Homecoming or Going-Away Party? Questioning the Rapture through the lens of homelessness

This is the sermon I gave at Patchwork Central’s Sunday evening worship on July 26, 2009. Of course, these texts are not the only ones pertinent to discussion of the so-called “end times,” but 1 Thessalonians in particular is of major importance since it is the text most-often used to discuss “what the Rapture will [...]

Early morning, April 4, a shot rings out in the Memphis sky…

As you’re probably aware, on this day 40 years ago Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated.
Fewer people are aware of this speech he gave 41 years ago, today.
Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence
by Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.
April 4, 1967
I come to this magnificent house of worship tonight because my conscience leaves me no [...]

Thoughts on Lent and Ash Wednesday

Today is Ash Wednesday, also known as “Fat Tuesday hangover day”, also known as the beginning of the season of Lent. The Gospel reading for today, from the Daily Office Lectionary in the Book of Common Prayer:
To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable: [...]

Subverting the rhetoric of American empire

Brandon Rhodes has written an EXCELLENT article at Jesus Manifesto called “Severing the Rhetorical Roots of the Empire“. In it he lists some quotes, inviting followers of Jesus to creatively rewrite them to displace idolatry and blasphemy with subversive truth, just as Paul and other early Christian authors rhetorically usurped Caesar’s place of privilege and [...]

Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence

This is one of King’s most important speeches and yet one of his most little-known. Delivered on April 4, 1967, exactly one year to the day before he was assassinated, this speech provides a scathing denunciation of the practices of the American government on the world stage, particularly in Vietnam. King extends his methodology of [...]

Galatians 3:28 and gender equality

One thing I’ve heard on a couple of message boards lately is the statement that Galatians 3:28, which says “For there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male and female, but you all are one in Christ Jesus”, does not in fact refer to a social equality that is expressed in the practice [...]

Paul’s Gospel and Caesar’s Empire, by N.T. Wright

article link
The good Bishop of Durham has summed up a lot of things quite concisely in one article that I spend pages and pages on this blog discussing. He goes briefly over passages from Romans and Philippians within the framework of a discussion of the term “Gospel” and Paul’s conception of Jesus as Messiah and [...]

May 1 – International Workers’ Day

Happy May Day, or as it is widely known, International Workers’ Day.
On this day in 1896 the great general strike for an 8-hour workday (over 350,000 strikers across the United States) that culminated in the Haymarket affair began. Today is an international day of labor recognition in many countries – with the United States a [...]

The Liberating Image: Imago Dei in Genesis 1 by J. Richard Middleton

Absolution Revolution has moved! You can read this article at http://absolutionrevolution.com/blog/2007/02/17/the-liberating-image-imago-dei-in-genesis-1-by-j-richard-middleton/

well, this is one way to fight economic injustice

Absolution Revolution has moved! You can find this article at http://absolutionrevolution.com/blog/2006/10/26/well-this-is-one-way-to-fight-economic-injustice/

battle of the sexes and creation

Absolution Revolution has moved! You can read this article at http://absolutionrevolution.com/blog/2006/10/04/battle-of-the-sexes-and-creation/

Nieztsche, the fall, anarcho-primitivism, and human domination

Absolution Revolution has moved! You can see this article at http://absolutionrevolution.com/blog/2006/10/03/nieztsche-the-fall-anarcho-primitivism-and-human-domination/

speaking of protesting…

Absolution Revolution has moved! You can read this article at http://absolutionrevolution.com/blog/2006/09/30/speaking-of-protesting/

Interfaith war protesters arrested outside US Capitol

Absolution Revolution has moved! You can read this article at http://absolutionrevolution.com/blog/2006/09/30/interfaith-war-protesters-arrested-outside-us-capitol/

civil obedience?

Absolution Revolution has moved! You can read this article at http://absolutionrevolution.com/blog/2006/09/29/civil-obedience/

Love of money and corporations

Absolution Revolution has moved! You can find this article at http://absolutionrevolution.com/blog/2006/08/30/love-of-money-and-corporations/

USAmerican self-determination ideals and contradiction

Absolution Revolution has moved! You can find this article at http://absolutionrevolution.com/blog/2006/08/23/usamerican-self-determination-ideals-and-contradiction/