Antiquitopia

Some people were worried when Obama and McCain appeared at Saddleback Church for their first public meeting on the same stage months ago during the Presidential campaign...it seemed then mostly due to separation of church and state issues. Now people are upset that Warren is offering a prayer at Obama's inauguration...not because of separation of church and state issues (there is ALWAYS a prayer at these events), but because of Warren's positions on abortion and same-sex marriage. While I personally differ with Warren on these issues also, there are a few things to make clear. Warren is NOT like Dobson or other evangelical leaders. He does not incite divisiveness in the way they do, although he's made some rather crude analogies vis-a-vis gay marriage lately. He does try to create coalitions with people who differ with him on many issues: thus he has been effective working on issues of poverty and HIV/AIDS with people who oppose him on other social issues. Although h...

When reading Luke-Acts as a whole, one begins to see a certain trajectory. We begin with John the Baptist saying: He who has two coats, let him share with him who has none; and he who has food, let him do likewise." Tax collectors also came to be baptized, and said to him, "Teacher what shall we do?" And he said to them, "Collect no more than is appointed you." (Luke 3:11-13) You can see some of these same issues unfold with Jesus. The first part can be found in Jesus' commands to his disciples when he sends them out: Take nothing for your journey, no staff, nor bag, nor bread, nor money; and do not have two tunics. (Luke 9:3) In addition to keeping only one garment, the tax collector issue also shows up throughout. Jesus mingles with tax ocllectors, but more poignantly, the passage concerning Zacchaeus, the tax collector who does not cheat anyone and does not make them pay more than appointed, stands out as a good example (19:1-10). For the almost i...

It has been a long time since I have posted on Lukan economics; you know, the whole redistribution of wealth in which one must sell everything one owns and give the proceeds to the poor in order to enter the Kingdom of God and/or to follow Jesus. One difficulty (although not the only one) that was raised when speaking of this to others at Columbia, whether other instructors, my students, or in general, is that it gives a certain authority to the rich nonetheless. In other words, only the rich have the opportunity to sell all they own and give the proceeds to the poor. This observation may be counteracted with the discussion of Lazarus and the rich man, in which Lazarus who has nothing, at death goes to Abraham's bosom, while the rich man suffers torment. Another rebuttal might be the following passage in Luke 21:1-4: He looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the treasury; and he saw a poor widow put in two copper coins. And he said, "Truly I tell you, this poo...

From the associated press: Southern Baptists lead get-out-the-vote prayer By RACHEL ZOLL, AP Religion Writer 50 minutes ago Southern Baptists are organizing a nationwide prayer campaign to accompany their values-voter registration drive, seeking spiritual renewal for families and churches, and God's favor for public officials who are guided by the Bible. The 40/40 Prayer Vigil for Spiritual Revival and National Renewal will run from Sept. 24 through Nov. 2, two days before the general election. The daily prayers include requests for God's guidance in voting, for the election of more "godly Christians," for God to "help churches find ways to help Christians get to the polls" and for public officials to be protected "from the attacks of Satan." The effort is a companion program to the iVoteValues registration campaign, which began in 2004 and is jointly led this year by South...