Following Jesus in rejecting empire
Why should I repent of sins committed against Native Americans more than 100 years ago? I wasn’t there. I’ve never stolen anyone’s land. Many of us who grew up in western culture see ourselves as an individual thread rather than as part of a communal fabric. We fail to recognize that we are woven together…
I suspect Jesus was a Pharisee. Not in the figurative way we use the word, as in telling someone who says one thing and does the opposite “you’re such a Pharisee.” But I think Jesus literally belonged to the first century Jewish sect of the Pharisees. Think about it. The synagogue was a structure that…
(Image: George Leile. First American Missionary. Pencil drawing by Janine Bessenecker.) The Corporate-Capitalist Non-Profit Expanded and adapted from Overturning Tables by Scott A. Bessenecker. Copyright (c) 2014 by Scott A. Bessenecker. Used by permission of InterVarsity Press, Downers Grove, IL. www.ivpress.com The Western Hemisphere in the late eighteenth century was convulsing. A slave revolt in Haiti plunged that…
Adapted from Overturning Tables by Scott A. Bessenecker. Copyright (c) 2014 by Scott A. Bessenecker. Used by permission of InterVarsity Press, Downers Grove, IL. www.ivpress.com From Prophets to Profits Where did we get the conviction that if we just had more money we could begin a new poverty alleviation program or expand our church or nonprofit? As Protestantism…
We interrupt this blog series to bring you an important message. Political Idolatry When I wrote Overturning Tables in 2013-14, I did not recognize the political idolatry which was brewing in America and has now come to a flashpoint. I wrote the book thinking of Christians who spoke about Jesus as if he was simply…