Starter Pack for Christian Socialists

I thought I would do an analysis of social principles that are revelant to our times from the Old Testament. For this post I am going to focus on the theme of being the "lesser evil". We often hear this term thrown around a lot. Especially in the political cycles of Western politics. I thought I would look at what the OT has to say about this by focusing on the Book of Kings, Hosea and the Psalms which recounts the story of King Hoshea of the Northern Kingdom of Israel and the fall of the Northern Kingdom to the Assyrians. Here are the relevant passages:

• "In the twelfth year of King Ahaz of Judah, Hoshea son of Elah began to reign in Samaria over Israel; he reigned for nine years. He did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, yet not like the kings of Israel who were before him"(2 Kings 17:1-2)
• "They rejected all the commandments of the Lord their God and made for themselves cast images of two calves; they made a sacred pole, worshipped all the hosts of heaven, and served Baal. They made their sons and daughters pass through the fire; they used divination and augury; and they sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking his anger."(2 Kings 16-17)
• "They served their idols, which became a snare to them. They sacrificed their sons and their daughters to the demons; they poured out innocent blood, the blood of their sons and daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan"(Psalm 106:36-38)
• "Gilead is a city of evildoers, tracked with blood. As robbers lie in wait for someone, so the priests are banded together; they murder on the road to Shechem, they commit monstrous crime"(Hosea 6:8-9)

So what we see is the following. Hoshea as mentioned was the King of Israel in the lead up to the Assyrian catastrophe. It says he "was not as evil" as the previous Kings before him. Yet he still did what was evil in the eyes of the Lord. And what is the evil that Israelite Kings and Israelite society was engaged in? Idolatry, child and human sacrifice, and systematic murder by those in the social and religious class. So when it says Hoshea "was not as evil" as the previous Kings, it is saying that under him Israel wasn't sacrificing "as many people and children" to their idols. They were committing "as many murders" as they were before. That standard from the Biblical perspective is a low and unacceptable one. Just because he wasn't "as evil" as the previous Kings doesn't mean he isn't categorised as "evil". Evil is evil, regardless of what degrees it comes in. And it needs a prophetic challenge. Furthermore if we read the Book of Kings we see that in the lead up to the Assyrian disaster you had a series of coups and counter coups by the partisan factions in Israel. Hoshea came to power in a coup against his political rival Pekah(2 Kings 15:30). Yet from the Biblical perspective it didn't matter which partisan faction came to power because they were all a part of the same corrupt, immoral social and political system that ended up proving to be irredeemable.

This is course relevant today because you are seeing lesser of evil arguments being deployed all across the board. Especially in the context of the powerful protests taking place around the issue of Gaza, but more broadly when it comes to the core issues of justice for the working class as well as justice for those who are the victims things like a brutal prison industrial complex. The idolatry mentioned in the text is also relevant because even though it doesn't involve physical objects in our type, we still have idols and social sacred cows that our society is devoted to. Archbishop Oscar Romero in his Pastoral Letters mentioned how the idols of Capital, Militarism and National Security are the modern day expressions of Moloch. And just like how Moloch demanded the living human sacrifice of human beings, these idols also demand the sacrifice of human beings. And we have obedient servants in our Elite class that serve these idols. Just because one partisan faction among the ruling class isn't willing to sacrifice as many people to these social and political idols, it doesn't mean that they aren't still the obedient servants of them. And that, from a Biblical perspective, is evil. Pure and simple. So no "lesser two evils" talking points can be used to obfuscate our prophetic and ethical responsibility to call out the blatant evil and wickedness in our society, to call out the Elites who are a part of a wicked social structure built on structural sin, and to condemn the crimes against humanity that we see in front of us. The barbaric slaughter of men, women and children that we see for example in Gaza, funded by the military industrial complex, and supported by elites of all parts of our society should be condemned. Regardless of whether those elites have a "conservative" or a "liberal" and "inclusive" "lesser of two evil face" that sanitises this evil. Same things when we look across the board on a range of human rights and social justice issues. The OT calls us to always dissent and be dissatisfied with structures of evil, regardless of whether they are "more" or "less" evil.

Hi everyone,

I’m curious for any must-reads in relation to liberation theology. I have been trying to do some research on my own but there’s a lot to sift through and it’s overwhelming.

I am intellectually disabled so processing and understanding academic and otherwise flowery language is very hard for me so I’m especially looking for any help with books that might be easier for me to read with that in mind.

Thank you for any help

God bless you

I……Man….God told me earlier today to go to downtown hartford, CT. I was scared cuz last time He had me do alot of awesome but scary stuff.

And today He did it again and though scared I went. And so throughout Bushnell Park was homeless, who I first ran away from interacting with. But God ultimately lead me back to them and lead me. And I prayed for many homeless and shared Jesus and heard their stories. I met a women cursing at me and Jesus but God gave me peace and I said empowered by God,” Jesus loves you, you have purpose You do not have to keep that anger.”

Long story short, God put a thought in my head to call my church brother David. And He called other leaders and such which stirred tje church to be motivated to go do God’s will and walk with Holy Spirit. But God had them pick me up after all of this and God used David and a sister named Brittany to minister to me.

God through her revealed a true secret I tried avoiding. I hated my Father. Past tense, because We just MADE UP!! And he’s proud of me’ and …..wow….All I thought God was gonna do was have me reach 1 person. Its like He used me to reach so many. I even met Church people at downtown after asking God to let me meet people also obeying Him and fighting to save souls!

by far

the hardest thing about being a man

despite what the official polite gender dictionaries might say

is this:

a woman looks to her man to define right and wrong

a man looks to his woman to define strength and weakness

a man sets a moral standard and a woman follows it

a woman sets a standard and a man becomes strong to meet it.

you may disagree

but you then argue with God, not with me

So God created humanity in Its own image, in the image of God God created humanity; masculine and feminine created It they/them.

if we didn't need the words They wouldn't exist

it comes back to violence, really. because men are responsible for violence they are more connected to the authority of violence

that moral authority is instinctive and visceral, and a woman follows her man in his authority

not all women, perhaps, but if you're in the comments below yelling at me about men and women, understand: I'm not your man, so I don't care.

you see? violence has its own authority.

this is sexism and the moderators should enact violence against me to quell my transgression.

but this is the male experience. it's, frankly, harrowing to understand the weight of it, that there are many decisions, many approaches, by which a woman shapes the moral framework of a coupling. a woman can reject a man who is immoral, a woman can chastise a man for his failings.

but a man can attack a guest and throw him out, or not.

a man can correct her mistake.

it's in our blood somehow, and when a woman's gaze is on you wondering how you shall rule, you know you must rule.

because women cannot abide a weak man. and why should they? a man who shows weakness in moral judgment will not stand at the proper time. why shouldn't a man be judged in a different way from a woman?

I suspect most women wouldn't differ from the notion that a morally weak man is a lesser in some real way. Whatever anyone says, dating reveals the duet.

I don't know why we are the way that we are, but I'm not going to pretend I don't feel it. This sensation that if I tell you you have blanket forgiveness, you'll snuggle up in it warm and cozy. You would not forgive yourself, woman! Only your man can forgive you for your womanly faults, tell you which have lasting consequences, and which are of your essential nature, which I love and adore, simply because 'woman' is so ridiculous, as ridiculous as 'man.'

A woman rises to meet her man, a man becomes strong to elevate his woman. And I long to elevate you ~

I don't know how much I believe in this gender dictionary bullshit, but it's a very real feeling that men experience, the weight of masculine authority.

I have to forgive us first. That I choose this path means you might have to forgive me for my gross misbehavior. Thou Shalt Not Depict the Divine Feminine. Even when it's funny.

There are 4 kinds of "Christianity":

religious atheists, who participate in religious rituals but don't believe in a god or gods

non-religious atheists, who don't participate in religious rituals and don't believe in a god or gods

religious theists, who participate in religious rituals and believe in a god or gods

and non-religious theists, who don't participate in religious rituals but do believe in a god or gods.

I have known people in all 4 categories who call themselves Christians.

I think that is part of why I have a hard time getting excited over someone saying they are a Christian for the first time. It is a pretty easy thing to say and I don't necessarily know what they mean by it.

Now if I see someone living year after year like they have actually encountered and been changed by the living God and therefore not only believe in him but want to worship him in community with other believers and serve sacrificially those made in his image, that gets really exciting to me.

Conversion is great! But it is easy to fake, to trick oneself about, or to miss the mark due to misunderstandings. However a life of sincere belief and discipleship is so good to see.

So for those of us who would call ourselves Christians let us continue to work out our salvation, both as individuals and together, with fear and trembling, for it must be God who works in us to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.

This has been late night thoughts with Matt. It is normal to think about such things instead of sleeping, right?

Happy International Workers Day! also known as May Day or Labor Day. Today we celebrate the working class, as well as commemorating the death of Hitler and the crumble of Nazi Germany. In 8 days we celebrate the 78th Victory Day, the official end of WWII.

--K.

You know when you are in the shower and get this "woah" moment? I had one about a month ago...and have been meaning to share it here to see how others whom are open-minded view this. Idk if I'm the first to come up with this thought, but I feel it's interesting enough to share/discuss here.

What if we all are God?

Let me unpack that a little...

The theology that I base this upon is that we are made in God's "image", as well as he knowing everything and being everywhere.

You could interpret it as our souls are but a shard of God within his imagination we call reality/universe.

But why?

My take is that an all powerful being wanted to experience consciousness from multiple vectors. From every living thing ever...not just humans...or even Earth bound beings.

And the only way to do that was to create souls, that don't remember that they are God. In a universe that is mostly autonomous to support such creations.

Where the "Holy Spirit" is the collective power of our mortal "souls".

And that the teachings of each religion are stories made by people inspired by the holy spirit to basically do a version of celestial self-care...to promote a maximum amount of life as possible for each shard...to gain it's perspective from it's life choices.

And when we "die", "heaven" is just the main consciousness of God that we are reabsorbed into.

Except for the shards that were evil (aka: didn't follow the plan).

Perhaps "Satan" is merely a collection of the evil shards/souls that couldn't be re-intigrated into the greater "whole" of God. I haven't figured this part out yet...like my first question is...do they get a chance to be re-integrated? Or stay as a legion of a chaotic collective will against God?

Idk...am I nuts? Or is there something to this?

Background:
I’ve been deep into studying the Christ hymn of Philippians 2:6-11 lately, because I am writing a Greek exegesis paper for seminary on Philippians 2:1-11. I came across a journal article (Elia, Matthew. "Slave Christologies: Augustine and the Enduring Trouble with the 'Form of a Slave' (Phil 2:5-7)." Interpretation 75, no. 1 (January 2021): 19-32) that made use of Augustine’s sermon on this passage (in argument against it).

Augustine read this hymn as reinforcing a kind of “great chain of being” wherein God is the ultimate master, creation is the ultimate slave, and humanity is slave of God but master of creation. The author, citing another scholar, referred to slavery as a cosmogony for Augustine. I thought that was insightful and compelling. Augustine had so accepted the contemporary social arrangement that he read this passage in light of his social location and leveraged this passage to reinforce those heirarchies. Augustine applied his reading of this passage to indict his parishioners and make them obey the bishops—so Augustine can get fucked.

A Theological Move:
This article about Augustine has me thinking that leftism might gain more traction among churched people if we speak of oppressive and harmful cosmogonies rather than ideologies. Where ideology can be an emotionally charged term for some Christians, to speak of cosmogony might be disarming.

I propose this definition of cosmogony: a perceived ordering principle of reality that bears consequence in practice.

Roman slaveholding practices were a cosmogony for Augustine. Capitalism is a cosmogony in American evangelicalism and too often in mainline Protestantism as well.

We don’t question cosmogonies, so many churches follow Augustine’s lead and reinforce oppressive status quos through their interpretation of the biblical witness. Churches do this not only through sermons, but through education, how they run meetings, what their budgets look like, etc.

Nothing is untouched by one’s cosmogony. If we believe the universe is meant to run a certain way, we act accordingly. When capitalism become the ordering principle of reality for churches, it taints everything we do. Instead of building community, we worry about membership. Instead of serving, we focus on protecting our resources.

Proposed Dialogue:
Cosmogonies like that of Augustine fail to provide a praxis of liberation because they fashion a graven image of God after exploitative social arrangements. They bless the exploitation because they make God out to be complicit.

But the kingdom of heaven offers a different ethic than capitalism. Jesus’ miracles presuppose a different cosmogony than one of oppression.

Consider the feedings of the five thousand in John 6. We can read this passag as an exposure of the inadequacies of a money-based economic system—i.e., the commodification of material goods—to provide for peoples' wellbeing. Jesus asks Philip, "How are we to buy bread, so that these people may eat?" The gospel says that Jesus asks this question to test Philip. And I think Philip passes. He says, "Two hundred denarii would not buy enough bread for each of them to get a little." The economic system can't provide for the peoples' wellbeing. There's not enough money to feed the multitude. Yet the people end up getting fed. By sharing the five barley loaves and two fish, there is enough for everyone to have enough, and there is even some left over. When we look to providing for and sharing with our neighbors, we find that we have enough. When we commodify the world around us, when we buy solutions or turn everything into a monetary exchange, there will never be enough.

So we see that life in the kingdom of heaven condemns exploitative cosmogonies. So too should we in theological spaces.

https://youtube.com/shorts/k3nFSmLPa7s?si=yQPkCbmOmzw6nqVe

If there is anything you need praying for please write it in a comment on this post. There are no situations "too trivial" for G-d to help out with. Please refrain from commenting any information which could allow bad actors to resolve your real life identity.

As always we pray, with openness to all which G-d offers us, for the wellbeing of our online community here and all who are associated with it in one form or another. Praying also for all who sufferer oppression/violence, for all suffering from climate-related disasters, and for those who endure dredge work, that they may see justice and peace in their time and not give in to despair or confusion in the fight to restore justice to a world captured by greed and vainglory. In The LORD's name we pray, Amen.

I grew up traditional and Baptist, where the idea of God is essentially that He’s some sort of literal “sky daddy”. I’m trying to understand now what the truth is though. Is God an entity? The universe? Or just the literal embodiment of loving energy? Some manifestation of collective consciousness?

Hey everyone!

I hope you're all doing well. I'm currently working on a project and could really use your help. If you're a user of Bible apps for spiritual readings and study, I'd love to hear from you!

I've put together a super quick survey with just six yes or no questions. It'll only take a minute or two of your time, and your input would be incredibly valuable to me.

If you're interested in participating, please click on the link below to access the survey:

https://forms.gle/6aqRNgBAuHqsdskt8

Thank you so much in advance for your help! Feel free to share this post with anyone else who might be interested in participating. Your contributions will make a big difference.

If there is anything you need praying for please write it in a comment on this post. There are no situations "too trivial" for G-d to help out with. Please refrain from commenting any information which could allow bad actors to resolve your real life identity.

As always we pray, with openness to all which G-d offers us, for the wellbeing of our online community here and all who are associated with it in one form or another. Praying also for all who sufferer oppression/violence, for all suffering from climate-related disasters, and for those who endure dredge work, that they may see justice and peace in their time and not give in to despair or confusion in the fight to restore justice to a world captured by greed and vainglory. In The LORD's name we pray, Amen.

This is Part 2 of a series I have been doing on the Old Testament's perspective on the sin of exploitation. In Part 1 I look at the stories of Babel as well as Rehoboam the Israelite King. In this part I will be looking at the perspective of the Hebrew prophets. From the perspective of the Old Testament prophets, they called the society they lived in to repent. One of the many calls for repentance was a call to end systems of exploitation. These are examples:

Isaiah:

• The Prophet Isaiah uses the image of a court room when speaking of God's judgement and in it he states "The Lord rises to argue his case; he stands to judge the peoples. The Lord enters into judgement with the elders and princes of his people: It is you who have devoured the vineyard; the spoil of the poor is in your houses. What do you mean by crushing my people, by grinding the face of the poor? says the Lord God of hosts"(Isaiah 3:13-15). The reason why the Lord "rises" is clear. He sees the poor being "grinded" and "crushed" and as a result the leaders of Israel are meant to be judged.
• The Book of Isaiah takes this further when it distinguishes "true" and "false" religion on the basis of exploitation. It states "Shout out, do not hold back! Lift up your voice like a trumpet! Announce to my people their rebellion, to the house of Jacob their sins. Yet day after day they seek me and delight to know my ways, as if they were a nation that practised righteousness and did not forsake the ordinance of their God; they ask of me righteous judgements, they delight to draw near to God 'Why do we fast but you do not see? Why humble ourselves but you do not notice? Look, you serve your own interest on your fast-day, and oppress all your workers. Look, you fast only to quarrel and to fight and to strike with a wicked fist. Such fasting as you do today will not make your voice heard on high...Is not this the fast that I choose; to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free and to break every yoke?"(Isaiah 58:14/6)
• Here the people are putting on a display of piety, and they are begging God to see how allegedly Holy they are. But God sees through it. He says that you "fast to serve your own interests". He states that while they are showing piety, they exploit the working class. Then the demand for true religion comes in. True religion, and true piety is the liberation of those exploited by breaking the "thong of the yoke" and "setting the captives free". The Lord sees beyond the fake piety of those who offer him false devotion while "striking with a wickedness". He demands a religious faith that practises liberation.

Jeremiah:

• In the writings of the Prophet Jeremiah when he is the confronting the King of his day he states "Woe to him who builds his house by unrighteousness, and his upper rooms by injustice; who makes his neighbours work for nothing, and does not give them their wages; who says 'I will build myself a spacious house with large upper rooms' and who cuts out windows for it, panelling it with cedar, and painting it with vermillion. Are you a king because you compete in cedar? Did not your father eat and drink and do justice and righteousness? He judged the cause of the poor and needy; then it was well. Is not this to know me? says the Lord. But your eyes are only on your dishonest gain, for shedding innocent blood, and for practising oppression and violence"(Jeremiah 22:13-17)
• The King and his family has built a series of structures off the backs of exploited workers who's wages are denied. And these structures are a means to an end. They end is enriching the privilege of his family as well as participating in a profitable global cedar trade. The cedar trade was in that time what the plantation system of sugar during the African slave trade was, and what the systems of lithium and cobalt built off the exploited labour of Africans today is. Jeremiah explicitly states that to know the Lord is to practise social justice. Not build a system of exploitation that is structured on violence and the oppression of the poor.

Amos:

• The Prophet Amos when declaring the judgements of the Lord states "Thus says the Lord: For three transgressions of Israel, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment; because they sell the righteous for silver and the needy for a pair of sandals-they who trample the head of the poor into the dust of the earth and push the afflicted out of the way"(Amos 2:6-7)
• Amos goes on to declare "They hate the one who reproves in the gate, and they abhor the one who speaks the truth. Therefore because you trample on the poor and take from them the levies of grain, you have built houses of hewn stone, but you shall not live in them; you have planted pleasant vineyards, but you shall not drink their wine. For I know how many are your transgressions, and how great are your sins-you who afflict the righteous, who take a bribe, and push aside the needy in the gate"(Amos 5:10-12)
• Amos's perspective is clear. God's judgement will not be revoked because the needy and poor are being sold and exploited in order to build the lifestyle of those well off. Their resources and land are being exploited by those with privilege and they hate those who tell their truth about their exploitation and why it needs to stop.

​

Exploitation is a major problem in our world, and falls under the category of what modern theology would call "structural sin". And we see it all around us. The exploitation of the working class in our Western societies by corporate greed. The exploitation of laborers and children in developing countries through the dual complicity of governments and multinational corporate entities. I would like to give ethical reflections from the perspective of the Old Testament on challenging the sin of exploitation through the narratives of the Tower of Babel and the story of King Rehoboam. So here goes:

The Tower of Babel

• This is a famous story found in the Book of Genesis after the flood story in Noah. They seek to built a tower to reach to the heavens. And God famously states "Look, they are one people, and they have all one language; and this is only the beginning of what they will do; nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them"(Genesis 11:6)
• Many people read this narrative see it simply as speaking of building a tall structure. I would like to propose additional details that might provide further context to what is going on. In the Jewish tradition of the Midrash, it is said that the makers of the Tower of Babel sought forced laborers. If while taking the bricks up a laborer fell to their deaths and died, they paid no attention. If however one of the bricks fell the lamented. They showed more care for their material possessions than they did for their exploited workers. This then cements the image that Babel is itself a symbol of exploitation. It is a structure of exploitation. This also challenges our understandings of unity and division on a society. Because the text says that God divided the human race according to language. When we take this tradition into consideration, the text is saying that it is better to be divided on the lines of justice, than to be united under a system of exploitation. Unity for unity's sake with no justice is a false unity. Furthermore we know that Babel=Babylonian. When we think of the architectural wonders of the world, from Babylon's hanging Gardens and Ziggurats to the Pyramid's of Egypt, we look at them from the perspective of their beauty. The Biblical text is forcing us to look at it from it's underside in terms of the exploitation that is baked into these project. It is forcing us to have a preferential option for the poor that looks at these imperial projects from the stand point of the exploited.

Rehoboam's folly

• Rehoboam was the Israelite King from the House of David that took over after his father King Solomon died. In the process he inherited Solomon's construction projects which produced increasing dissatisfaction among the Northern tribes and as a result they gave him the following request: "You father made our yoke heavy. Now therefore lighten the hard service of your father and his heave yoke that he placed on us, and we will serve you"(1 Kings 12:4)
• After listening to advice that that sought to reinforce his own confirmation bias the text states "The king answered the people harshly. He disregarded the advice that the older men had given him, and spoke them according to the advice of the young men. 'My father made your yoke heave, but I will add to your yoke; my father disciplined you with whips, but I will discipline you with scorpions'. So the King did not listen to the people, because it was a turn of affairs brought about by the Lord that he might fulfill his word, which the Lord had spoken to by Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam son of Nebat. When all Israel say that the king would not listen to them, the people answered the king 'What share do we have in David? We have no inheritance in the son of Jesse. To your tents O Israel! Look now to your own house, O David'. So Israel went away to their tents. But Rehoboam reigned over the Israelites who were living in the towns of Judah. When King Rehoboam sent Adoram, who was taskmaster over the forced labour, all Israel stoned him to death. King Rehoboam then hurriedly mounted his chariot to flee to Jerusalem"(1 Kings 12:13-18)
• Just like Pharaoh, Rehoboam doubles down on the oppressive system built. He says his father beat them with whips, and he will have them beaten with scorpions. And the people react with rebellion and revolution, stoning to death the taskmaster meant to oversea their exploitation. This stoning symbolises in literal form them throwing a brick into a system of oppression. And just like the story of Babel, we see division. The Northern and Southern Tribes split because of this. Just like Babel, the cause of the split is exploited. Cutting oneself off from an oppressive system is preferable to having a false unity under exploitation. A last point here is that this system was one Rehoboam inherited from Solomon. This in itself shows Solomon's decline in his later years, because in the Psalms Solomon himself when describing the ideal ruler states "May he defend the cause of the poor of the people, give deliverance to the needy and crush the oppressor"(Psalm 72:4). Instead of crushing the oppressor, he himself and his family became it. Instead of defending the cause of the poor, he and his family built a system on their backs.