Sabbath of Just-Laws and My Two Cents

Shabbat Mishpatim & Shabbat Shekalim 5772 On this Shabbat that we examine toroth, laws, that we hope are rooted in mishpat, justice I offer my mechatzi shekalim, my half-shekel, my two cents on this double-shabbat. Imagine with me. We are our ancestors. We have been liberated from Egyptian slavery. There are Israelites and Nubians and...... Read More

A Radical, Threatening Love

 The Commemoration of Fr. Absalom Jones (read today's lessons) This morning I’d like to talk to you about Radical, Threatening Love. By the rivers of Babylon, Israel sat down and there they wept when they remembered Zion. By the rivers Mississippi, Potomac and Chattahoochee, our ancestors sat down and there they wept when they remembered...... Read More

Christian Zionist Messianism Run Amok: Eddie Long’s Torah Coronation

I am writing this response to a YouTube video circulating widely on the Internet in in which Eddie Long, the troubled pastor of the New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Atlanta GA, is apparently crowned king with the ritual use of a Jewish Torah scroll. The reader may know Long for the recent scandal in...... Read More