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Showing posts with the label Christians and oppression

The First Paul ā€“ a review

  Authors : Marcus J. Borg and John Dominic Crossan Reviewed by Geoffrey W. Sutton Reference Borg, M.J. & Crossan, J.D. (2009). The first Paul: Reclaiming the radical visionary behind the churchā€™s conservative icon . HarperCollins e-books.   Marcus J. Borg and John Dominic Crossan introduce us to the apostle Paul by providing historical contexts for his life and teachings. Early on they explain why only a small collection of documents were actually written by the apostle who wrote the first ā€œbooksā€ in the New Testament. Scholars affirm seven letters (aka books) were actually written by Paul: Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians, 1 Thessalonians, Galatians, Philippians, and Philemon. Scholars believe the pastoral epistles were written later by other authors. These are 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus. Finally, scholars disagree about the authorship of Ephesians, Colossians, and 2 Thessalonians; however, according to Borg and Crossan, most believe these were not written by Pau...

The Color of Compromise-Racism in Church

The Color of Compromise The Truth about the American Churchā€™s Complicity in Racism by Jemar Tisby Reviewed by    Geoffrey W. Sutton ā€œOn July 4, 2016, as my social media feeds filled with images of American flags and friendsā€™ backyard barbecues celebrating Americaā€™s independence, I took to Twitter and posted a picture [sic] seven African Americans picking cotton in a field with the following caption: ā€œMy family on July 4th 1776.ā€ (From the forward by Lecrae, p. 9) Few would disagree that American slavery was immoral. As I examine The Color of Compromise in July 2020, I am keenly aware that my lessons in American history were whitewashed. And worse, I was never exposed to the degree to which the American Christian church failed to address slavery and its legacy of racism. Tisby tells the story of American anti-black racism in 11 chapters arranged in chronological order. However, The Color of Compromise is not just the story of racism; it is...

Reading the Bible Again-Metaphors to Live By - by Marcus Borg

A Review of Marcus Borgā€™s  Reading the Bible Again for the First Time :  Taking the Bible Seriously but Not literally . By Geoffrey W. Sutton   My earliest memory of a conflict between the Bible and the observable world happened sometime in late childhood when I learned that the moon was not a light as it plainly said in my King James Version of Genesis 1:16. It was downhill from there. Like many of my friends, we learned a near literal interpretation of the Bible from parents with a limited education and churches where teachers shared a blend of fundamentalism and evangelicalism. Their application of select biblical laws, commandments, and rules to contemporary life seemed strangely arbitrary and unnecessarily restrictive. I should like to think Marcus Borgā€™s, Reading the Bible Again for the First Time , would have saved me considerable puzzlementā€”and likely some distress. Iā€™ll say more later but first, a summary of Reading the Bible Again for the First T...