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{"id":8913,"date":"2024-09-25T08:16:00","date_gmt":"2024-09-25T12:16:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/socialjesus\/?p=8913"},"modified":"2024-09-26T08:12:56","modified_gmt":"2024-09-26T12:12:56","slug":"inclusivity-taking-care-vulnerable-part2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/socialjesus\/2024\/09\/inclusivity-taking-care-vulnerable-part2\/","title":{"rendered":"Inclusivity and Taking Care of the Vulnerable, Part 2"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

$\"\"$ <\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

As we continue our consideration of inclusivity and taking care of the vulnerable, the next thing in our reading is Jesus\u2019 words about how we treat \u201cthese little ones.\u201d A central theme of Jesus\u2019 synoptic teachings and the tradition of the Hebrew prophets is what Liberation Theologians call a preferential option for the most vulnerable. The \u201clittle ones\u201d in Jesus\u2019 community were the most vulnerable among them. Just as simple as making sure those who are thirsty have water, this principle is about how we relate to those most vulnerable to injustice, oppression, and abuse in our communities. Are we creating a society that safeguards the most vulnerable?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Welcome Readers! <\/i><\/b>Please subscribe to Social Jesus Here<\/i><\/b><\/a>.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

(Read this series from its beginning <\/b>here<\/b><\/a>.)<\/b><\/p>\n

This dialogue about the little ones includes a reference to Gehenna. Some translations use the word \u201chell.\u201d This is a signifiant issue for me. Some Christians have taken these statements and created a post mortem realm of eternally burning torment and torture with no foundation in the teachings of the Jewish Jesus. In the final section of my book Finding Jesus: A Fundamentalist Preacher Discovers the Socio-Political & Economic Teachings of the Gospels<\/i><\/a>,<\/i> I share how \u201cGehenna\u201d evolved in the Hebrew scriptures.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In the Hebrew prophetic justice tradition, Gehenna became a reference to\u00a0 <\/span>destruction and subjugation by Gentile empires in this life<\/i>, not life after death. And this destruction came because they failed to take care of the vulnerable in their communities and they violated and exploited them.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Here are just a few examples from the Hebrew prophets, warnings not of post mortem events, but of events that would transpire for the nation in this life if they did not correct their course:<\/p>\n

\u201cEdom\u2019s streams will be turned into pitch,\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

her dust into burning sulfur;\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

her land will become blazing pitch!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It will not be quenched night or day;\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

its smoke will rise forever.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

From generation to generation it will lie desolate;\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

no one will ever pass through it again.\u201c (Isaiah 34:9-10)<\/p>\n