Posted on April 4, 2008 by Jason Barr
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 [...]
Filed under: MLK, justice, memorial, nonviolence, peace, politics, resistance, war | Tagged: Submergent | No Comments »
Posted on February 6, 2008 by Jason Barr
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: [...]
Filed under: Bible, Lent, Luke, Prayer, affluence, consumerism, discipleship, justice, materialism | Tagged: Submergent | 2 Comments »
Posted on February 1, 2008 by Jason Barr
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 [...]
Filed under: Jesus Manifesto, Paul, civic mythology, empire, justice, language, peace, politics, president, quotes, resistance | 1 Comment »
Posted on January 21, 2008 by Jason Barr
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 [...]
Filed under: MLK, Vietnam, affluence, justice, memorial, nonviolence, peace, politics, resistance, war | 1 Comment »
Posted on November 23, 2007 by Jason Barr
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 [...]
Filed under: Bible, Galatians, Paul, equality, justice | 1 Comment »
Posted on November 19, 2007 by Jason Barr
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 [...]
Filed under: Bible, Paul, Philippians, Romans, anarchy, empire, justice | 3 Comments »
Posted on May 1, 2007 by Jason Barr
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 [...]
Filed under: anarchy, history, justice, labor, politics, resistance | 1 Comment »
Posted on February 17, 2007 by Jason Barr
J. Richard Middleton’s The Liberating Image: Imago Dei in Genesis 1 is an excellent exegetical look at Genesis 1 and particularly the “Image of God” section in vv. 26-28. The book was written, I believe, for the completion of his Ph.D at the Institute for Christian Studies in Toronto. It is divided into three parts, [...]
Filed under: Bible, Genesis, books, creation, domination, equality, justice, metanarrative, postmodern, theology | 2 Comments »
Posted on October 26, 2006 by Jason Barr
‘Robin Hood’ Gang Robs Gourmet Stores in Bid to Feed Hamburg’s Poor
I’m conflicted over the usefulness of this tactic, particularly for Christians, but at the same time I’m intrigued. I definitely sympathize with their ideals, though. I suppose I’ll cheer them on from the sidelines.
I’m constantly conflicted over my desire to see the church truly [...]
Filed under: consumerism, disobedience, justice, resistance | 2 Comments »
Posted on October 4, 2006 by Jason Barr
From the first creation story, in Genesis 1:
26 Then God said, “Let us make human beings in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move on the ground.”
27 [...]
Filed under: Bible, Genesis, creation, equality, justice | 4 Comments »
Posted on October 3, 2006 by Jason Barr
[Anything which] is a living and not a dying body… will have to be an incarnate will to power, it will strive to grow, spread, seize, become predominant — not from any morality or immorality but because it is living and because life simply is will to power… ‘Exploitation’… belongs to the essence of what [...]
Filed under: Bible, Genesis, Nietzsche, anarchy, creation, domination, emerging, justice, metanarrative, postmodern | 2 Comments »
Posted on September 30, 2006 by Jason Barr
Here’s one for you from The Smirking Chimp:
Future Shock: Evidence of Plans to Torture US Demonstrators
I do not see any way our government can even pretend to uphold the supposed traditional American values of little things like liberty and justice for all, that whole pursuit of happiness bit. The only reason it’s even possible [...]
Filed under: consumerism, empire, evil, government, justice, politics, resistance | 1 Comment »
Posted on September 30, 2006 by Jason Barr
71 War Protesters Seized; Baltimore’s Tradition of Civil Disobedience Continues
Of course, we can’t have any mainstream media attention on this. Terrell Owens’ possible suicide attempt or whatever it was is obviously FAR more important.
Jonah House website
Filed under: disobedience, justice, nonviolence, politics, resistance, shalom, war | 1 Comment »
Posted on September 29, 2006 by Jason Barr
Civil disobedience is not our problem. Our problem is civil obedience. Our problem is that numbers of people all over the world have obeyed the dictates of the leaders of their government and have gone to war, and millions have been killed because of this obedience. Our problem is that people are obedient all over [...]
Filed under: disobedience, empire, justice, politics, quotes, war | No Comments »
Posted on August 30, 2006 by Jason Barr
For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs. — The Apostle Paul (1 Timothy 6:10)
Or, as it is rendered in The Message, by Eugene Peterson:
But if it’s only money these leaders are after, [...]
Filed under: Paul, corporations, empire, evil, government, justice, money | 1 Comment »
Posted on August 23, 2006 by Jason Barr
(this is an expanded version of material I have written elsewhere)
I find it odd that the United States celebrates its self-determination as a nation-state on July 4 when politically we have quite a history of denying the same to others when it suits certain political purposes, generally business-related. For example, the Phillippines in that oft-forgotten [...]
Filed under: Iraq, Paul, empire, history, justice, politics, war | 5 Comments »