Isaiah 58:6 (NIV): 6 “Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:
to loose the chains of injustice
and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free
and break every yoke?
A prayer offered by Walter Brueggeman:
Save us, Lord, from a religion that ignores the cries of the exploited and oppressed. Lead us into a deeper faith that challenges injustice and makes the sacrifices that must be made to build a society that is ever more truly human. Amen.
There are moments in time when I sense something special is happening. I had a sense of that last night.
Continue reading “Significant moments”Traveling with visiting family the past few days we had an opportunity to learn a lot of history in and around New Orleans. Our last stop was a former sugar plantation called “Laura Plantation.”
Continue reading “The plantation visit”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”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””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”