"So to sum it up, don’t be a fucking idiot and bypass White Metal because you don’t like what they’re saying because guaran-damn-teed you will miss out on some critically great stuff due to blind ignorance and…fear."
The New Testament includes several passages that warn against false teachers and express frustration that the earliest Christian communities are so easily taken in by lies. That this has been an ongoing problem since the beginning, for almost 2,000 years, makes me almost suspect that the people who are attracted to Christianity tend to be people who are attracted to any old nonsense that makes them feel like they have been given privileged knowledge.
"We are the 70. The Kingdom of God is the closest thing to an anti-state that the world will ever know. It exists not to serve itself, but to serve others; it does not conquer through violence or coercion, but multiplies by the force of love’s invitation. We reap what we sow. Jesus sowed a revolution not in others’ blood, but in his own, and for our sake."
Takes a bit of a wild turn at the end.
I recently discovered Daniel Walden's book reviews on Current Affairs.
"the world at which we aim, the kingdom whose coming Christ proclaimed, will not settle our debts and contracts but abolish them completely; that even those who didn’t join the struggle until the eleventh hour will be welcome at the feast; that the moment at which love appears utterly defeated, when it looks to the world like a victim crucified by state violence, will in the end be revealed as love’s final, all-embracing triumph."
Pete Davis talks to Josh Davis of the newly-founded Institute for Christian Socialism. Together, they talk about the intertwined history of left movements and Christianity.
Charles Monroe Sheldon (February 26, 1857, Wellsville, New York – February 24, 1946, Topeka, Kansas) was an American Congregationalist minister and leader of the Social Gospel movement. His novel, In His Steps, introduced the principle of "What Would Jesus Do?" which articulated an approach to Christian theology that became popular at the turn of the 20th century and had a revival almost one hundred years later.
Happy to have recently discovered this website. "Christians for the Abolition of Prisons is an organization dedicated to prison abolitionist education and advocacy within the progressive church."
They acknowledged no monastic superior, obeyed no definite rule, and disposed individually of the product of their manual labour.
People are complaining in the comments, but I like that they left the connections to his christianity implicit.
"Almost all of the popular evangelical songs that incorporate the Magnificat stop after the first few verses"
Of course there is the Psalters version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AT8VoWX2238
One of my favorite Chris Hedges articles I've read (though most of it is Cone quotes):
"The lynching tree is America’s cross. What happened to Jesus in Jerusalem happened to blacks in Arkansas, Mississippi, and Kentucky. Lynched black bodies are symbols of Christ’s body. If we want to understand what the crucifixion means for Americans today, we must view it through the lens of mutilated black bodies whose lives are destroyed in the criminal justice system. Jesus continues to be lynched before our eyes. He is crucified wherever people are tormented. That is why I say Christ is black."
“Elvis was trying to steal the music of the black churches in his songs. So, I decided to steal it back.”
A handy collection of verses.
Yet the Billy Graham team seems to think that peace is something that can be “restored” in Ferguson. They seem to think that “peace” is somehow an accurate description of Ferguson, Missouri, before the protests began. They seem to be so thick-headed and thick-hearted that they think the people’s response to the violence and injustice done against them is somehow the reason Ferguson lacks “peace.”
One of my favorite speeches by Voltairine de Cleyre (of the few I've read so far).