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Book Review: Surviving God

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  "Healing the soul-wounds of abuse requires new images of God that can comfort, nourish, sustain, and empower."--Grace Ji-Sun Kim and Susan Shaw in Surviving God.     God heals the brokenhearted      and bandages their wounds.      God counts the stars by number,      giving each one a name.      Our Lord is great and so strong!      God’s knowledge can’t be grasped!      The LORD helps the poor,      but throws the wicked down on the dirt!      Psalms 147:3–6 (CEB) I typically read several books per month and do a quick review of most on various social media.  However, this month, I read Surviving God by Grace Ji-Sun Kim and Susan M Shaw and cannot limit my comments to a paragraph.  Before I begin, I must share my bias.  I am a huge Grace Ji-Sun Kim fan and have read most of her writings.  I have read her book on intersectional theology, which was also co-authored by Susan Shaw and found it incredibly informative, and more importantly, spiritually formative. Surviving God t
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Your Silence is the problem

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If you keep quiet at a time like this, deliverance and relief for the Jews will arise from some other place, but you and your relatives will die. Who knows if perhaps you were made queen for just such a time as this? (Esther 4:14 NLT) "The soul work, the mediative task of finding center and bring to the surface our most playful, poetic and responsive selves in our world of busy intersections when we feel belittled, shut down, or silenced, is perhaps our most essential task." --David Dark in We Become What We Normalize In the book of Esther, we learn the story of a young Jewish woman who is forcibly placed in the harem of King Xerses from Persia.  Persia was the superpower of its day (5th century BCE) and continued its oppression of what we consider the mid-east.  I have read multiple accounts of this story that often romanticizes her story as if she wasn't traumatized by being taken from her family, and then sexually assaulted.   She was chosen due to her physical appeara
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Affirmative Action and DEI: Strategies for Equity

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   But our bodies have many parts, and God has put each part just where he wants it.  How strange a body would be if it had only one part!  Yes, there are many parts, but only one body.  The eye can never say to the hand, "I don't need you." The head can't say to the feet, "I don't need you."  In fact, some parts of the body that seem weakest and least important are actually the most necessary.  And the parts we regard as less honorable are those we clothe with the greatest care. So we carefully protect those parts that should not be seen, while the more honorable parts do not require this special care. So, God has put the body together such that extra honor and care are given to those parts that have less dignity. This makes for harmony among the members, so that all the members care for each other.  If one part suffers, all the parts suffer with it, and if one part is honored, all the parts are glad. (I Cor 12:18-26 NLT) "During the Jim Crow era,
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Foundations of Inequity

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  "These seeds produced a myth of racial superiority that both determined America's founding and defined its identity.  This myth then gave way to America's grand narrative of exceptionalism." --Dr. Kelly Brown Douglas in Stand Your Ground If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do? (Psalms 11:3 NRSV) Forums for civil discourse and critical engagement with the meaningful issues of our time are nearly non-existent.  I had hoped the great universities and colleges of the US would remain places of genuine inquiry and produce graduates who were refined in the art of critical thinking.  More and more often, education has been co-opted by political forces who attempt to frame all thinking according to its own whims.  Recently, numerous institutions of higher education have sought to repress protests , often violently, rather than encourage the civil exchange of ideas or facilitate true dialog around complex issues. On of the great tenants of democracy, is
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African-American Hermeneutic of Suspicion.

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  "The Bible has always been read through the experience of the people holding it. The meaning they draw and the ethics they build are directly related to the kind of lives they lead.  It is no wonder that for a people trapped in slavery and yearning to be free, that the Bible would mean and encourage liberation." -- Dr. Brian K. Blount in "Then the Whisper Put On flesh"   All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness [justice], so that everyone who belongs to God may be proficient, equipped for every good work. ( 2 Tim 3:16-17 NRSV, parenthesis mine) I have been part of a wide variety of churches. I have been in multicultural churches, predominantly African American churches, and in predominantly White churches as I enter my 6th decade of life.  I believe that my experiences with a variety of communities allows some unique perspectives but more importantly, a cultural humility to understa
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Black History Month Essays: Deification and Demonization: Enemies of progress

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  "Deification and demonization are the graves wherein we have buried all hope of genuine reconciliation, justice, and meaningful transformation. The songs we sing at that graveside are not songs of mourning and loss; only the sorrowful wailings of self-justification and self-destruction." --Allan Boesak in Pharaohs on Both Sides of the Blood-Red Waters  What sorrow for those who say  that evil is good and good is evil,  that dark is light and light is dark,  that bitter is sweet and sweet is bitter. (Isaiah 5:20 NLT) Last month, the US celebrated Martin Luther King Jr Day, and since 1976, the nation identifies each February to remember Black history.  As an African American man, I have had mixed feelings about how each of these things are commemorated. On one hand, I am deeply grateful for and incredibly excited to honor leaders of the civil rights movement, from which I (as well as the entire nation) am the beneficiary.  One of my earliest memories is the assassination of D
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Crisis of Christmas Faith

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  Church of the Nativity, Bethlehem Nativity Scene When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain; and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. 2 Then he began to speak, and taught them, saying: 3 "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.  4 "Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.  5 "Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.  6 "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.  7 "Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.  8 "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.  9 "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.  10 "Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.  Matthew 5:1-10 NRSV It is hard to celebrate the birth of Jesus, when the birthplace of Jesus is experiencing the ravages of war.  I wrote elsewhere about the Israel-Hamas conf
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