Marginal Christianity

Posted on May 8, 2016 By Chris Hedges   Mourners follow the hearse carrying the casket of the Rev. Daniel Berrigan during a procession after his funeral service at the Church of St. Francis Xavier on Friday in New York City. Berrigan, a Roman Catholic priest and peace activist since the Vietnam War, died April 30 at 94. ( Mary Altaffer / AP ) NEW YORK—I arrived early Friday morning, after walking through the rain, at the St. Francis Xavier Church in Greenwich Village for the funeral of the Rev. Daniel Berrigan. I stood, the church nearly empty, at the front of the sanctuary with my hand on the top of Dan’s rosewood casket. It was adorned with a single red carnation and a small plaque that read: “Rev. Daniel J. Berrigan. Born May 9, 1921. Entered S.J. August 14, 1939. Ordained June 21, 1952. Died April 30, 2016.” Read more at http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/bearing_the_cross_20160508

By Brian Zahnd | March 8, 2016 The cross is shock therapy for a world addicted to solving its problems through violence. The cross shocks us into the devastating realization that our system of violence murdered God! The things hidden from the foundation of the world have now been revealed. The cross shames our ancient foundation of violence. The cross strips naked the principalities and powers. The cross tears down the façade of glory that we use to hide the bodies of slain victims. In the light of the cross, we are to realize that if what we have built on Cain’s foundation is capable of murdering the Son of God, then the whole edifice needs to come down. In the light of the cross, our war anthems lose their luster. But this throws us into a crisis. What other alternatives are there? How else are we to arrange the world? The alternative is what Jesus is offering us when he told us that the kingdom of God is at hand. God’s way of arranging the world around lo...

Nonviolence in the Face of ISIS? By Micah Bales 03-04-2015    A couple of folks I really respect – Kate Gould of Friends Committee on National Legislation (aka, the Quaker Lobby), and Jim Wallis of Sojourners – were recently on the O’Reilly Factor . For those of you who don’t watch cable news, this is a television program where Bill O’Reilly basically screams at people and incites hatred of anything non-white, non-rich, and non-Republican. I normally don’t watch the show. But when I heard that Kate and Jim were going to be talking, I tuned in.   I knew almost immediately this wasn’t going to be good. It’s Bill’s program, so he gets to frame the question. Here’s what he asks: Do Christian pacifists have a solution for stopping ISIS?   It’s the wrong question.   O’Reilly knows it’s the wrong question, and that’s why he’s asking it. Both Gould and Wallis attempt to answer his question directly and rationally. Gould presents an argument for dipl...

  Posted on 4.27.2015 Last week I wrote about preterism and the work of N.T. Wright . Specifically, we discussed how when Jesus speaks about a coming judgment, especially in his Olivet Discourse (Mark 13, Matthew 24, Luke 21), he wasn't talking about an otherworldly hell but about the destruction of Jerusalem. As N.T. Wright has observed, "in those famous passages in the Gospels, Jesus is talking not about the end of the world but about the fall of Jerusalem ." In a comment to that post a reader asked the following question: "If Jesus was simply telling people not to rebel against Rome, how is that relevant to us today? Or should we not try to find personal relevance in the words of Jesus?" That's a great question, one I wrote about last year: Again, as scholars like N.T. Wright have pointed out Jesus seemed acutely aware that his people were on a lethal collision course with Rome. If Israel did not repent, if Israel did not lis...

Fr. Stephen Freeman 48 Comments   In 988, Prince Vladimir of Kiev was Baptized and embraced the Christian faith. Among his first acts as a Christian ruler were to tithe his wealth to the Church and the poor, and to outlaw capital punishment and torture. It is said that the Bishops advising him counseled him that he might need to keep the torture in order to rule effectively.   This anecdote has always brought a wry smile to my face, it seems so quaint. Of course torture is not quaint, nor is it medieval. It is quite common in the so-called modern world and has recently moved to the front pages as the US has pulled the veil of secrecy back from its interrogation techniques in its war against terror. I have been interested to watch the reaction to all of this on social media. Many friends have reacted with moral outrage. Others, particularly those whose politics are conservative, have posted supportive pictures and thoughts. Christians find themselves on both sides ...

5 Therefore, since we have been made righteous through his faithfulness, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 We have access by faith into this grace in which we stand through him, and we boast in the hope of God’s glory. 3 But not only that! We even take pride in our problems, because we know that trouble produces endurance, 4 endurance produces character, and character produces hope. 5 This hope doesn’t put us to shame, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.   Having reached the end of the first major section of the first part of Romans, 5:1 serves as triumphant conclusion to that section and an introduction to the next major section, chs.5-8. “Therefore.”   When Paul writes “therefore” it’s always good to ask what it’s there for because it’s there for a reason.   And that reason is often the conclusion to what has gone before.   And so it is here.   V.1 brin...

(With thanks to Derek Rishmawy for his inspiration of this post.  Though he is not accountable for any errors, mistatements, and infelicities contained in this post)   The Bible’s God cannot be pacifist!   His people can be, must be, but only because he is not. This startling counterintuitive claim is true for at least the following reasons. 1.     Unless God has forfeited his role as the Ruler of human history in a world rebelling against him (Psa.2) and using nations as agents of his judgments against one another (Isa.10), he must be continuing to employ violence.   Though God “does not willingly afflict or grieve anyone” (Lam.3:33), he will do what is necessary for justice to prevail.     2.     We, followers of Christ, can only be non-violent, unless God enacts the vengeance justice demands (Rom.12:19).   Miroslav Volf is required reading here.   “One could object that it is not worthy of God...

06 Aug, 2014 Adam Borneman 3 Comments PT Through History                                  Current crises across the Middle East and other war-torn locations demand careful consideration of war, just war theory, and other tenets of military interventionism. The Christian theologian faces a particularly daunting task in this respect because the eschatological principles of God’s kingdom appear contrary to what might be a faithful Christian ethic in the penultimate present. The famed 20th century theologian, Karl Barth, whose views were formed in the crucible of World War II, wrestles with this tension. While never writing extensively or expl...

http://www.jrdkirk.com/2014/07/17/god-peace-justice/ July 17, 2014 J. R. Daniel Kirk 1 Comment This weekend I’m giving a talk on the God of Peace and Justice. As if on cue, the writing of this talk is now punctuated by news that Israel has launched a ground invasion into Gaza and rumors are swirling that a passenger (!) jet was “blown out of the sky” by a missile near the Russian-Ukranian border. I find myself at a loss. As someone whose citizenship and home lies within the nation that has created unprovoked war in Iraq, that ensconced itself in over a decade of combat in Afghanistan, and that is in the business of killing people around the world by dropping bombs by remote controlled “drones,” what can I possibly say? America has no moral ground to stand on in opposing violence around the world. We have not found a better way to be agents of peace. It is times like these that underscore the impossible dream that is the reign of God. The idea of power t...

http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2013/02/02/a-killing-a-life-sentence-and-my-change-of-heart/   Editor's note: Jeanne Bishop  is the sister of Nancy Bishop Langert, who, along with her husband and their unborn child, was shot to death by a juvenile. Since the murder of her family members, Jeanne Bishop has been an advocate for gun violence prevention, forgiveness and abolition of the death penalty. She is a criminal defense attorney in Chicago. By Jeanne Bishop , Special to CNN (CNN) - I have been paying close attention to the changes coming since the U.S. Supreme Court struck down any mandatory life sentences for juveniles who kill.  A teenager killed my sister. He killed her dream, too. She wanted to be a mom. My sister Nancy married young.  She was overjoyed when she got pregnant at age 25. That dream died three months later, when she and her husband walked through the front door of their home and found their killer waiting for th...

by Ellen F. Davis (http://www.faithandleadership.com/content/ellen-f-davis-future-hope?page=0,1) Just at the start of the sixth century B.C., the Judean exiles in Babylon received a letter from Jerusalem from the prophet Jeremiah. This must have generated tremendous excitement and anticipation within that desperate group, and we can imagine how eagerly they gathered to hear the messenger read aloud the letter that had traveled for some months over hundreds of miles to bring them the Word of the Lord. Here is some of what Jeremiah wrote: “Thus says the LORD of Hosts, God of Israel, to the whole exiled community that I exiled from Jerusalem to Babylon: Build houses and settle down, and plant gardens, and eat their fruit. Take wives and have sons and daughters, and take wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so they may bear sons and daughters. Multiply there; do not decrease. And seek the well-being, the shalom of the city to which I have exiled you, and pray fo...