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Showing posts from May, 2018

Diversity and Religious Conservatism and Liberalism

17 As he was setting out on a journey, a man ran up and knelt before him, and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” 18 Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. 19 You know the commandments: ‘You shall not murder; You shall not commit adultery; You shall not steal; You shall not bear false witness; You shall not defraud; Honor your father and mother.’” 20 He said to him, “Teacher, I have kept all these since my youth.” 21 Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said, “You lack one thing; go, sell what you own, and give the money[a] to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.” 22 When he heard this, he was shocked and went away grieving, for he had many possessions. [Mark 10:17-22, NRSV] This passage from the Gospel of Mark is particularly onerous, both to me and, I believe, to the church in general. It appears to be asking something of us that we are most unwilling to do, and we don’t q

The Perversion of Loyalty

I was never a Boy Scout, but for some reason I memorized the Scout Law when I was an adolescent, and to this day I can recite it with confidence: A scout is trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean, and reverent. Because I was not a Boy Scout, I never had to recite either the Scout Oath ( On my honor I will do my best to do my duty to God and my country and to obey the Scout Law; to help other people at all times; to keep myself physically strong, mentally awake, and morally straight ) or the Scout Law in the company of my peers or in public, but I have on occasion slipped the Scout Law into a sermon or a lecture, always with attribution. Lately, however, I have been giving some thought to one item on the Law’s list: loyalty. The reason for this is all the political noise surrounding the current president and his propensity to require loyalty from his associates and political appointments, a requirement which he apparen