Holy Books and Violent Texts

“Come in and kill them. Let no one escape.” Such is a verse found in a book sacred to billions of religious people in the world. It’s not the only text of violence in this holy book. Indeed, there’s lots of violence in it. It would be easy to read this book – isolated verses and the longer sagas – andContinue reading “Holy Books and Violent Texts”

If All Lives Mattered, There Wouldn’t Be #BlackLivesMatter

If All Lives Matter in our society, there wouldn’t be such disparate experiences of violence or of poverty along racial lines. Yet an examination of  crime statistics, of poverty statistics, of education statistics, of employment statistics and so forth, shows that clearly our society does not act as if All Lives Matter … or, at least,Continue reading “If All Lives Mattered, There Wouldn’t Be #BlackLivesMatter”

Violence Pollution

Polluted air will affect a small number of people more than most. The majority who are pretty healthy will have few, if any, ill effects. Those with certain conditions will become sicker and sicker, even to the point of death. Our cultural air has become polluted with violence, and our society littered with firearms. ThisContinue reading “Violence Pollution”

God is Doing a New Thing

Baptism of our LordIsaiah 42:1-9; Matthew 3:13-17Sunday, January 9, 2011Preached on the day following the shooting of Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords Baptism of our Lord – Year A 2011 A few months ago,     when comedians Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert held a rally on the Mall,    a lot of people dismissed their efforts asContinue reading “God is Doing a New Thing”