Following Jesus in rejecting empire
I’m exploring disappointment in this short series of posts. Disappointment is a universal experience and becomes fuel for discouragement and depression. In today’s post I’ll look at my disappointment with the Church. That’s a capital C Church, not a local church or a denomination or even the Church in America, though each of those may…
“Oh what savory satisfaction. What splendid joy. In one instant, all my anger dissipated and all the rot in my soul has been removed!” That’s how I imagined it. What freedom would taste like once the earth was rid of Frederick Johnson, and I had exacted revenge. Once I had exchanged my passive fist with…
The summer before my life disintegrated was lovely. There are Knoxville summers where the heat oppresses a person like a tyrant, but not that summer. Not the summer of 1997. Highs barely reached to 80 and the humidity must’ve pushed its way around us and into Georgia. I remember being happy, but only as though…
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…
Was Jesus Apolitical? 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 Is it really the place of a religious authority to address political or economic systems? Surely, the Church would not take seriously any economist or politician claiming…