I agree with your comments, however in inter-comparing the three recognized Greek texts and studying carefully the nuances of the words, I am deeply grieved that the church has strayed afar of the essential teachings of Christ, in particular of love you neighbor as yourself. Too often I see and experience that my expression of faith is unacceptable to others because I see a different view in the Scriptures. This to me is religious persecution, although not involving torture and death.
I have also studied as an avocation for 40 some years the origins of religions and why they exist. The only way for them to control others, religious persecution, is to impose their views on society. This is the modus operandi of some Christian groups.

Posted by: Jerome Scholle | September 4, 2008 4:37 PM

Brother Hendricks,

May I add my Amen to your post.

Many readers may ask, "Why should I care about the minimum wage? - I earn far more than the minimum wage!"

Well, from personal experience, I can tell you that the minimum wage affected me when I was a child growing up during the 50s. The Democrats would propose an increase in the minimum wage and the Republicans would oppose it. But every time it increased by a nickel, there was 2 more dollars to put food on our table.

Not much has changed in 50 years. Republicans still oppose every attempt to increase the minimum wage while CEOs are earning salaries in the millions.

Posted by: Sister Marie | September 4, 2008 10:26 PM

To letjusticerolldown:

I concur with your response and I don't mean to imply that I think that Republicans are the devil incarnate.

All of us arrive at our political viewpoints through a combination of our education, reading, interaction with other people, and general life experiences. I simply related one of my life's experiences to help to explain how I relate to the political landscape today

Posted by: Sister Marie | September 5, 2008 7:48 AM

I worked during the 50's in high school and college. I agree with Sister Marie as always. We have lived it. I started teaching school in 1959 for three thousand five hundred dollars a year. My father was making three times that in industry. I am so glad that teachers are valued with greater salaries than before. The demands are greater.
My mother and I used to sit around and discuss what kind of government Jesus would have in place, and I agree that the republicans did just as Sister Marie has said. (I must read Obery Hendricks book)
I can never see why the right wing Christians voted into office who they did eight years ago. I had friends argue with me as they were of those beliefs. I had tons of ugly e-mails from what I called so-called Christians that were denigrating Al Gore and later John Kerry and why I should vote for Bush. I foretold what has happened these last eight years and not that it has all come to pass they believe.
When I saw Barak Obama on stage at the Democratic Convention four years ago, and cheered at his keynote address I knew we had someone who cared about us as a people.
Recently, in the previous months I got those awful e-mails about Barak Obama being a muslin and some awful things about Hillary Clinton. When I wrote back in opposion to those awful e-mails I was told by this Christian that we all should be taken out and shoot. There would be 36 million of us lined up and mowed down. But I always added that I loved them. I might not agree with their thoughts or the hate mail they were sending out but it didn't stop me from loving them. I still pray for their hearts and minds to be impressed with the mind of Jesus.
These are the kind of Christian that my girls have seen and why they are hating Christians. My one daughter goes to synogouge. I try to tell them that they are not all like that.
I just took the belief net test on where my Christian belief stood. I came in as 100% Quacker. I raised myself Methodist and United Brothern which united in later years. as the United Methodist Church.
Sad to say that I went to church by myself since I was a very little girl.

Posted by: Judith | September 5, 2008 5:01 PM

I think the christians who feel most strongly their call to work for love and justice in this world are often in faith communities where evangelism (the "e" word) is thought of as trying to impose your faith on other people, and not really talked about. More Evangelical christians, who are more focussed on Christ's sacrifice on the cross, and one's personal salvation, might think no matter how many times justice for the poor is brought up in the Hebrew Bible and the Gospels, its earthly finiteness is incomparable to eternal salvation, so evangelism is top priority.

Like it or not, the christian image people see on TV is what most people expect: judgemental, didactic, inflexible, moneyhungry, authoritarian(or easily-led). It's difficult to live as a disciple of Jesus, but I think we need to try and try again.

Posted by: Sandra | September 5, 2008 7:53 PM

Obrey, while truly on the mark as regards the abuse of the positions accorded certain leaders in the Christian sphere, will, I hope, address another audience. Instead of calling on the leadership of the Christian world to change, I say it is time to focus our efforts on the people. This seems not only to be very Christian in its essence, but also promises to remove one of the fundamental supports of abusive leadership, namely that the leaders are to be expected to provide the answers. We must begin an examination of what makes it difficult for people to see for themselves the problems that are right in front of them. I mean, come on...the sayings are very clear on worldly wealth, and yet there are those who hold leadership and flaunt their prosperity without shame.
I believe that they understand a few important points about their followers. First, they are very afraid, in general, and thus are able to be made afraid of God, afraid of being out of his favor and thereby suffering. This allows for much room in which to wiggle. Fear is a central issue for Jesus. He addresses it directly in Luke 12, when he says to fear not those who can destroy the body, but he goes further to remind us that we need not worry for our next meal. From a practical standpoint, this condition is achieved when all of mankind loves his neighbor and provides for everyone around him.(Thus, love may trump faith. Which is easier?) But to get to that point requires work. This is the work we need address now. The work of understanding why the flock sometimes is blind to its shepherd. The flock needs to understand that fear is unnecessary and actually contrary to the creation of the kingdom. The leadership can only be expected to return to the state of taking advantage of this fear, given time. For the flock to understand fear's role would be to take away that tool of abuse.
This abusive leadership also understands that, at their core, people do enjoy comfortable lives. I have seen too many sermons centered around earthly reward, too many thanks given to God for abundance. It is a fact that taking resources from another, if it eliminates or diminishes that resource harms the other. Abundance of worldly possessions is not only directly addressed in the Gospel, it is actually opposed to the creation of the Kingdom. How are we to get there, together, if the rich men are having a hard time getting through?
I would love to talk more about this with anyone here...

Posted by: james tardy | September 5, 2008 8:08 PM

Obrey, while truly on the mark as regards the abuse of the positions accorded certain leaders in the Christian sphere, will, I hope, address another audience. Instead of calling on the leadership of the Christian world to change, I say it is time to focus our efforts on the people. This seems not only to be very Christian in its essence, but also promises to remove one of the fundamental supports of abusive leadership, namely that the leaders are to be expected to provide the answers. We must begin an examination of what makes it difficult for people to see for themselves the problems that are right in front of them. I mean, come on...the sayings are very clear on worldly wealth, and yet there are those who hold leadership and flaunt their prosperity without shame.
I believe that they understand a few important points about their followers. First, they are very afraid, in general, and thus are able to be made afraid of God, afraid of being out of his favor and thereby suffering. This allows for much room in which to wiggle. Fear is a central issue for Jesus. He addresses it directly in Luke 12, when he says to fear not those who can destroy the body, but he goes further to remind us that we need not worry for our next meal. From a practical standpoint, this condition is achieved when all of mankind loves his neighbor and provides for everyone around him.(Thus, love may trump faith. Which is easier?) But to get to that point requires work. This is the work we need address now. The work of understanding why the flock sometimes is blind to its shepherd. The flock needs to understand that fear is unnecessary and actually contrary to the creation of the kingdom. The leadership can only be expected to return to the state of taking advantage of this fear, given time. For the flock to understand fear's role would be to take away that tool of abuse.
This abusive leadership also understands that, at their core, people do enjoy comfortable lives. I have seen too many sermons centered around earthly reward, too many thanks given to God for abundance. It is a fact that taking resources from another, if it eliminates or diminishes that resource harms the other. Abundance of worldly possessions is not only directly addressed in the Gospel, it is actually opposed to the creation of the Kingdom. How are we to get there, together, if the rich men are having a hard time getting through?
I would love to talk more about this with anyone here...

Posted by: james tardy | September 5, 2008 8:09 PM

Obrey, while truly on the mark as regards the abuse of the positions accorded certain leaders in the Christian sphere, will, I hope, address another audience. Instead of calling on the leadership of the Christian world to change, I say it is time to focus our efforts on the people. This seems not only to be very Christian in its essence, but also promises to remove one of the fundamental supports of abusive leadership, namely that the leaders are to be expected to provide the answers. We must begin an examination of what makes it difficult for people to see for themselves the problems that are right in front of them. I mean, come on...the sayings are very clear on worldly wealth, and yet there are those who hold leadership and flaunt their prosperity without shame.
I believe that they understand a few important points about their followers. First, they are very afraid, in general, and thus are able to be made afraid of God, afraid of being out of his favor and thereby suffering. This allows for much room in which to wiggle. Fear is a central issue for Jesus. He addresses it directly in Luke 12, when he says to fear not those who can destroy the body, but he goes further to remind us that we need not worry for our next meal. From a practical standpoint, this condition is achieved when all of mankind loves his neighbor and provides for everyone around him.(Thus, love may trump faith. Which is easier?) But to get to that point requires work. This is the work we need address now. The work of understanding why the flock sometimes is blind to its shepherd. The flock needs to understand that fear is unnecessary and actually contrary to the creation of the kingdom. The leadership can only be expected to return to the state of taking advantage of this fear, given time. For the flock to understand fear's role would be to take away that tool of abuse.
This abusive leadership also understands that, at their core, people do enjoy comfortable lives. I have seen too many sermons centered around earthly reward, too many thanks given to God for abundance. It is a fact that taking resources from another, if it eliminates or diminishes that resource harms the other. Abundance of worldly possessions is not only directly addressed in the Gospel, it is actually opposed to the creation of the Kingdom. How are we to get there, together, if the rich men are having a hard time getting through?
I would love to talk more about this with anyone here...

Posted by: james tardy | September 5, 2008 8:09 PM

There are serious dangers that come with a need to define oneself as suffering from religious persecution, or in focusing one's attention on seeing to it that other people are changed.

Both of these involve investing a great deal of focus on our own wounds and how others ought to be responsible for changing so we can be happier. That's not our job, and there's a great deal of the log and mote in that way of thinking.

The Christian mystics emphasize our ability, in Christ, to change the world by focusing on our own surrender in Christ. So far I haven't found anything in their writings that asks Christians to make sure others chaange -- it's all about us. We give up ourselves into the Spirit of God, and the rest comes through the Spirit.

Posted by: openeyes | September 6, 2008 11:20 PM