Heard this on NPR's show All Things Considered and wanted to share.
A black maid executed in Georgia in 1945 is being granted a pardon by the state for killing a white man she said enslaved her. Lena Baker said she acted in self-defense, but a jury of white men convicted her after a one-day trial. Baker is the only woman to have been executed in the state's electric chair. On Aug. 30, Georgia authorities will present a proclamation to her descendants, including her grandnephew Roosevelt Curry, who led the drive to clear her name.
I would recommend going to NPR.org and searching the story to listen to it in its entirety - worth it. It is heartbreaking. And yet I cannot help but think that America's not-to-distant past is filled with Lena Baker's and faces and stories that demand justice.
In a world filled with postmodern thought - this one thing has redeemed our age: The stories of the oppressed and of the poor and helpless are being and will be heard. They will be valued as other history has been valued and we will question until we get answers.
While the church is still wrestling with what to do with this seemingly liberal thought process, the intelligentsia of our cities are grasping the freedom and telling that which could not be told before. And I believe they are making room for the gospel in a world that thinks it has already heard the gospel. We don't need to repackage and dress-up the Truth. We need only the faith to speak it anew and claim the promises of God for ourselves.
A dead woman needs no pardon, but her story needs telling. My shirt is green and Jesus rose from the dead, rather you believe or not.
"God don't make us jump though hoops, he ain't countin' every oops. He loves us, relax"
28 August 2005
25 August 2005
Women
This is mainly for Adam - but others can read on.
Maurie and I listened to the sermon on our way home for Louisville and I feel like I need to listen again. It is clear that he has done good research and his points were powerful - to say the least. His use of Leviticus 19 was near inspired and he questioning was faithful to scripture. As you can see, I enjoyed it - but I am not sure he addressed fully the issues raised by Paul in Timothy.
Example - Why does Paul reference the Fall when making his case?
With this specifically in mind, Cope reads from Genesis contradicting Paul and saying that that is a fallen view of women; never addressing the plain fact that God made it so. However, I am not sure about the effectiveness of that argument. To me, I was still wanting more about how he reaches his conclusions. I thought his use of Paul's "become all things" may have been bit out of place - but perhaps I was just uncomfortable with it.
So, I will listen again and perhaps launch my own study of this age-old question.
Keep thinking.
Maurie and I listened to the sermon on our way home for Louisville and I feel like I need to listen again. It is clear that he has done good research and his points were powerful - to say the least. His use of Leviticus 19 was near inspired and he questioning was faithful to scripture. As you can see, I enjoyed it - but I am not sure he addressed fully the issues raised by Paul in Timothy.
Example - Why does Paul reference the Fall when making his case?
With this specifically in mind, Cope reads from Genesis contradicting Paul and saying that that is a fallen view of women; never addressing the plain fact that God made it so. However, I am not sure about the effectiveness of that argument. To me, I was still wanting more about how he reaches his conclusions. I thought his use of Paul's "become all things" may have been bit out of place - but perhaps I was just uncomfortable with it.
So, I will listen again and perhaps launch my own study of this age-old question.
Keep thinking.
13 August 2005
Missing Tragedy
In my work - that of professional firefighting - the thing that brings us work brings tragedy to those we seek to serve. And though it is not my fault that homes burn and people die, I am often there with my colleagues to witness such events. What's worse, when I miss a tragedy - like the two-alarm fire I missed on my Kelly Day - I get upset and talk about how great it could have been.
Yesterday I watched a woman die in her living room. She called us for help because she felt like she could not catch her breath. We arrived in minutes, fresh from an afternoon nap, and were there to provide the assistance we have been trained with. But thirty seconds after we walked in the door with a tackle box of drugs, the heart monitor and an airway kit, she was gone.
She told us her name and talked briefly about when her trouble started. Then, as I tried to get a blood pressure, she looked up and died. We rushed her to the rescue unit and did all we could - not enough in this case.
It has been almost three months since I arrived on the companies of our nation's first professional fire department and I am still so confused about the job. We celebrate fire - the loss of someone's home and possessions. Then, when we see death, we go back to the house and finish our movie or resume our nap.
I work the best and the strangest job in the world.
Yesterday I watched a woman die in her living room. She called us for help because she felt like she could not catch her breath. We arrived in minutes, fresh from an afternoon nap, and were there to provide the assistance we have been trained with. But thirty seconds after we walked in the door with a tackle box of drugs, the heart monitor and an airway kit, she was gone.
She told us her name and talked briefly about when her trouble started. Then, as I tried to get a blood pressure, she looked up and died. We rushed her to the rescue unit and did all we could - not enough in this case.
It has been almost three months since I arrived on the companies of our nation's first professional fire department and I am still so confused about the job. We celebrate fire - the loss of someone's home and possessions. Then, when we see death, we go back to the house and finish our movie or resume our nap.
I work the best and the strangest job in the world.
11 August 2005
Unfinished
It seems that several people I know have had reason to celebrate recently and, though I will not go into all the situations, I do want to mention one man in the crowd.
Chuck Jones is a guy I used to know. We worshipped at the same small church in Nashville and went to the same university for three semesters. He is a singer, songwriter from Texas and has never given up the dream. Chuck would play coffee shops on Vanderbilt's campus and Shamblen Theatre on occasion. He writes about the raw side of life sometimes and other times you can't quit laughing at the words and tone.
I am not good at finishing things - this I come to realize the hard way. But Chuck has made it - at least by some standard. When all the guys from the Aggregate left him for families and jobs, Chuck hung in there. So, download iTunes from Apple and sample his stuff. Search Southpaw Jones and I think you'll like what you hear.
Finish something today - for me.
Chuck Jones is a guy I used to know. We worshipped at the same small church in Nashville and went to the same university for three semesters. He is a singer, songwriter from Texas and has never given up the dream. Chuck would play coffee shops on Vanderbilt's campus and Shamblen Theatre on occasion. He writes about the raw side of life sometimes and other times you can't quit laughing at the words and tone.
I am not good at finishing things - this I come to realize the hard way. But Chuck has made it - at least by some standard. When all the guys from the Aggregate left him for families and jobs, Chuck hung in there. So, download iTunes from Apple and sample his stuff. Search Southpaw Jones and I think you'll like what you hear.
Finish something today - for me.
09 August 2005
Quakers
The doctrine of non-resistance to evil by force has been professed by a minority of men from the very foundation of Christianity.
-Tolstoy
Some observations that I have made as a man living in Cincinnati, Ohio. If you want to save the life of an unborn child you are a conservative stepping on the rights of others. However, if you want to kill all your enemies and believe that the only problem with dropping the Atomic Bomb on Japan was that we didn't have ten to drop - you are that same conservative. I admit, perhaps too radical an example - but I think you could see the truth in it.
The call of Jesus is to surrender and, in my estimation, abandon formal and communal politics as they are being offered to us today. There are simply no Christian choices and I am not sure we have a system that would allow for them. We must return to the power of the Spirit working in our churches and serve like never before. We must become creative in our resistance to the thought that the above example makes any sort of sense when set up next to the Christian worldview.
I will begin by visiting a Quaker meeting - I am not even sure you can do that. However, the Quakers are known for the stuff that I think the Gospel would have us be known for. Reports to come.
-Tolstoy
Some observations that I have made as a man living in Cincinnati, Ohio. If you want to save the life of an unborn child you are a conservative stepping on the rights of others. However, if you want to kill all your enemies and believe that the only problem with dropping the Atomic Bomb on Japan was that we didn't have ten to drop - you are that same conservative. I admit, perhaps too radical an example - but I think you could see the truth in it.
The call of Jesus is to surrender and, in my estimation, abandon formal and communal politics as they are being offered to us today. There are simply no Christian choices and I am not sure we have a system that would allow for them. We must return to the power of the Spirit working in our churches and serve like never before. We must become creative in our resistance to the thought that the above example makes any sort of sense when set up next to the Christian worldview.
I will begin by visiting a Quaker meeting - I am not even sure you can do that. However, the Quakers are known for the stuff that I think the Gospel would have us be known for. Reports to come.
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