That happens all the time anyway, so I went on. Yet, my own spirit knew this was not something to just set aside. It was something that needed prayer and writing and warning.
Continue reading “Re-evaluating “Living in Babylon””Vices… when seeking good goes bad
All the vices are distorted or excessive attachments to good things. Wrath is ostensibly born of concern for justice and honor, greed regards sufficient possessions, gluttony is about food, vainglory seeks the approval of others. Vice happens when our pursuit of these good things gets twisted, that is, when we try to make them fill gaps and needs in our hearts that only God can fill, and when we define happiness in terms of them, rather than appreciating them as (finite) blessings from God. — Rebecca Konyndyk DeYoung, Glittering Vices: A New Look at the Seven Deadly Sins and Their Remedies
What angers Jesus?
Glittering Vices by Rebecca DeYoung is worth your time. I am working my way through this book with the Renovare Book Club. DeYoung has us wrestle with the issues of life that can truly trip us up. One of the vices is anger. How do we deal with anger in our lives?
Continue reading “What angers Jesus?”