In the biblical discussion of the year of Jubilee, we come across this parenthetical reminder: You shall not cheat one another, but you shall fear your God; for I am the Lord your God. The Jubilee system spelled out in Leviticus creates a framework for sufficiency and justice, but that system also depends on a base level of common decency. The Jubilee laws were vulnerable to exploitation by jerks who wanted to game the system, and that quote above is... Read more

“Iraqi woman dies after San Diego attack“ An Iraqi woman who was found severely beaten at her San Diego home next to a note saying “go back to your country” has died. Shaima Alawadi, 32, a mother of five, was found unconscious by her 17-year-old daughter on Wednesday, police said. The daughter, Fatima al-Himidi, told local TV that her mother had been beaten on the head repeatedly and that the note said: “Go back to your country, you terrorist.” Hanif... Read more

“I hope that Mr. Cheney’s new heart lasts long enough for him to be prosecuted for war crimes.” “It proves that we are nation-builders and liberators, not conquerors.” “Woman is more guilty than man, because she was seduced by Satan, and so diverted her husband from obedience to God that she was an instrument of death leading to all perdition.” “A week later, she was back on her ladder.” “A study co-ordinated by Cancer Research UK and published in the... Read more

“Now I’ve written the whole thing: for Christ’s sake give me a drink.” “I can use the word ‘vagina’ when the context involves rape, but I cannot use the word ‘vagina’ when the context involves a certain degree of ownership and power over my own body.” “I dream of the church being a place that destroys cages instead of constructing them.” “‘The men of the right’ have found, in every generation, a substantial number of Christian women who considered the... Read more

“It’s a thin line ‘tween heaven and here.” — Bubbles The Wire, David Simon’s gritty, haunting, novelistic series about Baltimore, ran for five seasons on HBO. The first season set the stage by showing us the pain and violence of the city’s drug industry and how the police department, as an institution, was incapable of addressing the problem in any meaningful or effective way. Each subsequent season explored the same theme of institutional dysfunction, culpability and surrender, focusing on, in... Read more

President Barack Obama was asked about the slaying of Trayvon Martin today during an unrelated press conference. Obama chose his words carefully due to the ongoing Justice Department investigation, but he concluded by saying this: My main message is to the parents of Trayvon Martin. If I had a son, he’d look like Trayvon. And I think they are right to expect that all of us as Americans are going to take this with the seriousness it deserves, and that... Read more

Things change. I change. You change. Seasons change. Fortune changes. And theology changes. Some changes are for the better. Some changes are for the worse. Many changes don’t fit neatly into classifications of “better” or “worse.” But for better or worse or neither, change is a constant. In two recent posts here on the subject of American evangelicals and abortion, I have noted that the current stance of zealous condemnation of abortion reflects a big change. (See: “The ‘biblical view’... Read more