#Bible Society of Spain

[mybeautifulchristianjourney]

Romanos 12:2 No se amolden a los criterios de este mundo; al contrario, déjense transformar y renueven su interior de tal manera que sepan apreciar lo que Dios quiere, es decir, lo bueno, lo que le es grato, lo perfecto.

Don't be like the people of this world, but let God change the way you think. Then you will know how to do everything that is good and pleasing to him. — Romans 12:2 | La Palabra: El Mensaje de Dios para mí (BLP) and Contemporary English Version (CEV) Biblia La Palabra: El mensaje de Dios para mí, Sociedad Bíblica de España and Contemporary English Version Bible © 1995 by American Bible Society Cross References: Ezra 10:11; Matthew 13:22; Mark 4:19; Galatians 1:4; Ephesians 4:23-24; Ephesians 5:10

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Romans 12:2 Commentaries

[brainjvice]

Yapping about Shidou Ryusei's gender

I want to elaborate about t4t ryusae because I personally don't hc them both as ftm.

Sae is absolutely ftm. Fled japan, transitioned in Spain, Ego is still using his "six month after top surgery result" picture for his silly powerpoints etc.

Shidou on the other hand? He falls in the "too traumatised to have a proper perception of his own body" spectrum to me. At the same time I want him to have a dick and I want him to be a bit disphoric about it, sometimes. He seems to have a pretty strong sense of identity (the question in his egoist bible about wether he would travel in the past or in the future gives it away), so it wouldnt surprise me if his perception of his own gender doesnt fit society's standards at all.

He probably finds it annoying he can't completely customise his body. Like wdym he is stuck with having a penis? Also having tits sounds sooo fun and cool!

To me he is not extemely frustrated about what he was born with because his body is still keeping him alive and making him feel him. But i can imagine him being slightly bitter about it. A slight uneasiness he shakes away as soon as he perceives it.

Anyway. Genderqueer Shidou for the win. He is not a boy nor a girl, and he probably identifies as himself and himself only. That's my take about it.

[todaysjewishholiday]

21 Tammuz 5784 (26-27 July 2024)

Shabbat shalom! Sabado bueno! Gut shabbes!

It is once again the most significant holiday in the Jewish calendar. Shabbat begins eighteen minutes before sunset on the twentieth of Tammuz and continues until full nightfall on the twenty second. May it be a day of rest and peace for all of us.

The parashat hashavua is Pinchas in Bamidbar, which contains the second census of the Israelites. It also contains the story of The daughters of Zelophechad, who petition for an adjustment of the laws of inheritance to account for families with no sons. The parsha shows HaShem adjusting the law in accordance with their request. Next, Yehoshua is chosen as Moshe’s successor and presented to the people. The parsha ends with instructions regarding korbanot to be offered on the major holidays, including the high holy days, which are described as being in the seventh month rather than the new year because the calendar is still counting from Nisan.

The twenty-first of Tammuz is also the yahrzeit of the Spanish martyr Don Lope de Vera y Alarcon, known at the end of his life by the self-chosen name Judah the Believer, who died at the hands of the Spanish Inquisition after six years of imprisonment and torture.

The mission of the church and crown to remove all Jews from the Iberian peninsula was doomed from the start for a number of reasons, chief among them that no matter how many Jews the Inquisitors hounded from Spanish and Portuguese shores, the very book on which they based their religion, the Christian Bible, was full of them. This is the flaw at the heart of all Christian antisemitism, for without us, their religion could never have come into being, and anybody who is exposed to Christianity through the Bible is also thereby exposed to the holiest texts of Judaism as well. And though Christian denominations have their own official interpretations of these texts, the words can speak for themselves to readers who decide to look for an understanding of their own.

This is what happened with Lope de Vera. Born into a Spanish noble family, he belonged to the class the Inquisition saw as the truest of all Spaniards. An academic prodigy, he entered the University of Salamanca at the age of fourteen, and due to a great aptitude with languages was soon fluent in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew as well as Spanish. His study of the Tanakh in its original Hebrew led Lope, who had in all likelihood never met a living Jew, to privately reject Catholic teaching and identify with the faith and ritual practices described by the Torah. Lope made the mistake of describing his newfound convictions to his elder brother, who reported him to the Inquisition in a misguided effort to save his soul. For the next six years the young scholar was imprisoned, interrogated, and routinely tortured in an attempt to force him to recant. All these efforts only made him more certain of his decision to adopt the Jewish religion. He had no access to a Jewish community or any rabbi, and certainly was never able to complete halakhic conversion overseen by a beit din. But for simply professing his affection for the Jewish people and conviction that the messiah had not yet come and that the commandments of the Torah remained in effect, he was considered a profound threat to the very basis of Spanish Catholic society which had spent over a century convincing itself that there were no more Jews in Spain.

In prison, Lope performed a bris on himself, and refused all meat since it was not slaughtered in accordance with kosher laws. He took the name Judah the Believer in place of the name of his birth. After six years, his jailers despaired of all hope of persuading Lope to return to Catholic orthodoxy, and because freedom of conscience and religious association was anathema to the mission of the inquisitors, Lope de Vera y Alarcon was burned at the stake on the 21st of Tammuz 5404.

Before his death, Lope had prepared a written explanation of his journey from Catholicism to identification with the Jews of the Tanakh, as part of the meticulous records kept by the Inquisition of the “confessions” of its victims. This document was smuggled out of the Inquisition’s headquarters by a sympathizer with Lope’s persistence, and donated to a synagogue in Livorno. The Inquisition was unable to silence him, even in death.

[ausetkmt]

In a recent post, I quoted historian Rodney Stark extensively about how religions are not all the same. The different theologies of god in the world religions produce very different kinds of moral systems—some religions have no moral features at all. Consequently, monotheism, and Christianity in particular, was uniquely capable of theologies of God and humanity that made slavery incompatible with faithfulness. It was only when the Bible was corrupted by unchristian motivations that it was perverted to excuse an evil and sinful institution.

From the beginning of the church, Christianity developed theology that condemned slavery. The church in the American South and other Christians throughout history who used the Bible to justify their bigotry and enslavement of human beings were the tragic exceptions to the rule. Their abuse of the Bible stood against the broad and historical understanding of what Christians believed the Bible taught about the equality and intrinsic value of every human being, not matter their race.

Some excerpts from Rodney Stark’s book For the Glory of God: How Monotheism Led to Reformations, Science, Witch-Hunts, and the End of Slavery:

Antislavery doctrines began to appear in Christian theology soon after the decline of Rome and were accompanied by the eventual disappearance of slavery in all but the fringes of Christian Europe. When Europeans subsequently instituted slavery in the New World, they did so over strenuous papal opposition, a fact that was conveniently “lost” from history until recently... Except for several early Jewish sects, Christian theology was unique in eventually developing an abolitionist perspective... As early as the seventh century, Saint Bathilde (wife of King Clovis II) became famous for her campaign to stop slave-trading and free all slaves; in 851 Saint Anskar began his efforts to halt the Viking slave trade. That the Church willingly baptized slaves was claimed as proof that they had souls, and soon both kings and bishops—including William the Conqueror (1027-1087) and Saints Wulfstan (1009-1095) and Anselm (1033-1109)—forbade the enslavement of Christians. Since, except for small settlements of Jews, and the Vikings in the north, everyone was at least nominally a Christian, that effectively abolished slavery in medieval Europe... The first shipload of black slaves [arrived in Portugal in the 15th century], and as black slaves began to appear farther north in Europe, a debate erupted as to the morality and legality of slavery. A consensus quickly developed that slavery was both sinful and illegal.... The principle of “free soil” spread: that slaves who entered a free country were automatically free. That principle was firmly in place in France, Holland, and Belgium by the end of the seventeenth century. Nearly a century later, in 1761, the Portuguese enacted a similar law, and an English judge applied the principle to Britain in 1772. Although exceptions involving a single slave servant or two, especially when accompanying a foreign traveler, were sometimes overlooked, “beyond a scattering of servants in Spain and Portugal, there were very few true slaves left in Western Europe by the end of the sixteenth century”...

The problem wasn’t that the Church failed to condemn slavery; it was that few heard and most of them did not listen... In 1787 the Quaker-inspired Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery was headed by Benjamin Franklin and Benjamin Rush, two of the most respected and influential living Americans. Not to be outdone, many Christian groups and luminaries took up the cause of abolition, and soon abolitionist societies sprang up that were not associated with a specific denomination. But, through it all, the movement (as distinct from those it made sympathetic to the cause) was staffed by devout Christian activists, the majority of them clergy. Indeed, the most prominent clergy of the nineteenth century took leading roles in the abolition movement...

Moreover, as abolition sentiments spread, it was primarily the churches (often local congregations), not secular clubs and organizations, that issued formal statements on behalf of ending slavery. The outspoken abolitionism expressed by Northern congregations and denominational gatherings caused major schisms within leading Protestant denominations, eventuating in their separation into independent Northern and Southern organizations... [A] virtual Who’s Who of “Enlightenment” figures fully accepted slavery.... It was not philosophers or secular intellectuals who assembled the moral indictment of slavery, but the very people they held in such contempt: men and women having intense Christian faith, who opposed slavery because it was a sin.

[lesewut]

"The Secrets of Inquisition and Other Secret Societies in Spain" written by Victor de Féréal in 1845 (due to my researches, found out that behind this name is Madame de Suberwick) revised by M. de Cuendiaz and tranlated into German by L. von Alvensleben. The seamy shady side of history can sometimes be so dark and terrifying, that it could easily compete with every horror movie. The 16th century is not without cause, one of the darkest epochs.

“(…) if the one, who is ruling, would be a good shepherd, he would not allow greedy people to shear his sheeps, who would cut with the scissor down to the flesh, to get the wool together with the blood. The indulgence against the Inquisition is nothing more than political calculation. The love for gold is, what covers the empire with pyres.”

Sometimes acquiring a book and have no real clear expectations, it can fastly turn into astonishment. Do not know, why calculating with an historical non-fictional book, I've achieved an amazing fictional book, that is creativily integrating "The Secrets" and "Underworld Jargon" into a romantic frame-story:

Sevilla in 1534 under King Charles V., the Catholic sale of indulgences at the zenith, just some decades after the Reconquista and rediscovery of "El Nuevo Mundo"- The daughter of the governor gets harassed by the Grand-Inquisitor, though in panic and overstrained by this unexpected and faith-shaking attack, she can fend off his voluptuous intentions. Undismayed the Grand-Inquisitor hires "Los Hermanos De Gardunia" an underground organisation, asking to carry out a contract killing of her fiancé. What an unexpected twist as a Serena (~decoy duck, often young, beautiful women) has sympathy with her age-mate and convincing her partner, who is a Guapo (quite high in the command structure) to help the unfortunate. Spiritual and sacred assistance they get by two priests, who could harldy be more different: Joseph, a minion of the Grand-Inquisitor, belonging to the Dominican Order- Johann, an itinerant preacher of the Fransiscan Order Their conversations and debates about hyprocrisy, Protestant Reformation, abuses of power, the genuine faith (just to name some relevant topics) were not only explicid and lucid, but comprehensible through seeking salvation in the simplicity of the teachings of Jesus: Love and strive to achieve perfection <3

"The luck is here", said the Apostle and laid his hand on his chest.

For an easier in-depth look I decided to share some of my notes:

In the first centuries of Christianity, popes and priests followed the paths of the Apostles- As long as they were religiously persecuted and suppressed, Christian sovereigns walked humble with God- But --> Roman Empire, who saw its general power endangered and frightened by popular uprisings, so demandment for ruling was executed through Proselytism

It is not really clear who "invented" the Inquisition, some historians locate the origin in Gregory IX. and his appointment of Dominican and Fransiscan Order as executors of Inquisition- -> Extensive preparatory work "Concilium Veronese" in 1184

1231 -> Papal bull by Gregory IX., forbidding of reading the Bible in profane language

Resistance and Oppenents -> Since early XV. century bloody fights in los commones y cortes defining "Genuine Religious Belief" against the Obscurantism of Roman hegemony -> Significant historic persons: Isabella I. of Castile - Juan de Ávila - Marie de Bourgogne (grandmother of former King Charles V.)- Maria de Bohorques - John of God (big meaning in medicine, bequethed more than 60 hospitals after his death)

King Charles V. and the Reformation -> When taking up his duties, he wanted to eliminate the Inquisitional Court with the support of Wilhelm von Croy and Selvagio BUT -> The Inquisition served political interestes and was used to strenghten and ensure the own throne -> Many souvereigns were affraid to lose their power due to the reformation, so they became members of the Inquisition (it was the surest way to save material possession) -> The King just had the right to write a "Plea" if he wanted the Court to close proceedings, but as his personal preacher Alphons Vivuez got arrested (been accused for his closeness to Reformation), he has no power, cause:

"Charles V. was the King of Spain and the Inquisition was the King of Charles V."

Organised Crime and the Inquisition (This needs a whole book for itself, it is a shame, how pure religion was instrumentalized and deformed for fleshy desires... no wonder, that distrust is still shaking through the bone and soul- what an abuse!) -> Most of the criminals are part of the Spanisch gypsy population called Los Gitanos -> there were several Oranganised Criminal Brotherhoods, but the most important was the "Brotherhood of Gardunia" -> 1821, abrogation of the "Gardunia", register of period 1520 - 1667 gives evidence for 1986 single orders directly from the Inquisition one-third of the cases were kidknappings of girls and women [!!!]

Court of Inquisition -> In every Spanish city was a street called "Callejón de la Inquisición", in the vicinity was the "Castillo de la Inqusición", therein were "The Tribunal Hall" - a chancellery - different kind of chambers (e.g. to repent, which meant long time of isolation and darkness, directly under the attic floor...) and of course the prison, thrirty foot (~9 metres) belowground, 6-8 prisenors in 8,64 m2 ... imagine the only light entering is just a small stripe directly under the ceiling (so to speak the curbstone's cracks...) and the stench [!!!] -> The aim was to torture the inmate as long as it takes to make him confess all of his sins, there were different kind of sinners and "offenses", but in the end, it always ended in social ostracism and/or death -> It was part of the system to make denuncuation as easy and anonym as possible, the denuncuation of important members of the public was not only a guarantor for entering the "Militia Christo" (one of the many institutions to stabilize this greedy malediction...) it also strenghten the power of the Inquisition, incorporating all possession and tracing the descendants -> The Autodafé was kind of the termination of Inquisitional trail, especially festive orchestration were used for demonstrating power and also for fobbing up the folk with gold and alcohol, turning pyres into great spectacles -> In the courtroom, the Throne of Inquisition was higher than the King's throne [!!!] -> So no wonder, that the Supreme Court (established by Fernando de Aragonia) and its court decisions were violated [e.g. the age limit, forbidding to arrest human-beings under 10 and above 60 years ... but the sad example of Maria of Burgundy, who was 85 years old and loved by the folk as the "Mother of the Poor", shows again, how terrible the Inquisition was... torturing her until her death with 90 years, protesting her innocence till her last gasp] -> The procession of the Inquisition was a parade to demonstrate their power, in the first row were the charcoal burner, who had the "privilige" to supply the pyres with wood, which was free of charge

Suppression of the Folk -> Considering the estate-based society, it must be heartrending to think of the discrepancy of the so called God's will and the hypocrisy of the Inquisition- confusing the genuine belief and replacing values with material -> Fear and civilian espionage were the most effective tools of repression, exploiting the blank belief of the majority

"They accustomed the folk to worhsip the materia, the Divine is for them nothing but an altar made of marble and gold."

Other historical facts -> 1484 fanatic monk Thomas de Torquemada started explicit long-term persuits -> The Inquisition in Portugal was established by J. P. de Saavedra and was supported by the Jesuits -> Donkeys were not only helpful for hard fieldwork, those modest and peaceful poor animals were also used to transport the accussed ones to their destination, their ears were cut off, so the hangman can not sell this sadly accursed creature- but also the Spanish King was carried by mules, except on sunday and holidays [also very exciting, how this liason was appreciated in many cultures for their strenght and modesty in one] -> Moorisch-Andalusian culture, actually all bloomings of the Caliphate, were aggressively suppressed - many insults of today are still attacking converted persons (e.g. the knights of La Abencerraje), especially under Deza and Torquemada - many cultural heritages of the Moors were "racked and ruined", but it is still interesting to find hints of the legacy in language and pronunciation -> Lettre de change - an invention of Jewish and Muslim population in the time of the caliphate, emerged as a compromise solution: By sending their financial backup abroad, they prepared their exile and the poor end of the wonderful, up-lifting and productive epoch, in which all three religion worked and lived peacefully together on the Ibererian peninsula

“You, who could just love and praise, why are you tolerating the crimes of those hangmen?” - “To purify the Good”, said a voice next to me.

[i-am-inedible]

To add to this:

Remember that the Nazis and their ideology didn’t just disappear after WW2 and did not pop out of nowhere.

Their scientists pardoned, their experiments were brought over to the US (the fertilizer causing deadly algae blooms was a result of theirs).

They used Christianity as a way to cement their message, including whitewashing the bible/making Jesus not Jewish, to fit their ideology.

In Spain the facists continued to rule well into the 20th century (60-70’s).

The ideological roots of white supremacy and racism is deeply tied to the constructed gendered binary and the colonization+enslavement of non-Western powers.

Part of their justification for invading non- Western/European countries was that societies with more than male and female sexes were less evolved and therefore less human.

This is an ideology that has been held up for CENTURIES by those in power who profit from it.

I once thought several years ago that everything would blow over and the lunacy would passover, that the “law” would be upheld. But the law is malleable and I was deeply naive and deeply wrong.

If anything, these are prideful, egotistical, power hungry megalomaniacs. They do not like to lose and will flip the table before admitting they were wrong, such as turning over elections.

I'm so tired of cis people asking stuff like, "Why would Texas want a list of trans people who legally changed their names?" or "Why would Florida want a list of college students who have seeking gender affirming care? We can't figure it out."

It's eliminationist.

Ken Paxton wants a list of trans people who have changed their name in Texas so he can reverse all of those decisions (and that's the most charitable interpretation). Ron DeSantis wants a list of college students who have sought affirming care so he can force them to detransition.

Oklahoma introduced a bill to forcibly detransition people under the age of 21 (ironically doing what they accuse us of doing, forcing someone to live as the wrong gender). Texas has a new bill that will ban gender affirming care for every Texan of any age and makes it a felony for doctors to provide it. Multiple states either have passed or will pass bills that will ban legal name changes. Some states have slipped in language to anti-drag bills (which are horrific enough on their own) that ban anyone from displaying, presenting, or dressing outside their "biological" gender (one state has language about "DNA gender") in public.

It's about legally and morally mandating trans people out of existence.

Plain and simple. It's about making sure that trans people can not exist. Period. It's not about restrictions, or "think of the children!" It's about eliminating us from public life and then eliminating us from private life so that we have a choice of either die or conform.

When will y'all realize this isn't some wedge issue or a political football that they'll just give up on if they lose an election or two. These are ideologues who are singularly focused. They don't care about the marketplace of ideas. They don't give a shit if they get mocked on lefty Twitter and the late night shows. They only care about one thing: gaining and then wielding power to achieve their goal of eliminating trans people (and then gay people, and then women who don't conform to their gender standards, ect).

If you give them that power they will use it.

[ainews]

In the 1590s, foxes gained significant attention for being oecumenical, or representing a variety of Christian churches, in certain parts of Europe. This phenomenon was observed primarily in areas with a strong Catholic presence, such as Spain and Italy, and was met with fascination and even fear by the local population.

One possible explanation for this trend is rooted in the longstanding association of foxes with cunning and cleverness. In many European cultures, foxes were seen as sly and deceitful creatures, often portrayed as tricksters or villains in folktales and fables. This negative perception was also reflected in the Bible, where foxes were mentioned as being devious and destructive creatures.

However, during the 1590s, a new perception of foxes emerged in certain Christian communities. It was believed that the animal's supposed cunning and adaptability also made it a symbol of survival and resilience, qualities that were seen as essential for Catholics during a time of religious turmoil.

The 16th century was a period of intense religious conflicts and divisions in Europe, particularly between Catholics and Protestants. The Catholic Church, in an effort to bring its followers together and combat the spread of Protestantism, emphasized the need for unity and ecumenism. This included actively promoting the idea of "one true Church" and fostering a sense of solidarity among Catholics.

In this context, the fox became a potent symbol of Catholicism's strength and adaptability. Its ability to survive in various environments and its craftiness in evading its enemies were seen as emblematic of the Church's ability to endure and outlast its adversaries.

In addition, many Catholic leaders and theologians drew parallels between the fox's cunning and the Church's own tactics in dealing with the challenges posed by the Protestant Reformation. They saw the animal as a reminder of the importance of using strategic and shrewd methods in defending the Catholic faith.

The fox also held a special significance for the Jesuit order, a Catholic religious society that played a prominent role in the Counter-Reformation. The order's founder, St. Ignatius of Loyola, was known for using the metaphor of a cunning fox to describe the Jesuits' approach to evangelization and missionary work.

As a result, the fox became a popular motif in Catholic art and literature during the 1590s. It could be found in paintings, sculptures, and even tapestries, often depicted with a cross or other Christian symbols. The animal's portrayal as a clever and adaptable creature served as a powerful reminder of the Catholic Church's resilience and determination in the face of adversity.

In conclusion, the fox's popularity as a symbol of oecumenism in the 1590s can be seen as a reflection of the deep-rooted religious tensions and struggles of the time. Its association with cunning and survival made it a fitting representation of the Catholic Church's own efforts to maintain its unity and influence in the midst of religious diversity.

[jmreyes9]

“ALL ROADS LEAD TO ROMANS” 

A Sermon Series on the Book of Romans by David Asscherick

By Jesse Reyes

On a sweltering day on the 4th of July, I felt eager to listen to a good sermon, one that would evoke fireworks in my soul on Independence Day in the United States.  I decided to listen to Pastor David Asscherick’s sermon series on YouTube titled “All Roads Lead to Romans”, a series on the book of Romans. Pastor Asscherick, a very dynamic speaker, who moves about on the stage during his sermon, was pastor of Kingscliff Church in Australia at the time he dwelt on the series.

I only listened to Part 1 of the series titled “God’s Good News”, where Asscherick lays the groundwork for the whole series.  He based this particular sermon on Romans 1:1-15.

Here are my notes on this sermon:

Sigve Tonstad, a Norwegian in origin and now professor of religion and medicine at Loma Linda University, in his book “Letter to the Romans” states that “Romans deserves to be read with reverence if for no other reason than it is one of the most influential pieces of literature of all time. This claim is defensible in absolute terms, and the influence of Romans relative to its size lies beyond computation.”

John Wesley, an English cleric, theologian and evangelist who was a leader of a revival movement within the Church of England known as Methodism, tracing his conversion to Martin Luther’s commentary on the book of Romans said “I felt my heart was strangely warmed.  I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone, for salvation, and an assurance that He had taken away my sins.”

Martin Luther, a German professor of theology, composer, priest, Augustinian monk, and a seminal figure in the Protestant Reformation wrote “This letter is truly the most important piece in the New Testament.  It is the purest gospel.  It is well worth a Christian’s while not only to memorize it but also to occupy himself with it daily as though it were the daily bread of the soul.  It is impossible to read or meditate on this letter too much or too well.”

Rome was the imperial capital of Roman Empire at the time Romans was written. 

Romans was written around AD 50, none more important book (letter) of Paul.  It is the longest letter (16 chapters) impeccably argued because these are Paul’s well-researched sermons, unlike his other letters which addressed specific problems in the other churches.

Reasons why Romans was written (based on the written text and historical perspectives)

  1. A kind of systematic theology

2. Support/awareness of his mission to Spain.

3. Wrapping up his work in East Mediterranean

4. Mediate between the “strong and weak”

5. Address the issue regarding Jew-Gentile

6. Address troublesome “counter-missionaries”

In AD 40 Roman Emperor Claudius expels Jews from Rome because of rioting and disturbances. When Claudius died, AD 54 Nero came to power and asked the Jews to return to Rome.

The book of Romans made sense due to the historical situation. 

Romans 1:1  Paul, a slave of Jesus Christ.  This amounted to social degradation because the Romans and some Jews considered Jesus, a crucified Messiah, a failure.

Shame is the one thing Roman society wanted to avoid.

Conversely, honor ranked highest in Roman values.

In his book “Romans: The new interpreter’s Bible”, N.T. Wright writes: “Paul’s contemporary Jews neither expected nor wanted a crucified Messiah . Paul’s contemporary Gentiles neither expected nor wanted to worship and serve the emperor.

In his book “Church history in Plain Language”, Bruce Shelley states: “Christianity is the only major religion that has as its central event the humiliation of its God.””

“Paul: A biography” N.T. Wright“ “From the time of Augustus onward, the Caesars had let it be known that events of their rule including their accession, their birthday, and so on were matters of “good news,” euangelion in Greek, since with Caesar as Kyrios (Lord) and Soter (“Savior”), a new golden age had arrived in the world.”

In “Romans: The New Interpreter’s Bible, N.T. Wright writes: “Remembering again that this is not after all, systematic theology but a letter addressed to a particular situation. Paul seems to explain to the Roman church what God has been up to (all along) and where they belong on the map of His purposes.

In “The Sonship of Christ”, Ty Gibson avers: “When we read the Bible as an unfolding narrative—as the big story it actually is with key characteristics played out an overarching, intentional plot line, the meaning of the Sonship of Christ becomes unmistakably evident. The God who made humanity intends to save humanity from the inside from within our very own genetic realm, from the strategic position of a God, of God who will be born within the Adamic and the Davidic lineage.

The Resurrected Messiah shows the power of the real Messiah.

“THE JUST SHALL LIVE BY FAITH”: Romans 1:15, 16.  David Asscherick’s next sermon will be Part 2, “I Am Not Ashamed” and will be a treatise on just these two verses.  I can’t wait to listen to it!

Written on July 5, 2020 in Chicago, IL. Other writings and poems of Jesse Reyes can be found in his blog: anadventurecalledlife.com. Posted in FB in 2020 and reposted in 2023.

[whatisonthemoon]

Korean Evangelism (1974)

Korean Evangelism By Jonathan Marshall Pacific Research, 5 (September-October 1974), 1-5

Lenin may have exaggerated when he charged that “religion is the opiate of the people,” but his words have long had a ring of truth for Asia. From the days when Christian missionaries were sent to China and Korea to open up new markets for American manufacturers, to the more recent efforts of the American CIA to finance anti-communist religious minority groups in Southeast Asia, the West has consistently used religion as a spearhead of cultural and economic penetration in the Orient. Since World War II, America’s politico-religious programs have been chiefly aimed at stirring up anti-communist sentiment around the world to promote the containment or rollback of leftist regimes. Thus the CIA has at various times backed everything from Asian Buddhist monks to reactionary Russian orthodox churches catering to Eastern European émigrés, to Pope Paul’s Italian anti-communist youth movements.1 Most anti-communist religious fronts, however, are supported by wealthy right-wing individuals or foreign governments, but all have similar ends. Many of these “religious” groups are now affiliated with worldwide anti-communist organizations, especially the Asian Peoples’ Anti-Communist League (formed by Chiang Kai-shek and Korean President Syngman Rhee, in 1954) and its umbrella organization, the World Anti-Communist League. These two groups, although confined largely to propaganda activities . (APACL’s role in the 1954, CIA-organized Vietnam refugee resettlement is one of several exceptions), help coordinate the activities of the world’s leading anti-communists and of regional organizations such as the irredentist Anti-Bolshevik Bloc of Nations, the European Freedom Council, and the Free Pacific Association. Also associated with APACL is the International Committee for the Defense of Christian Culture headed by an ex-Foreign Minister under Spain’s Franco, and composed of former German Abwehr agents, Ukrainian Catholic activists, professional American anti-Semites, John Birch Society spokesmen, and a former advisor to Syngman Rhee, James Cromwell. Other religious groups represented in APACL/WACL conventions include the Christian Anti-Communist Crusade (American), the Asian Lay-Christian Association (South Korean), and the Asian Christian Anti-Communist Association. All are dedicated to winning the hearts and minds of the world’s many non-Christians and turning them away from the lure of communism.2 South Korea has long been a center of anti-communist Christian agitation in Asia because of its large Christian population (one out of eight South Koreans is Christian, and the number is rising rapidly) and because of the highly favorable political climate offered first by Syngman Rhee and now by General Park, who have subsidized right-wing Christian groups and promoted a “Christianizing” campaign in the military. Evangelists who consider the Third World to be of great “strategic significance” point out that South Korea now boasts over 8,500 seminary and Bible school students. And South Korea has another advantage for Christian activists -- a convenient enemy. During Billy Graham’s famous Crusade to South Korea in mid-1973, which drew over two million people (thanks to some official pressure), chants like “Fifty million for Christ” were instigated to agitate for a roll back of Communism and unification of the Korean Peninsula’s fifty million inhabitants. Thus it was fitting that Seoul, the capital of South Korea, was the home of the first All-Asia Mission Consultation, a meeting of Asian missionaries to plan the evangelization of Asia’s 98 percent non-Christians.3 One American evangelical organization has been quick to exploit the opportunities provided by South Korea: Campus Crusade for Christ International. Founded by ex-California businessman William R. Bright in 1951, Campus Crusade is headquartered in a multimillion dollar luxury hotel located on a 1,735 acre estate at Arrowhead Springs, near San Bernardino. With a full-time staff of over 3,009 people in fifty countries and an annual budget over $15 million, Bright’s organization is dedicated to sparking off a “spiritual explosion across America and around the world” which will Christianize the world in the next decade.4 Campus Crusade experienced a remarkable growth in the past five years through the use of sophisticated computerized marketing techniques and an almost embarrassingly oversimplified set of theological principles. It has, however, met with some opposition from established Christian organizations thanks to its conservative fundamentalist principles and resistance to social change. Campus Crusade speakers typically cite the “great red dragon” of Revelation 12 to warn of the threat of Chinese Communism, and the group’s film, “Berkeley -- A New Kind of Revolution” portrays Martin Luther King and the peace movement, tinted red, as examples of what is wrong with America. The evangelist organ Christianity Today reports that at EXPLO ’72, a student congress on evangelism sponsored by Campus Crusade in Dallas (featuring Billy Graham), “The Peoples’ Christian Coalition, an anti-war group.., kept Crusade officials hopping to head off leafleting and pint-sized demonstrations. Two dozen Coalition members and Mennonites one night in the Cotton Bowl held up a large banner reading ‘Cross or flag, God or country?’ and chanted ’Stop the war’ but were promptly shushed by the crowd.” Indeed, the atmosphere of Campus Crusade’s EXPLO ’72 seemed best described by the popular chant, “Two bits, four bits, six bits, a dollar. All who’re for Jesus, stand up and holler!’’5 Even as EXPLO ’72 was ending, Bill Bright began planning Campus Crusade’s next and even more ambitious venture -- EXPLO ’74 in South Korea. Slated to cost $1.5 million, EXPLO ’74 was planned for an attendance conservatively estimated at 300,000, well over three times the draw of its 1972 predecessor. Campus Crusade got a big boost when Billy Graham plugged his friend’s project during his 1973 expedition to Seoul. Campus Crusade’s high-rise headquarters in central Seoul (on land donated by the government after a battle in 1968 to remove squatters) was mobilized to prepare for the event. And Campus Crusade’s chief representative in Seoul, Joon Gon Kim, drawing upon the organization’s experience in fighting communism in Mexico, Columbia, Brazil, Indonesia, Pakistan, and Thailand, as well as the strong encouragement of his government, directed the entire project.6 Bright suffered a temporary set-back last year when the Korean National Council of Churches officially expressed its “lack of concern” about the evangelical crusade, according to the Washington Post, for “fear it would be used as a tool in the government’s struggle with church groups over social policy, political freedoms and human rights.” Sophisticated Koreans viewed the Graham/Bright efforts as simply a further extension of the government’s program of “undermining strongly anti-government mobilizations among the country’s four million Christians,” writes an informed Japanese journalist.7 Since then, probably to Bright’s embarrassment, the Park regime has greatly stepped up this “struggle,” not only against Church groups, but also to crush students, lawyers, and dissident intellectuals. Since Park suspended the Constitution and promulgated his Emergency Decrees last January, his government has convicted by military tribunal almost two hundred suspected political dissenters and interrogated -- often by torture -- hundreds more. Korea’s only living ex-President was arrested and convicted under the Decrees. Sentences ranging from five years to death have been meted out by these tribunals to large numbers of Protestant clergymen, a famous Catholic bishop, the country’s best known poet, South Korea’s foremost expert on Abraham Lincoln (and Boston University Ph. D.), a dean of theology at a major Korean University, who graduated from Union Theological Seminary, a civil liberties lawyer from Yale University, and many others whose exposure to Western political, values brought them only trouble. Thousands of Korean Catholics (at great personal risk) have attended mass rallies and vigils to protest the jailing of Bishop Daniel Chi Hak Soun. Korea’s Protestant National Council of Churches recently denounced the repression under Park. Christian groups around the world, including the American Jesuit Missions Conference and the World Council of Churches have joined in the protest against the American-backed regime.8 None of this, of course, disturbs veteran anti-communist Bill Bright, whose EXPLO ’74, with government backing, attracted several hundred thousand South Koreans last August. “In no country in the world, including the U.S., is there more freedom to talk about Jesus Christ than in South Korea,” he explains by way of justification. “There is no religious repression here. It is only political, and I believe it is for a good cause.” Bright says that “those in prison” -- presumably including his fellow Christians -- “are involved in things they shouldn’t be involved in.” The slightest expression of dissent, he feels, may cause North Korea to instantly “pounce upon the republic.” He accuses the U.S. press as well as the jailed Korean critics of slandering the Park regime and claims, “Those who oppose the regime are militant in their attack on anything that speaks of God, and if they had their way every Christian in South Korea today would be slaughtered.” Joon Gon Kim, executive director of EXPLO ’74, is no less outspoken in his defense of Campus Crusade’s holy mission against world communism: “When the Korean church becomes aflame with the Holy Spirit God can rend the iron curtain of North Korea, China, Russia and Eastern Europe and the walls will collapse so that the Gospel can be preached.’’9 William Bright in the service of General Park’s dictatorship might seem an extreme case, but his allies, especially those in the Asian Peoples’ Anti-Communist League, are no less fervent or dedicated. Just as Bright claims that General Park is working in the service of God by crushing his opponents, so did Bright’s ally and Korean counterpart, the Reverend Sun Myung Moon, achieve notoriety when he announced last year in full page newspaper advertisements across the United States that President Nixon had been put into office by God and could be removed only by His will. Sun Myung Moon’s National Prayer and Fast Committee stuck by Nixon to the bitter end. (Thus did Moon inevitably meet Rabbi Korff, who then obligingly spoke before a Moon-affiliated organization on “The Fact of Communism and America’s Future.” 10 The Reverend Moon is a new phenomenon in America, but not in Asia where his following now totals nearly a million people, concentrated in Korea, Japan, and Taiwan. Moon found his calling back in 1936 when Jesus Christ approached him on a mountainside and asked him to devote himself to God’s service as an evangelist. Moon waited until 1954, however, before organizing a new world religion, the Genri Undo, or Unification Church, formerly called the Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity. (Detractors claim he got off to a slow start because of three arrests for sexual offenses.)11 Despite his wide following in Asia, and his whirlwind American tour last year, Moon has not attracted a wide following in the United States, where he can claim only about 25,000 supporters. Now that he can no longer lead the campaign to save President Nixon, Sun Myung Moon has fallen back on more traditional approaches. Recently he spent $350,000 on radio, TV, and other advertising to promote a major evangelical rally at Madison Square Garden to stimulate new support in the East. The event was held September 18 and attracted a large crowd of curious onlookers, hostile fundamentalists, leftist demonstrators, policemen, and atheists.12 Once described as a “Korean-style Elmer Gantry” but preferring the title, “God’s Hope for America,” the Reverend Moon preaches about the many dangers of communism along with his personal interpretations of the Bible. One Japanese source describes his movement as “less a religion than an anti-communist front group.” Rabbi Mark Tannenbaum of the American Jewish Committee observes that “Moon seems to be exploiting the emotional power of religion in order to indoctrinate his anti-communist ideology. The tragedy is that so many young people respond to this emotional appeal.” And he has predictably drawn fire from concerned clergymen, in the words of one, for his “seemingly cozy relationships with the dictatorial Park Chung Hee regime in South Korea.” In reply to these charges a Moon spokesman insists, “Many religions acknowledge the threat of Communism.”13 Sun Myung Moon can afford to lavishly finance his propaganda activities. Time estimated his personal fortune at $15 million, derived from investments in a tea company, titanium mines, retreat ranches, pharmaceutical firms, and shot gun manufacturers. Recently his Unification Church purchased several estates and an old seminary in New York for about $3 million. The question remains: is this vast international effort just a personal undertaking?14 Moon and his close associates are predictably silent, but disturbing evidence is emerging of his church’s close ties to anti-communist political organizations with less spiritual ends. For example, Moon’s closest associate and English interpreter, Colonel Bo Hi Pak (“God’s Colonel”), formerly a Korean military attaché, has strong links to both Korean intelligence and the American CIA. He heads the Korean Cultural and Freedom Foundation (KCFF) which operates “Radio Free Asia,” possibly an outgrowth of a project by the American organization, Committee for a Free Asia (now the Asia Foundation), funded by the CIA. KCFF also conducts propaganda operations in Vietnam. Its legal counsel is none other than Robert Amory, Jr., former deputy director of the CIA. In 1962 Amory almost became head of the Asia Foundation (he was turned down to avoid blowing the CIA cover); now he is a law partner in Corcoran, Roley, Youngman & Rowe, a firm which has long handled the legal work for CIA proprietaries.15 The possibility of CIA involvement with a right-wing movement now entering the United States is frightening enough. But just as troubling are the close financial ties of Moon’s church to the world of wealthy neo-fascist Japanese capitalists, who seek not only a rollback of Communism but a new “Greater Asia” under the Emperor, based on the integration of Korea and Formosa into the Japanese orbit. In Japan, the chief financial backer and organizer of the Genri Undo is Sasagawa Ryoichi, the 75 year old former Class A war criminal. Back in 1931, with the notorious Kodama Yoshio, he formed a chauvinist patriotic party and intelligence organization that siphoned off enormous wealth from China during the Japanese occupation and ultimately provided much of the postwar financial backing for the ruling Liberal Democratic Party. In 1939 he set in motion the negotiations leading to the ’Tripartite Pact between Japan, Germany, and Italy; three years later he was elected to the Diet on an ultranationalist platform of southward expansion. His stint in the Sagumo Prison after World War II for suspected war crimes set back his career only a short while, for he and fellow inmates like Kodama Yoshio and former Prime Minister Kishi Nobusuke used their influence and time to plan the resurrection of the postwar Japanese Right.16 Both Sasagawa and Kodama still exercise enormous influence in Japan, and are described as “kuromaku” -- powers behind the throne. The New York Times description of Kodama applies identically to Sasagawa: “Yoshio Kodama is among the most powerful men in Japan. He was instrumental in founding the nation’s governing party, he has had a hand in naming several Premiers, he has settled dozens of disputes among top businessmen. He also commands the allegiance of Japan’s ultra-right wing and has strong influence over the yakuza, or gangsters, of the underworld here.”17 Both are dedicated to restoring the power of the Emperor and crushing opposition to the Right. Sasagawa, as president of the Japan-Indonesia Association and Japan-Philippine Association, both reminiscent of the prewar imperialist South Seas Association, has helped to spearhead the southward Japanese commercial advance in Asia. He funded the anti-Sukarno forces which organized the Indonesian coup d’état of September 30, 1965; he likewise supported the Lon Nol faction which overthrew King Sihanouk in Cambodia in 1970, and arranged for Japanese economic aid to prop up the new government. Currently he is active in strengthening Japanese ties with the strategic Arabian peninsula, through his Japan-Oman Association. Most significantly, Sasagawa has long been a leading light in the Asian Peoples’ Anti-Communist League, and was behind the recent organization of the World Anti-Communist League. With his vast fortune acquired from shipbuilding, gambling, and organized crime, Sasagawa not only influences the Japanese government but acts as a powerful force in all of “Greater Asia.” His support of Moon’s Unification Church is thus just one of many elements in the constellation of interlocking activities surrounding the Japanese, Asian, and world right-wing movements which still thrive in many forms. American “Bible Belt” fundamentalism has long been known as a source of the most extreme conservatism and almost fanatic anti-communism. Evangelical movements from this tradition,, refined and directed by sophisticated “religious entrepreneurs” with modern marketing techniques and lavish funding, are “going international” on a larger scale than ever before in the service of established right-wing governments and organizations. Linked to old and well established anti-communist fronts composed of Eastern European émigrés, embittered Cuban refugees, and Nationalist Chinese officials, these popular new evangelical movements are the forefront of a new wave of political propaganda, disguised as religion and designed to distract Third World peoples from their more pressing social needs and concerns. Whether this theology of anti-communism will have any appeal to the masses of Asia is doubtful, but it does represent a new level of struggle in the cold war that is still with us. SIDEBAR: CHRISTIAN ANTI-COMMUNIST CRUSADE The Christian Anti-Communist Crusade, although affiliated with APACL, specializes in rooting Communists out of Latin America. Headed by “the amazing Aussie Communist-hunter” Fred Schwartz, CACC is based in southern California at Long Beach, where it draws financial support from such right-wingers as Walter Knott (Knott’s Berry Farm) and Patrick J. Frawley (Schick, Eversharp). Its $350,000 annual income supports many activities, including a Latin American literature project. Back in 1961, Schwartz’s Crusade worked With the U.S. Information Agency (and the CIA) to defeat Marxist candidate Cheddi Jagan in British Guyana’s presidential election. Schwartz admitted spending $76,0.00 to influence the election in favor of the right-wing United Force party. The Crusade’s money allegedly helped finance anti-Jagan street gangs and rioters to discredit his government. Shortly thereafter the CIA began a major campaign to undermine Jagan by infiltrating Guyana’s powerful black labor unions with the help of the CIA-funded American Institute for Free Labor Development. Though no one has ever proven any connection between Schwartz and the US government, his activities closely parallel those of the CIA. US embassy officials have never questioned his work. If he is not a CIA man, he ought to be.

Sources and footnotes below

(Sources: William Turner, Power Out the Right (Berkeley: Ramparts Press, 1971); Jane Kramer, “Letter From Guyana,” New Yorker (September 16, 1974), pp. 100-128; Cheddi Japan, The West on Trial (London, 1966), p. 307). FOOTNOTES 1. Stanley Karnow, “The CIA in Flux,” New Republic, December 8, 1973. Between 1961 and 1963 CIA foundations gave $142,500 to the Synod of Bishops of the Russian Church outside of Russia. 2. Peter Dale Scott, “Watergate, Cuba, and the China-Vietnam Lobby” (unpublished manuscript); APACL, All Roads Lead to Freedom: First Report (Taipei, 1955); APACL, Proceedings of the First WACL Conference; APACL, Proceedings of the Third WACL Conference. 3. AMPO, Winter, 1974, p. 17; Christianity Today, August 16, 1974, pp. 28-9; June 22, 1973, pp. 33-4; September 28, 1973, pp. 52-3. 4. Christianity Today, January 1, 1971, p. 43; June 9, 1972, pp. 38-9; Christian Century, December 24, 1969, pp. 1650-1651. Despite its name, Campus Crusade is “not a student-led program” but is controlled by Bright’s central staff. (Christianity Today, April 12, 1968, p. 4O.} 5. Christian Century, May 10, 1972, pp. 549-51; July 19, 1972, pp. 778-80; Christianity Today, July 7, 1972, pp. 31-2. 6, AMPO, Winter, 1974, p. 16; Christianity Today, June 22, 1973, pp. 33-4; June 9, 1972, pp. 38-39. Campus Crusade actually has staff members at work in over fifty countries, where, as in the United States, its chief target group is students. 7. Washington Post, August 19, 1974; AMPO, Winter, 1974, p. 17. 8. The American press, especially the Washington Post and the New York Times, provided extensive coverage of the growing repression in Korea during the summer of 1974. 9. Washington Post, August 19, 1974; New York Times, August 19, 1974. 10. On Korff’s close relationship to Moon, see Washington Post, July 25, 1974; New York Post, September 16, 1974. Rabbi Korff’s latest project is to force Congress to impose severe curbs on the media, which he blames for President Nixon’s downfall (Washington Post, August 17, 1974). 11. Daily News (New York), September 13, 1974; Christianity Today, March 1, 1974, pp. 101-02; AMPO, Winter, 1974, p. 43; New York Times, September 16, 1974; Village Voice, September 12, 1974. Estimates vary as to the size of Moon’s worldwide following; Moon’s chief associate put the figure at over two million (New York Times, September 16, 1974). 12. New York Times, September 16, 1974 (including full-page advertisement on p. 40); Daily News, September 13, 1974; New York Times, September 19, 1974; UPI dispatch, September 19, 1974; Wall Street Journal, September 20, 1974. 13. AMPO, Winter, 1974, p. 43; New York Post, September 16, 1974. Moon’s organization has created a number of secular anti-communist front groups including the ]nfernationai Federation for Victory over Communism, the World Freedom Institute, and the Freedom Leadership Foundation. The South Korean Government sends its civil servants to an anti-communist indoctrination center in Seoul operated by the Church (Village Voice, September 12, 1974; New York Times, September 17, 1974). 14. Time, October 15, 1973, pp. 129-30; Daily News, September 13, 1974; Christianity Today, March 1, 1974, pp. 101-02. Moon’s church is worth “far more” than Moon’s personal $15 million (New York Times, September 16, 1974). 15. Village Voice, September 12, 1974; Steve Weissman and John Shoch, “CIAsia Foundation,” Pacific Research, September~October, 1972. One of Corcoran’s earliest projects for the CIA was representing Chennault’s Civil Air Transport, now Air America. CIA officials deny any ties to Moon’s Unification Church, but funding of the Church remains mysterious (Wall Street Journal, September 20, 1974). 16. AMPO, Winter, 1974, p. 43; New York Times, July 2, 1974; Don Kurzman, Kishi and Japan (Astor-Honor). 17. New York Times, July 2, 1974. Sasagawa has been implicated in recent Japanese election irregularities. See Far Eastern Economic Review, September 6, 1974, p. 28. 18. AMPO, Winter, 1974, pp. 43-5.

[mybeautifulchristianjourney]

Juan 10:14-15 Yo soy el buen pastor y conozco a mis ovejas y ellas me conocen a mí, del mismo modo que el Padre me conoce a mí y yo conozco al Padre. Y doy mi vida por las ovejas.

14 “I am the good shepherd. I know my own, and my own know me, 15 just as the Father knows me, and I know the Father. I lay down my life for the sheep. — John 10:14-15 | Biblia La Palabra Hispanoamérica (BLPH) and Christian Standard Bible (CSB) Bible translation La Palabra, Spanish-American edition by Bible Society of Spain and The Christian Standard Bible. Copyright © 2017 by Holman Bible Publishers. Christian Standard Bible®, and CSB® are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers, all rights reserved. Cross References: Psalm 1:6; Isaiah 40:11; Isaiah 53:11; Nahum 1:7; Matthew 11:27; Luke 10:22; John 10:11; John 10:13; John 10:17-18; John 10:27

[sageglobalresponse]

Christmas and Boxing Days: Finding joy, celebrating love

Christians celebrate Christmas as a remembrance of the birth of Jesus Christ. The birth brought joy to the Christian world after several years of prophesies. While Boxing Day is a day for giving out to the less privileged in the society. Can we still find joy in Nigeria’s society today where kidnappings and bombing have have shattered joy of several families?

In Nigeria few years ago, series of attacks occurred during Christmas Day church services on 25 December 2011. There were bomb blasts and shootings at churches in Madalla, Jos, Gadaka, and Damaturu. A total of 41 people were reported dead.

Since that time, security agencies with check point and thorough search of fun seekers continue to make Christmas day awful.

For boxing day, December 26 there is little that can be said of remembering the less privileged by the government and corporate organisations.

The church in Rome began celebrating Christmas on December 25 in the 4th century during the reign of Constantine, the first Christian emperor, possibly to weaken pagan traditions.

The date of birth of Jesus Christ is not stated specifically in the gospels or in any other historical source, but most Bible scholars assume a year of birth between 6 and 4 BC.

The word Christmas was derived from Middle English Cristemasse, which in turn came from Old English Cristes-messe, literally meaning Christ’s Mass.

The first recorded Christmas celebration was in Rome on December 25, AD 336. In the 3rd century, the date of the nativity was the subject of great interest.

Christians celebrate Christmas Day as the anniversary of the birth of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, the Messiah (Saviour) whose teachings form the basis of their religion. In the Acts of the Apostles, Chapter 11:26, his followers were first referred to as Christians because of the resemblance in their way of life and that of Jesus.

Christmas celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. It is celebrated by the majority of Christians, the Jehovah Witnesses not included. The Roman Christian historian Sextus Julius Africanus dated Jesus’ conception to March 25, which after 9 months was delivered on December 25. Hence, the commemoration of His birth was fixed for December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among Christians.

Among the Western Christians and part of the Eastern churches, gift-giving, family and other social gatherings, decorations have become so symbolic of Christmas celebrations, a culture that has been imbibed by African Christians.

Through the year, they would take money from Christian worshippers in the form of a collection (offering) and hand it over at Christmas. Many of them stored the collection money in a box, which they opened on Christmas Day. The money was then handed out to the poor the next day – on Boxing Day (December 26).

Boxing Day got its name when Queen Victoria was on the throne in the 1800s and has nothing to do with the sport of boxing.

The name came from a time when the rich used to box up gifts to give to the poor.

Boxing Day was traditionally a day off for servants, a day when they received a special Christmas box from their masters.

The servants would also in turn go home on Boxing Day to give Christmas boxes to their families.

The day also has religious connections and is celebrated as Saint Stephen’s Day in Ireland and the Catalonia region of Spain.

In some European countries, such as Hungary, Germany, Poland, and the Netherlands, Boxing Day is celebrated as a second Christmas Day. This has also come to stay in Nigeria, where December 25 and 26 are declared Christmas and Boxing Days respectively.

The collection money in churches also played a part in the creation of Boxing Day. Through the year they would take money from worshippers in the form of collection/ offering and hand it out at Christmas.

Today, those boxes aren’t as popular. However some people still leave out extra money for people like paper boys and girls (the lowlies) in the weeks before Christmas, and call it a Christmas box.

For many people, Boxing Day actually only means one thing, leftovers. Many people prepare way too much food for Christmas Day which ordinarily they can’t finish up. They end up distributing the leftovers to the less privileged the following day, which happens to be December 26.

In a deeper sense, according to John 3:16, the Bible says, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

The Christians believe God is so loving and kind, that He could “share” (give) His Son with human race, just for the salvation of their souls. If God could go that length of releasing His Son, which is seen as the highest gift (sacrifice), it behoves man to replicate same gesture during the celebration of Jesus’ birth.

This is the bedrock of Christmas. It’s a time of showing love, sharing and giving, especially to those in need.

It’s this same spirit that is extended to the following day of Christmas, December 26, tagged Boxing Day.

In essence, Boxing Day cannot be separated from Christmas Day, as it’s the chosen day of perfecting exhibition of love, as laid down by God Himself, through caring and giving (sharing).

It is therefore necessary for the federal government to pertake in activities that will add joy and also use December 26 to distribute recovered stolen funds to less priviledged.

It should be a day for the Economics and Financial Crimes Commission ( EFCC) to visit less privileged homes and organise lectures to showcase projects put in place to care for the less privileged from recovered stolen funds.

[motsimages]

In 1791, in one of the most rural areas of Spain (Extremadura), people sent their daughters to school in most villages along with the boys. There weren't separate schools for boys and girls in most villages but that didn't stop people. You had to pay 1 real per month for teaching them how to read, 2 how to write and 3 for basic math, sometimes with some bread, flour or fruits. People who made from 25 reales per month still sent their daughters to school.

In the 17th Century, Dutch painter Jan Steen painted some rural schools. Notice they are mixed classrooms, with boys and girls of different ages:

While poor girls would start working sooner than their brothers (spinning, helping in the house or serving in other houses), none of these children are rich enough to receive teachings from a private tutor. Nonetheless, people made sure to pay someone to teach their children (as we can see, generally an elder).

In 1791, the comment that high society and the government in Spain had about the mixed schools was that it wasn't desirable, that girls should get their own teacher to teach them how to use their hands (sewing, embroidery...) and the Bible. So it is then, in the 19th Century, that there is a bigger push towards segregation.

In 1743, ... The Lady's Preceptor advised readers to teach any daughter 'enough arithmetic to prevent her being deceived by merchants'. Economic literacy was considered essential for eighteenth-century women, whether they were wives, mothers, daughters or single. Financial education equipped women with the required skills to navigate the perilous commercial market. ... Economic self-awareness was tied into an expectation amongst the genteel that women should document their consumer lives: what they owned, what was owed to them, and what they owed.

From "Material Accounting" in Material Lives by Serena Dyer

[miraclestreet]

The legendary star gazer, Sir Patrick Moore died on December 7th 2012. Millions tuned into his TV show ‘The Sky At Night’ for more than 50 years. I’ve never owned a proper telescope but I’ve always loved staring at the night sky on dark nights. I remember one night in Spain several years ago when I was preaching the Gospel to a big outdoor crowd near Madrid. I looked up and realised I was under the most awesome star-filled sky I have ever seen just as I was watching so many people respond to Jesus. I don't think I'll ever forget that moment. 

People look up to the sky for comfort, inspiration, wonder, orientation and navigation. Many take it a lot further than that, looking for their very destiny in the movement of the stars. Some will tell you the universe revolves around the 12 signs of the Zodiac and the 2,000 year Age of Aquarius that dawned with Jesus and is giving way to the Age of Aquarius. That, they say, is the age of tolerance, moral freedom and spiritual experimentation. It’s all a trendy chaotic remix of religion and paganism that ultimately leaves people hopeless and unaccountable. When people let go of God as Creator and Father they don't believe in nothing they believe in anything. 

I guess so many look to horoscopes for meaning rather than spend their days staring into the black hole of depression. But there's a better way to fill the aching void. Jesus came, died and rose again to reconnect us to the God of the Cosmos. From the universe to the inner-verse he loves you, he sees you and he longs for you to know him. The Bible says we should shine like stars in the sky holding firmly to God’s truth. It’s an invitation to live as glowsticks giving off light and illuminating a hopeless and broken society. Shining like stars in education, medicine, business, sport, retirement homes, the arts, coffee shops and supermarkets. Locking this eternal truth inside the walls of the church makes as much sense as locking the cure to the world's illnesses inside a medicine cabinet.

[littledreamling]

Trigger warning for mentions of antisemitic historical attitudes and actions throughout the European Renaissance!!

I’m gonna make a longer post about this at some point, likely with references and evidence and other such sources to back up my argument but I’m exhausted rn so I’m just gonna say this*:

We need to give 1789 Hob a little more credit with how much he’s grown since 1389. We all focus on how wrong he was about the slave trade (which is very fair and I’m not excusing his actions at all) but it overshadows another of his lines that’s pretty subtly important and it’s this: “and I’m not Jewish”. More importantly, it’s how he says it.

It’s a joking line, we all probably chuckled at it because it’s such a snarky thing to say in the face of Lady Johanna Constantine’s threat of violence, but when you realize the geopolitical and religious atmosphere of Europe for… well, all of history, it holds a little more weight than that.

Europe has always been pretty deeply antisemitic. During the early 1300’s and into the 1400’s, Jewish people were heavily blamed for the Black Plague and were kidnapped and tortured into confessing to crimes they didn’t commit (poisoning wells with the plague, selling cloth that was laced with the disease, etc). In the 1400’s, Jews were completely banned in the Iberian Peninsula, triggering the Sephardic Diaspora that displaced Jewish communities all across Europe and forced many Jewish people to convert to Catholicism to continue their ways of life in what is now Spain and Portugal. For the majority of the early Renaissance, Christian humanists spent a great deal of time, money, and effort into understanding Jewish thought, Hebrew, and Kabbalah (which is a Jewish mystical school of thought), with the ultimate goal of getting to the root of Christian truth through the Hebrew old testament instead of Latin translated bibles or the Greek new testament. I could go on and on, but suffice it to say, antisemitic attitudes ran deep in European society, in every corner of the continent, for the majority of pre-modern history (and post-modern too, but that’s outside the realm of this post).

So imagine my surprise when, after learning about all of this history that is seeped in antisemitism, Hob Gadling (an English peasant who canonically lived through the Black Plague, the Spanish Inquisition, and probably received a Humanist education) said “I’m not Jewish” with almost no discernible contempt. He wasn’t angry at the accusation. He wasn’t even really offended. He says it as a point of clarification, with a small chuckle. And that? That’s big, because he’s lived in a society brimming with hatred for Jewish people for his whole life.

So yes, he made a mistake in stepping into the slave trade as a line of work, but if there’s one thing we learn about Hob Gadling, it’s that he learns from his mistakes. He attempts to atone for his wrongdoings. He’s not always on the right side of history, but he’s willing to put in the effort to educate himself and change his behavior. And I particularly love this example of that, because it’s not obvious. It’s not overt, it’s a subtle detail that the majority of people won’t pick up on, not without the historical context that makes it so impactful. And in any other show, I’d say it was just coincidence, or that I was reading too much into it, but this is the Sandman. This is Neil Gaiman, who is highly knowledgeable about all of this, who does his research, who is himself Jewish. I know it’s not a coincidence and it’s all the more wonderful for it.

*I am in no way attempting to claim to be an expert on this subject. I’m not Jewish, nor am I trying to speak for Jewish people who no doubt have more knowledge and expertise on the topic, I’m simply taking a class on the Renaissance period from 1300-1700 and I’ve noticed some historical contexts that add depth and nuance to episode 6 that I feel is important to share. I would love to start a discussion about this and open the floor for those who are more educated about this time period and Jewish history to have a chance to speak on the topic.

[fuzzysparrow]

Barabas is the main character of which play by Christopher Marlowe, written in about 1590?

'The Jew of Malta' is an anti-semitic play by Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593) written around 1590 but not printed until 1633. The play tells the story of a Maltese Jewish merchant named Barabas and is set during the struggle for supremacy between Spain and the Ottoman Empire. Barabas was also the name of a Jew in the Bible, who has historically been used to lay the blame for the crucifixion of Jesus on the Jews.

The play's full title is 'The Famous Tragedy of the Rich Jew of Malta' and tells of Barabas' intoxicating desire for money and revenge, for which he is ultimately punished. His wealth comes under threat when the Ottoman Empire demands a financial tribute from the Maltese people. The governor of Malta plans to take this money from the island’s Jews, and when Barabas objects, the Christians launch racist abuse against him. The Christians confiscate Barabas' possessions and convert his house into a nunnery. For the remainder of the play, Barabas savagely has his revenge on anyone who crosses his path, eventually destroying himself in one of his own traps.

Christopher Marlowe was an Elizabethan playwright, poet and government spy famous for his dramatic works. During his lifetime, Jews were not accepted in English society and had previously been expelled from the country by King Edward I in 1290. This made Jewish characters the likely butt of jokes and villains in plays and stories written in the 16th century.

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LoSlavery Is Not OUR "Original Sin" The thick lines show majority of African slaves went to Spain’s (they started trans-Atlantic slave trade) Latin American & Caribbean slave colonies, Muslim and African Countries. Few went to colony that became the US

How many times have you heard that slavery was “America’s original sin”? I’m not quite sure what that means, but I think the idea is that slavery was a uniquely horrible thing that defines the United States and will stain whites forever. It’s one of the few things Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Barack Obama agree on. There are books about it. Here’s a college course at UC Davis called “Slavery: America’s Original Sin: Part 1."

The fact is, there has been slavery in every period of history, and just about everywhere. The Greeks and Romans had it, the ancient Egyptians had it, it’s all over the Bible, the Chinese and the pre-Columbian Indians had it, the Maoris in New Zealand had it, and the Muslims had it in spades. But I have never, ever heard of slavery being anyone else’s “original sin.”

About the only societies that never had slaves were primitivehunter-gatherers. As soon as people have some kind of formal social organization, they start taking slaves.

You’ve heard about slavery and mass human sacrifices of Central and South American Indians, but North American Indians were enslaving each other long before the white man showed up.

Tlingit and Haida Indians, who lived in the Pacific Northwest, went raiding for slaves as far South as California. About one quarter of the population were slaves, and the children of slaves were slaves. During potlatches, or huge ceremonial feasts, the Tlingit would sometimes burn property and kill slaves, just to show how rich they were. What’s a couple of slaves to a guy who lives in a house like this?

When we bought Alaska from the Russians in 1867, Indians were furious when we told them they had to give up their slaves. The Tlingit carved this image of Abraham Lincoln, the emancipator, to try to shame the government into compensating them for slaves.

What were called the Five Civilized Tribes of the American Southeast happily bought black slaves. In 1860, there were 21,000 Cherokee, and they owned 4,000 slaves. And that was just the Cherokee. Many took their slaves with them when they were forced to move West.

Free blacks in the South owned slaves. The fact of having been slaves didn’t stop them from wanting to be slave masters themselves. In 1840, in South Carolina alone, there were 454 free blacks who owned a total of 2,357 slaves. Only about 20 percent of Southern households had even one slave, but 75 percent of the free-black households in South Carolina owned slaves.

Don’t believe me? It’s all in this book by the expert on the subject, Larry Koger of the University of South Carolina. And he demolishes the idea that most blacks bought slaves only to get family members out of slavery. Like whites, some were kind masters and some were mean, but, for the most part, they owned slaves for exactly the same reasons whites did.

There’s a whole book about this black guy, Andrew Durnford.

He had a plantation of 672 acres along the Mississippi in Louisiana, and close to 100 slaves. Another black slave owner in Louisiana, P.C. Richards, owned 152 slaves. Black slaveowners avidly supported the Confederacy. There are no accurate estimates of the number of slaves held by free blacks at the time of the Civil War, but they would have been tens of thousands.

If slavery is somebody’s Original Sin, it’s sure not ours. Take a look at this map of the slave trade, beginning in 1500.

[Source: SlaveVoyages.com, click to enlarge]

The thicknesses of the lines represent numbers of slaves. What became the United States imported just around 400,000 slaves—about 3 percent of all the slaves who crossed the Atlantic. Look at all the slaves who went to Brazil and to the Caribbean Islands.They needed millions because, unlike American slaveowners who raised slave families, they bought grown men and worked them to death. And let us not forget, virtually every slave on this map was caught by blacks or Arabs.

And look at all the slaves who ended up in North Africa and the Middle East.

That’s millions of them going to Muslim countries at exactly the same time slaves were crossing the Atlantic. And Arabs had been taking black slaves out of Africa, across the Sahara, for 900 years before America was even discovered—and a forced march across the desert was a lot worse than crossing the Atlantic. In this article about Africa’s first slavers—the Arabs—historian Paul Lovejoy estimates that over the centuries, Muslims took about 14 million blacks out of Africa [Recalling Africa’s harrowing tale of its first slavers – The Arabs – as UK Slave Trade Abolition is commemorated, March 27, 2018]. That is more than the 12 million who went to the New World.

And you might ask, where are the descendants of all those Middle Eastern slaves? America has millions of slave descendants. Why don’t you see lots of blacks in Saudi Arabia or Syria or Iraq? Arabs castrated black slaves so they wouldn’t have descendants.

Muslims were even more enthusiastic about enslaving white people. Christian Slaves, Muslim Masters, by Prof. Robert C. Davis is the best book on the subject. Remember the Barbary Pirates of North Africa? Between 1530 and 1780 they caught and enslaved more than a million white, European Christians. During the 16th and 17th centuries, Arabs took more white slaves south across the Mediterranean than there were blacks shipped across the Atlantic.

Mostly, Muslim pirates captured European ships and stole their crews. In just three years, from 1606 to 1609, the British navy admitted it had lost 466 British merchant ships to North African pirates [Counting European Slaves on the Barbary Coast Past & Present, August 2001]. Four hundred sixty-six ships in just three years. Arabs took American slaves. Between 1785 and 1793 Algerians captured 13 American ships in the Mediterranean and enslaved the crews. This is a 1804 battle between Arab pirates and the USS Enterprise.

It was only in 1815, after two wars, that the United States was finally free of the Barbary pirates.

Muslim pirates also organized huge, amphibious slave-catching assaults that practically depopulated the Italian coast. In 1544, Algerian raiders took 7,000 slaves in the Bay of Naples in a single raid. This drove the price of slaves so low it was said you could “swap a Christian for an onion.”

After a 1566 raid on Granada in Spain netted 4,000 men women, and children, it was said to be “raining Christians in Algiers.” Women were easier to catch than men, and were prized as sex slaves, so some coastal areas lost their entire child-bearing populations. One raid as far away as Iceland brought back 400 white slaves.

Prof. Davis notes that the trade in black Africans was strictly business, but Muslims had a jihad-like enthusiasm for stealing Christians. It was revenge for the Crusades and for the reconquest of Spain from the Arabs in 1492. When Muslim corsairs raided Europe, they made a point of desecrating churches and stealing church bells. The metal was valuable but stealing church bells silenced the voice of Christianity.

It was a tradition to parade newly captured Europeans through the streets so people could jeer at them, while children threw garbage at them. At the slave market, both men and women were stripped naked to evaluate their sexual value. In the North African capitals—Tunis, Algiers, Tripoli—there was a big demand for homosexual sex-slaves. Other Europeans were worked to death on farms or building projects.

Prof. Davis writes that unlike in North America, there were no limits on cruelty: “There was no countervailing force to protect the slave from his master’s violence: no local anti-cruelty laws, no benign public opinion, and rarely any effective pressure from foreign states.” Slaves were not just property, they were infidels, and deserved whatever suffering a master meted out.

For a man, there was a fate even worse than being a sex slave. Hundreds of thousands became galley slaves, often on slave-catching pirate ships. They were chained to their oars 24 hours a day, and could move only to the hole where the oar went through the hull—so they could relieve themselves. If the men were rowing, they fouled themselves. Galley slaves lived in a horrible stench, ate rotten food, were whipped by slave drivers and tormented by rats and lice. They could not lie down and had to sleep at their oars. Many never left their ships, even in port. Their job was to row until they died, and to be tossed overboard at the first sign of weakness.

Muslims have taken slaves for as long as there have been Muslims, which is about 1,400 years.

Mohammed himself was an enthusiastic slave trader. Muslims still take black slaves. As this article points out, Libya still has slave markets, Mauritanian Arabs take black slaves, and there is still slavery in Niger, Mali, Chad and Sudan[Libya’s slave markets are a reminder that the exploitation of Africans never went away, by Martin Plaut, New Statesman, February 21, 2018].

And, of course, it was white people who abolished slavery, both in their own countries and, except for a few stubborn holdouts, the whole world. Africans, just like the Tlingit Indians, screamed about all the wealth we made them give up.

But slavery’s still our “original sin.” As Time magazine wrote just this month about slavery “Europeans and their colonial “descendants” in the United States engineered the most complete and enduring dehumanization of a people in history."[Facing America's History of Racism Requires Facing the Origins of 'Race' as a Concept, by Andrew Curran, July 10, 2020]

What a small minority of Americans did for 246 years—and in a relatively mild form—is worse than anything that was ever done anywhere by anyone.

That, ladies and gentlemen, is the power of white privilege. I hope you are enjoying it. Watch this video: