<div style="color:black;font: 10pt Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Back issue: 10/31/19<br>
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Forgiveness</h1>
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line-height:150%;text-align:left;"> <span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family:georgia, times, times new roman, serif;">Essay by
Rev. Irene Monroe<br>
October 31, 2019</span></span>
<div style="margin:10px 0;
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color:#202020;
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line-height:150%;text-align:left;"><span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family:georgia, times, times new roman, serif;">"Father,
forgive them; for they
know not what they do" in
Luke 23:34 has always
troubled me, because it is
the first of the seven
utterances by Jesus on the
cross. I've been taught
that the act of
forgiveness is a sign of
spiritual mettle and grace
under fire. And, as an
African American, the act
of forgiveness appears to
be our immediate go-to
place in the face of
unimaginable racial
horor done to us. <br>
<br>
Black Christians give away
forgiveness like it's
confetti, and white Trump
evangelicals give it away
sparingly, if at all. And,
in Trump's case, he
neither asks for
forgiveness, nor does he
give forgiveness. For
example, in a 2016
interview with CNN's Jake
Tapper, Trump shared "that
he doesn't regret never
asking God for forgiveness
and doesn't have much to
apologize for."<br>
<br>
While forgiveness is
foundational to growth,
healing, and restorative
justice- whether religious
or non-religious -there
are various ways we use
forgiveness. Either it can
enhance healing and create
positive change in our
lives, or it can cause
tremendous harm by
maintaining the status
quo. And, there is a
distinction between
individual forgiveness and
institutional forgiveness.<br>
<br>
Former Dallas police
officer Amber Guyger
fatally shot Botham Jean
in his apartment. His
younger brother, Brandt
Jean, could have never
fathomed a conflagration
would ignite offering
forgiveness and a hug of
his brother’s killer. <br>
<br>
Brandt took the witness
stand and spoke directly
to Guyger, stating, "I
know if you go to God and
ask him, he will forgive
you" and then hugged her
before she was led off to
prison. Some saw Brandt’s
action as demeaning and
dismissive of Botham’s
murder, especially in
light of the numerous
unarmed black males killed
at the hands of white
officers across the
country. Many queried, if
the roles were reversed,
would Guyer’s white family
do similarly. Others
contested that was not the
point because Brandt's
action was that of a good
Christian. Brandt’s
efforts have been compared
and lauded to that of the
black parishioners of
"Mother" Emanuel African
Methodist Episcopal Church
in Charleston, SC, who
forgave white supremacist
assassin Dylann Roof.
Roof's motive was to start
another civil war. <br>
<br>
Brandt's act of
forgiveness I understood
as healing himself and
honoring his brother. "I
love you just like anyone
else, and I'm not going to
hope you rot and die,"
Brandt told Guyger in the
courtroom. "I want the
best for you because I
know that's exactly what
Botham would want for you.
I think giving your life
to Christ is the best
thing Botham would want
for you." Brandt's action
is an example of
individual forgiveness.
Forgiveness, in this
instance, is a gift you
give yourself for healing.
It's a feeling of inner
peace, and a renewed
relationship with self. <br>
<br>
On the other hand, Judge
Tammy Kemp giving Guyger a
hug and her personal Bible
before she was led off to
prison I found
unforgivable. Kemp turned
to John 3:16 and told
Guyger, "This is where you
start. He has a purpose
for you." Kemp’s actions
are an example of offering
institutional forgiveness
on behalf of her actions.
As a guarantor of
justice, Kemp represents
the laws and values of our
American court system.
Kemp collapsed the
separation of church and
state in her courtroom by
giving Guyger a Bible,
further devaluing a flawed
judicial system that
disproportionately and
unfairly treats black and
brown lives trafficked
through it. Many felt
Kemp, who is African
American, should have
known better in this era
of BLACK LIVES MATTER.
Her actions toward Guyger
would be perceived as
absolving a white officer
and siding with the
country's culture of
policing.<br>
<br>
In the face of continued
racial violence done to
us, I now must question if
our church teachings of
forgiveness of the last
centuries are serving us
well in this new century,
particularly with
the resurgence of white
nationalism. <br>
<br>
Forgiveness is one of the
essential tenets that runs
deep in the theology,
prayers, and songs of
Black Christianity. When
families of Emanuel church
victims stood in court in
2015 and stated
one-by-one, they forgive
Dylann because their
religion advises them to
do so, the nation was in
awe. In awe, too, Roof's
family said, "We have all
been touched by the moving
words from the victims'
families offering God's
forgiveness and love in
the face of such horrible
suffering." However, four
years later, family
members of the victims are
still struggling. Jennifer
Berry Hawes captures their
struggle in "Grace Will
Lead Us Home: The
Charleston Church Massacre
and the Hard Inspiring
Journey to Forgiveness."
Hawes questions the moral
mandate of expressing
forgiveness by black
people as deriving from
dominant and racist
ideologies that serve the
ruling class. "So when one
has been irreparably and
tragically wronged by
another, it bears asking:
Who benefits from my
forgiveness, and what does
being the better person
have to do with my loss?,"
she states.<br>
<br>
The expectation of
forgiveness is quickly
drawn along marginal lines
within religion, race,
class, gender, and
sexuality, to name a few.
Within these marginal
groups, too often, the
theologies and praxis of
forgiveness avoid fully
reckoning individual or
group pain, suffering, and
the lingering effects of
trauma, grief, and even
rage. Also, embracing the
Christian belief of
redemptive suffering does
not symbolize the mettle
of one’s strength, but
rather, in my opinion, it
is participating in one’s
own oppression due to an
unhealthy and toxic
indoctrination
about forgiveness.<br>
<br>
Offering absolution is a
personal matter. However,
as one whose identity
intersects several
marginal groups- black,
female, lesbian- I must
raise Hawes question.“Who
benefits from my
forgiveness? <br>
<br>
I no longer allow my
Christian indoctrination
to forgive to
automatically override my
self-interrogation of why
I should. I now make the
distinction between blind
obedience versus reasoned
faith. And, I must
remember, while
Christianity is not a
toxic religion, the form
of Christianity taught to
my ancestors was not to
make us better Christians
but rather better slaves. </span></span></div>
<div style="margin:10px 0;
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font-family:Helvetica;
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line-height:150%;text-align:left;"><span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family:georgia, times, times new roman, serif;">~ Rev.
Irene Monroe</span></span></div>
<div style="margin:10px 0;
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<span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family:georgia, times, times new roman, serif;">Read
online <a style="
color:#007C89;
font-weight:normal;
text-decoration:underline;" href="https://ProgressiveChristianity.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b51b9cf441b059bb232418480&id=1c09f1048e&e=edb736c2ad" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">here</a><br>
<br>
<strong>About the Author</strong></span></span><br>
<span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family:georgia, times, times new roman, serif;">The
Reverend Monroe is an
ordained minister. She
does a weekly Monday
segment, “All Revved Up!”
on WGBH (89.7 FM), a
Boston member station of
National Public Radio
(NPR), that is now a
podcast, and a weekly
Friday commentator on New
England Channel NEWS
(NECN). Monroe is the
Boston voice for Detour’s
African American Heritage
Trail, Guided Walking Tour
of Beacon Hill: <a style="
color:#007C89;
font-weight:normal;
text-decoration:underline;" href="https://ProgressiveChristianity.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b51b9cf441b059bb232418480&id=5798be5e7b&e=edb736c2ad" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Boston’s
Black Women
Abolitionists</a> (Boston)
– Detour.<br>
Monroe’s a <em>Huffington
Post</em> blogger and a
syndicated religion
columnist. Her columns
appear in cities across
the country and in the
U.K, Ireland, Canada.
Monroe writes a column in
the Boston home LGBTQ
newspaper <em>Baywindows</em>,
Cambridge Chronicle, and
Opinion pieces for the <em>Boston
Globe</em>.<br>
Monroe stated that her
“columns are an
interdisciplinary approach
drawing on critical race
theory, African American,
queer and religious
studies. As a religion
columnist I try to inform
the public of the role
religion plays in
discrimination against
lesbian, gay, bisexual,
transgender and queer
people. Because homophobia
is both a hatred of the
“other” and it’s usually
acted upon ‘in the name of
religion,” by reporting
religion in the news I aim
to highlight how religious
intolerance and
fundamentalism not only
shatters the goal of
American democracy, but
also aids in perpetuating
other forms of oppression
such as racism, sexism,
classism and
anti-Semitism.” Her papers
are at the Schlesinger
Library at Radcliffe
College’s research library
on the history of women in
America. Click here to
visit her <a style="
color:#007C89;
font-weight:normal;
text-decoration:underline;" href="https://ProgressiveChristianity.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b51b9cf441b059bb232418480&id=d2fa5bc4c3&e=edb736c2ad" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">website</a>.</span></span></div>
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<h1 style="
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letter-spacing:normal;text-align:left;"><span style="font-family:georgia, times, times new roman, serif;">Question
& Answer</span></h1>
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<div style="margin:10px 0;
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line-height:150%;text-align:left;"><span style="font-family:georgia, times, times new roman, serif;"><strong><span style="font-size:18px;">Q: By
Quinton</span></strong><br>
<br>
<span style="font-size:14px;"><em>It
is Written in The
Message, Ephesians
Chapter 1, that Christ
rules the Universe, all
of it, from galaxies to
governments, no one
exempt from His power,
He has the final say on
all things. I have been
trying to reconcile this
for two years, to
understand if this is a
metaphor or actual
truth, what is your
perception? With all I
see and hear in our
world, it is difficult
to reconcile our reality
and the Word.</em></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family:georgia, times, times new roman, serif;"><strong><span style="font-size:18px;">A:
By Rev. Jessica Shine</span></strong></span></h3>
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text-decoration:underline;" href="https://ProgressiveChristianity.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b51b9cf441b059bb232418480&id=ce3dab0dfa&e=edb736c2ad" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><img width="150" height="157" align="left" style="border:0px;
width:150px;
min-height:157px;margin:0px 10px 0px 0px;
outline:none;
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<div style="margin:10px 0;
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line-height:150%;text-align:left;"><span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family:georgia, times, times new roman, serif;">Hi
Quinton, and thank you for
your thoughtful
questioning.<br>
<br>
And also, I totally get
it. There’s really not
much encouraging right now
that feels like this text
could be true. In many
ways it feels like a pipe
dream or wishes for the
distant future. So then…?</span></span></div>
<div style="margin:10px 0;
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<span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family:georgia, times, times new roman, serif;">Well,
let’s talk about “The
Message”. According to
wikipedia, “The <strong>Message</strong>:
The <strong>Bible</strong>
in Contemporary Language
is a highly idiomatic
translation of the <strong>Bible</strong>
by Eugene H. Peterson and
published in segments from
1993 to 2002. ... The <strong>Message</strong>
is a personal paraphrase
of the <strong>Bible</strong>
in English by Peterson
from the original
languages.”</span></span></div>
<div style="margin:10px 0;
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line-height:150%;text-align:left;"><font face="georgia, times, times
new roman, serif"><span style="font-size:14px;">Why
is this important? Because
Peterson was a lover of
scripture and yet all
interpretations have
biases. However, The
Message is not an
interpretation of the
text, it is a paraphrase.
I’ll let you research the
difference here as it is
quite significant. The
bottom line is that it’s
most helpful to read
Peterson’s paraphrase as
one would a diary rather
than a textbook or literal
code book (see your states
driver manual). An
interpretation is relevant
for a specific time,
place, and location, as
was the original text.
When I’m studying
scriptures a helpful
exercise (for me) is to
compare translations side
by side. A few of my
favorites are ASV, NASB,
and TNIV. Although I have
the luxury of having
learned Biblical Greek and
Hebrew and often refer to
the original text (my
preference), most people
don’t have 3-4 years to
learn these and their
nuances, so we rely on a
translation. A snapshot
for a specific time.</span></font></div>
<div style="margin:10px 0;
padding:0;
color:#202020;
font-family:Helvetica;
font-size:16px;
line-height:150%;text-align:left;"><span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family:georgia, times, times new roman, serif;">With all
that, how do we interpret
this text in a helpful
way? Particularly since
most of us don’t live with
rulers or use this
language? Well, did a
ruler always get his or
her way? No. Well, what
was the point here? When
we try to apply this
literally we can run into
speed bumps. However, in
metaphor this becomes a
bit simpler to understand
and apply. In my opinion,
one point of this text is
that the author is trying
to demonstrate how far
reaching the Christs’
power was. Why? Because
the author lived in a time
when power demonstrated
strength and authority, as
well as legitimacy of a
ruler. It’s what made you
believable as a leader.
Sometimes through sheer
brute force or the ability
to dominate a vast number
of people.</span></span></div>
<div style="margin:10px 0;
padding:0;
color:#202020;
font-family:Helvetica;
font-size:16px;
line-height:150%;text-align:left;"><span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family:georgia, times, times new roman, serif;">Yet if we
look to Jesus’ life, that
doesn’t seem to fit a
literal interpretation.
So, how does he rule? With
kindness and compassion.
Fierceness, yes, but also
Jesus leads within
community. In other words,
he can (and does) change
his mind (see the story of
the woman in Matt 15 and
Mark 7). Jesus also
includes people that the
dominant power try to
leave out, namely women
and other people beyond
Judaism. The ‘energy’
(vv20-23) is defined just
a few sentences earlier as
the energy we receive by
communion and friendship
with Christ. While it
seems that the writer is
asking us to believe the
legitimacy of Christ to
rule Everything, it’s
clear from the context
that where Christ is most
influential (and most
impactful to Everything)
is actually through the
Church (people not place).
In other words, Christ is
powerful enough to have
control over Everything,
yet he is most interested
in you. In giving you
strength, and in mutual
relationship that creates
freedom not oppression.
Where communities and
individuals are living
like this, and setting
each other free, that is
where Christ is alive and
well.</span></span></div>
<div style="margin:10px 0;
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font-family:Helvetica;
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line-height:150%;text-align:left;"><span style="font-family:georgia, times, times new roman, serif;"><span style="font-size:14px;">~
Rev. Jessica Shine<br>
<br>
Read and share online <a style="
color:#007C89;
font-weight:normal;
text-decoration:underline;" href="https://ProgressiveChristianity.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b51b9cf441b059bb232418480&id=682ad43b63&e=edb736c2ad" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">here</a><br>
<br>
<strong>About the Author</strong></span></span><br>
<span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family:georgia, times, times new roman, serif;">Reverend
Jessica Shine earned
degrees in theology and
divinity, but still hasn’t
figured out how to walk on
water. Despite this, she
was ordained to ministry
by the Seventh-day
Adventist church and
continues offering
spiritual care as a clergy
member of The CHI
Interfaith Community
(based in Berkeley, CA).
With two decades of
experience serving church
communities, police
officers, hospital staff,
and teenagers, Shine has a
passion for people and a
skill for communicating in
transformative ways. Her
spirituality began in
childhood, was influenced
by Jimmy Swaggart and
Mother Theresa, and
continues in the Pacific
Northwest where she
resides on Kalapuya land.</span></span></div>
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line-height:125%;letter-spacing:normal;"><span style="font-size:22px;"><span style="font-family:georgia, times, times new roman, serif;">Bishop
John Shelby Spong
Revisited</span></span></h1>
<h3 style="
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<span style="font-size:18px;"><span style="font-family:georgia, times, times new roman, serif;">The
Origins of the Bible, Part
VI:<br>
The Third Document in the
Torah</span></span></h3>
<br>
<span style="font-family:georgia, times, times new roman, serif;"><span style="font-size:14px;">Essay
by Bishop John Shelby Spong<br>
May 14, 2008</span></span>
<div style="margin:10px 0;
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color:#202020;
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line-height:150%;text-align:left;"><span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family:georgia, times, times new roman, serif;"><img width="125" height="132" align="left" style="
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text-decoration:none;
" src="https://gallery.mailchimp.com/b51b9cf441b059bb232418480/images/84fbd945-363f-48e0-97f1-129010755fed.jpg">The
name of the Torah’s fifth
and final book according
to the Bible is
Deuteronomy. That name
comes to us from the
combination of two Greek
words: “deutero,” which
means second, and “nomas,”
which means law.
Deuteronomy thus means the
second giving of the law
and in that title the
story of the book’s origin
is revealed.<br>
<br>
First, a quick review of
what I have covered in
this series thus far. We
began by identifying the
oldest strand of narrative
material that is found in
the Bible, namely that
part of the Torah that is
called the “Yahwist”
version, written in the
middle years of the 10th
century. This narrative
represented the history of
the dominant tradition of
the Jews, located in the
Southern Kingdom of Judah.
It extolled the centers of
power in that part of the
Jewish world: the Royal
House of David that ruled
by divine right; the
capital city of Jerusalem,
which was believed to be
the place where heaven and
earth came together; the
Temple, the very dwelling
place of God; and the High
Priest, believed to be the
authoritative voice of God
on earth.<br>
<br>
This was the only sacred
history the Jews had until
a civil war, following the
death of King Solomon,
succeeded in separating
the ten Northern tribes of
the Hebrew people from the
Kingdom of Judah and its
satellite, the little
tribe of Benjamin. This
successful revolution
removed the Israelites in
the North from each of
those centers of Southern
Jewish power, the House of
David, the city of
Jerusalem and the Temple
and its priests. The Jews
of the North could thus
hardly continue to use the
Yahwist document as their
sacred story, since that
text judged them with its
own words as rebels
against God, God’s Temple,
God’s city and those
thought to be both chosen
and anointed by God. In
time this new country,
born in revolution,
established its own
monarchy, but on a very
different and more
democratic basis. The king
was now chosen by the
people and thus was
subject to removal by the
people. A new capital city
of Samaria was built and
the ancient shrines in
Hebron, Beersheba and
Bethel were set up to be
worship places to rival
the Temple in Jerusalem.
In time these tribes even
felt compelled to write
their version of their
sacred history and so a
court historian was chosen
to do this task. This
narrative would focus not
on King David, but on the
one they portrayed as
Jacob’s favorite son, who
was the child of his
favorite wife, Rachel. His
name was Joseph and he was
regarded as the patriarch
and founder of the
Northern Kingdom. Because
this new history referred
to God as Elohim it became
known as the Elohist or
“E” version of the Jewish
sacred story.<br>
<br>
These two rival kingdoms
lived together side by
side, although not always
in peace, until the
Northern Kingdom was
defeated in warfare by the
Assyrians in 721 BCE. The
people of the Northern
Kingdom were then removed
by their conquerors to
other lands and
disappeared into the DNA
of the Middle East. After
this disaster, an unknown
person brought a copy of
the Elohist document to
Jerusalem and in time the
two sacred stories were
merged into one document
with the Yahwist tradition
clearly dominant over the
Elohist story. This merged
version was then the
sacred scriptures of the
Jewish people for about a
century.<br>
<br>
In 621 BCE in the Southern
Kingdom, encouraged and
shaped by a group of
prophets, among whom
Jeremiah was surely one,
there was a growing fervor
for religious reform.
These prophets focused
their hopes on a young
king named Josiah, who had
succeeded to the throne at
the age of eight when his
father, King Amon, was
murdered by his own
servants. Josiah was a
king who, in the eyes of
the prophets, “did what
was right in the sight of
the Lord and walked in the
way of his father David;
he did not turn aside to
the right or the left (II
Kings 22:1-2).”<br>
<br>
Perhaps that was because
King Josiah was attentive
to and a supporter of the
worship of the Temple.
When the king reached the
age of 26, he ordered
major renovations to be
done on the Temple that
presumably had fallen into
some disrepair and neglect
under the reigns of
previous kings in the line
of David, who had allowed
many pagan practices in
the Temple. This
restoration of the Temple
was hugely popular with
the religious authorities
and the prophets. During
this restoration, however,
a mysterious event
occurred that was destined
to shape the worship life
of the entire country.
First, the Book of Kings
tells us that these
renovations were to be
done with the money
collected from the people
over the years and
presumably not spent by
previous kings. Second, it
was ordered that no
accounting of their
expenditures would be
required for “they deal
honestly (II Kings 22:7).”
Next came an “electrifying
discovery.” In the
renovation, perhaps hidden
behind some of the plaster
that was being torn away,
the workers found a book
that purported to be “a
book of the law.” The book
even claimed to have been
written by Moses, who by
this time had been dead
for some 600 years. The
book, discovered by
Hilkiah the High Priest,
was sent to the king by a
man named Shaphan, who was
described as “the
secretary in the house of
the Lord,” and it was read
to the king in its
entirety.<br>
<br>
When King Josiah heard
these words, we are told
that he tore his clothes
in an act of public
penitence because it was
obvious that the “Word of
the Lord” found in this
book had not been obeyed
by their ancestors. Next,
a female prophetess named
Huldah was produced and
she declared, in her most
solemn voice I’m sure,
that unless the commands
of this book were obeyed,
God would bring “disaster
on this place and its
inhabitants.” Huldah went
on to say that because the
good King Josiah had
responded with penitence
and had “humbled himself
before the Lord,” by
tearing his clothes and
weeping publicly, that so
long as he was king these
terrible punishments would
not occur. This message
was then delivered to the
king.<br>
<br>
Josiah, empowered by the
word of God that in this
newly discovered book
claimed to be the words of
the prophet Moses and said
by the prophetess Huldah
to have the ability of
holding back the wrath of
God as long as he was
alive, clearly now had the
authority to proceed. The
words of this new book
were then read to the
whole people and a new
covenant, reflecting its
values, was adopted and it
was established that this
book would henceforth
govern their common life.
A great reformation of the
worship practices of the
Temple and Judah was then
carried out. The reformers
removed from the Temple
all the vessels made for
deities other than Yahweh.
All idolatrous priests
were deposed. All houses
of male temple
prostitutes, associated
with the fertility rites
of the deity known as
Baal, were closed and torn
down.<br>
<br>
Religious shrines
suspected of encouraging
pagan worship were
destroyed. All mediums,
soothsayers and fortune
tellers were put out of
business. Josiah even went
into what had once been
the Northern Kingdom and
destroyed the rival
shrines in Samaria and
Bethel. This reform also
required that the Passover
be celebrated only in
Jerusalem, where its
liturgical purity could be
guaranteed. The prophets
of Yahweh said of King
Josiah that there had been
“no king like him, who
turned to the Lord with
all his heart, with all
his soul and with all his
might, according to the
Law of Moses; nor did
anyone like him arise
after him (II Kings
23:25).”<br>
<br>
One purpose of worship is
always the human attempt
to please the deity and
thus to win divine
blessing and protection.
That was certainly the
hope of those who
engineered this
enthusiastic reformation.
They were also the ones
who, in all probability,
wrote, planted and
“discovered” this new book
of Moses. They then
engineered the political
campaign that led to its
adoption. We do not know
the names of the people
who constituted this group
of reformers although the
prophet Jeremiah clearly
seems to have been one of
them. They are simply
called the “Deuteronomic
Writers.” By the power of
their leadership in this
reformation, however, they
took the Jewish sacred
story previously known as
the “Yahwist Elohist”
version of the scriptures
and incorporated into it
the Book of Deuteronomy,
“the second giving of the
law.” Then they set about
to edit the entire sacred
story into a consistent
narrative until it became
identified as the
Yahwist-Elohist-Deuteronomic
version of the scriptures.
The third strand of
material that would some
day be called the Torah
was now in place.<br>
<br>
The great hoped for
protection of God that
they believed would come
to them if they only
worshiped God properly,
however, did not
materialize. The distress
and hard times that had
fallen on the land of
Judah not only continued,
but seemed to intensify.
The Book of Kings
(specifically II Kings
23:26) recorded the fact
that despite these
wide-ranging reforms:
“Still the Lord did not
turn from the fierceness
of his great wrath, which
his anger had kindled
against Judah.” The Lord
was heard to warn that
just as Israel (the
Northern Kingdom) had been
removed from the face of
the earth, so Judah (the
Southern Kingdom) would
also be removed, but not
so long as Josiah lived.<br>
<br>
A few short years later,
Josiah was killed on the
battlefield of Megiddo by
Pharaoh Necho of Egypt,
who was fighting against
Josiah’s ally, the
Assyrians. His death was
so devastating to the Jews
that Megiddo came to be
thought of as the site
where the ultimate battle
that would precede the end
of the world would occur.
Armageddon is nothing but
the modern spelling of
Megiddo. The deluge that
had been promised by the
prophets to come only
after the death of King
Josiah now began to fall
on the Jewish nation. It
came in the form of
defeat, devastation and an
exile into Babylon from
their land that was
destined to last some
three generations. It was
in that desperate period
of Jewish history that the
final strand of material
that was to constitute the
Torah was written. Again,
the earlier strands were
edited in the light of
this new material
reflecting Judah’s new
circumstances. We will
turn to that story when
this series continues.</span></span></div>
<div style="margin:10px 0;
padding:0;
color:#202020;
font-family:Helvetica;
font-size:16px;
line-height:150%;text-align:left;"><span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family:georgia, times, times new roman, serif;">~ John
Shelby Spong</span></span></div>
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text-decoration:underline;" href="https://ProgressiveChristianity.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b51b9cf441b059bb232418480&id=714dd0ced2&e=edb736c2ad" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><img width="250" height="250" align="left" style="border:0px;
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letter-spacing:normal;text-align:left;"><span style="font-size:18px;">Beloved
Festival presents: Peia’s
latest tour Oíche Na nAmhrán
– The Night Of Song</span></h2>
<br>
<span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family:georgia, times, times new roman, serif;">A deep dive
into cultural transmissions
from the ancestral heart of
indigenous Europe, Peia
pulls a thread from the
ancient Irish and Scottish
tapestry of music.<br>
<br>
Peia Luzzi is an American
born song collector, writer
and multi-instrumentalist
based in the mountains of
Southern Oregon. Like water
from a deep well, she draws
inspiration from her
ancestral roots of Celtic
and Old World European folk
music. With the voice of a
lark, Peia dances nimbly
from Child Ballads and 17th
C. Gaelic laments, to
Waulking Songs, and
Bulgarian mountain calls. <br>
<br>
<strong>Location:</strong>
Eliot Center, Portland,
Oregon<br>
<strong>Tickets </strong>(All
Ages) are $23.50 in advance,
$30 at the door </span></span><strong style="font-family:georgia, times, times new roman, serif;font-size:14px;text-align:center;"><a style="
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text-decoration:underline;" href="https://ProgressiveChristianity.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b51b9cf441b059bb232418480&id=dc05f035cc&e=edb736c2ad" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">READ ON ...</a></strong>
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