#soong-chan rah

[bethetiesthatbind]

“Since Christendom rejected Christ and prostituted itself to empire, when the American church is confronted with systematic, transgenerational, communal sins, there is no theological space to wrestle with such transgressions.” (185-186)

- Unsettling Truths: The Ongoing Dehumanizing Legacy of the Doctrine of Discovery, Mark Charles and Soong-Chan Rah

[triptychgrip]

When I think of all the time in my childhood that I was so caught up in fear over going to hell -- because, unfortunately, my parents didn't have the emotional maturity to understand how the Catholic indoctrination that permeated every part of our home life affected their (closeted) kid -- it fills me with rage. I was way too young to consent to "buying in" to the lifetime of anxiety/religious trauma that would follow me, and if I had the power to, I'd force the Church to pay for my therapy bills for the rest of my life (and every other queer kid's therapy bills, for that matter).

The rage compounds when I start to think about how much indoctrination has not only stolen from my life, but from entire populations and countries on a macro/global scale in terms of missionary work. Religious indoctrination seeped into my parents' lives too, when they were growing up in their native Sri Lanka. So many Catholic/Christian Sri Lankans don't even understand how they've been brainwashed into the cult of white saviorism: into believing that the country's ancestral Buddhism and other religions are "barbaric", and that had it not been for Catholic missionaries, that Sri Lanka in its totality would have just wasted away.

The paternalism is sickening, and there is still a huge narrative around the mandate of "saving" wayward people/countries that exists in traditional Catholic circles. No amount of reparations will be enough to account for the long-lasting damage indoctrination has wrought all over the world, and if you're interested in understanding even a tiny bit of what this damaging legacy has been, I'd highly recommend reading Unsettling Truths: The Ongoing, Dehumanizing Legacy of the Doctrine of Discovery, by Mark Charles and Soong Chan-Rah.

Join me in the rage.

[castielsupernatural]

im cheating and sending u the same numbers that you sent me because theyre like, the best questions okay 1, 2, 15, 19 KISSES

hiiiiii bestie my answers aren't nearly as interesting as yours sadly, i could NEVER be as well read as you. this got long so the tldr is don't listen to me for book recs just go to jess :)

1. book you’ve reread the most times?

technically it’s probably twilight but let’s say it’s not, and in that case let’s say it’s the raven boys by maggie stiefvater. it’s definitely my most heavily annotated book and i tend to date my annotations and well there’s just a lot of them

2. top 5 books of all time?

i’m gonna do a fiction list and a nonfiction list and again be nice bc i’m not super well read 😭😭 also in no particular order

fiction:

catching fire by suzanne collins sorry i’m a slut for the second book in a series

a gathering of shadows by v.e. schwab see above

the dream thieves by maggie stiefvater sigh. see above

six of crows by leigh bardugo

the secret history by donna tartt sorry women

nonfiction:

dark waters: flood and redemption in the city of masterpieces by robert clark

the power broker: robert moses and the fall of new york by robert caro

the line becomes a river: dispatches from the border by francisco cantù

dopesick: dealers, doctors, and the drug company that addicted america by beth macy

unsettling truths: the ongoing, dehumanizing legacy of the doctrine of discovery by mark charles and soong-chan rah sorry for listing a book on religion. also if these guys names mean anything to you pls do NOT look at me

15. recommend and review a book

ok ok gonna do my fave nonfiction i've read recently and some of you have been unlucky enough to hear me talk about it but it's the power broker by robert caro, it's a 1,200+ page brick of a nonfiction book published in the 1970's as a biography of robert moses and just new york city infrastructure in general. i read a lot of nonfiction and honestly a lot of the writing is just bad even if the content is interesting but this was seriously one of the most well-written pieces of work i've ever read and it completely changed the way i think about local government. some fun excerpts and all my notes:

granted, part of the fun was i read it with my dad and we had a lot of fun bonding over it, but still! it's been such a cool foundation for other works on urban studies, too - i recently finished davarian l baldwin's in the shadow of the ivory tower: how universities are plundering our cities and there was a whole chapter on new york that i felt really well-equipped to engage with

19. most disliked popular books?

ok not to be one of those ppl that are like teehee i hated it before it was problematic but genuinely i never got the hype about harry potter. i think the problem is i read them out obscenely out of order and probably just a little too young (i started with the order of the phoenix when i was 10) but nevertheless i've just never cared. more recently i read the midnight library and i was so unimpressed i was this could've just been a supernatural episode we didn't have to do all this

book asks <3

[judgingbooksbycovers]

Unsettling Truths: The Ongoing, Dehumanizing Legacy of the Doctrine of Discovery

By Mark Charles and Soong-Chan Rah.

Design by David Fassett.

[tristansherwin]

BE : AT // BLESSED ARE THE GROANS (MOURN) (MATTHEW 5:4)

BE : AT // BLESSED ARE THE GROANS (Matt 5:4): 'Lament calls us to see things as they are, and to see how they should be... it is the acknowledgement that everything is not as it should be which generates both lament and it’s twin, hope.'

Here’s my longer sermon notes from this morning’s, Metro Christian Centre, Bury & Whitefield service (dated 1st August 2021). You can also listen via our YouTube channel (Ps. please give sometime to allow us to upload the video). We’re continuing our series looking at the Beatitudes. [If you missed any of it so far, then you can catch it up on our YouTube channel, or with my blog notes (BE : AT…

[persephones-fruit]

Lament is important truth telling. Lament acknowledges that something is wrong with the world. Lamentations offers a real view of what has happened. It does not sugar coat the fact that God’s people are culpable in a corporate sin that has led to the fall of Jerusalem. It is hard truth telling that we are the reason for God’s judgment. We are the ones that have sinned before God. By telling the truth about racism, we acknowledge that our own strength is unable to fix the problem. We acknowledge that even as we have created the problem, God is needed to bring hope. Telling the truth about our tainted racial history and our deeply troubled racial social reality does not undermine our gospel, it moves us closer to the God who redeems.

Soong-Chan Rah

[a-queer-seminarian]

Today my seminary was honored with a sermon from Rev. Dr. Soong-Chan Rah. The theme of the service was "The Necessity for Lament in a Changing World.” We sang an adaptation of Psalm 13.   

How long, O Lord, will you forget an answer to my prayer? No tokens of your love I see; your face is turned away from me; I wrestle with despair!

How long, O Lord, will you forsake and leave me in this way? When will you come to my relief? My heart is overwhelmed with grief, by evil night and day!

How long, O Lord? But you forgive with mercy from above. I find that all your ways are just; I learn to praise you and to trust in your unfailing love!

[faithfulnews]

Prophetic Lament: A Call for Justice in Troubled Times

Author(s): Soong-Chan Rah Publisher: Intervarsity Press Price: $4.99  (Ends Jan 29)

Missio Alliance Essential Reading List of 2015 Hearts Minds Bookstore’s Best Books of 2015, Social Criticism and Cultural Engagement RELEVANT’s Top 10 Books of 2015, Non-Fiction Englewood Review of Books Best Books of 2015, Theology

When Soong-Chan Rah planted an urban church in Cambridge, Massachusetts, his first full sermon series was a six-week exposition of the book of Lamentations. Preaching on an obscure, depressing Old Testament book was probably not the most seeker-sensitive way to launch a church. But it shaped their community with a radically countercultural perspective. The American church avoids lament. But lament is a missing, essential component of Christian faith. Lament recognizes struggles and suffering, that the world is not as it ought to be. Lament challenges the status quo and cries out for justice against existing injustices. Soong-Chan Rah’s prophetic exposition of the book of Lamentations provides a biblical and theological lens for examining the church’s relationship with a suffering world. It critiques our success-centered triumphalism and calls us to repent of our hubris. And it opens up new ways to encounter the other. Hear the prophet’s lament as the necessary corrective for Christianity’s future. A Resonate exposition of the book of Lamentations.

  Click the following post title to view these deals with the purchase links: Prophetic Lament: A Call for Justice in Troubled Times

Go to the article

[gradling]

9 People I Want to Know Better

Last song: "Don't Wake The Ghost" by Don't Stop Or We'll Die. I don't know any of their other music, but this one is catchy.

Last show: Last show that I've finished? Stranger Things season 4.

Currently watching: Amphibia with my sister!

Currently reading: Unsettling Truths by Mark Charles and Soong-Chan Rah and The Invention of Race in the European Middle Ages by Geraldine Heng.

Tagged by @gwenlen-studies! idk who's already had a chance at this so tagging @dauen, @fflewddurfflam7, @sleepanon, @goldengirlschildhood, @theestuaryandthesea, @grey-and-lavender, @medlit-study, @a-study-in-dante, @historystudygrad, and whomever else sees this and wants to post

[kgdrendel]

The Danger of Triumphalism in the Church

The Danger of Triumphalism in the Church

Marcelo Gleiser, a Brazilian physicist and astronomer and currently Professor of Physics and Astronomy at Dartmouth College, won the Templeton Prize for his outstanding contributions to “affirming life’s spiritual dimension”.[1] He is an agnostic, but he isn’t hostile to religion or faith. He maintains an open mind, stating:

“Atheism is inconsistent with the scientific method….

“Atheism is a…

[phoenixwrites]

kinda hard to be a feminist and a christian isn't it? aren't those oxymorons?

No.  It isn’t.  And they’re not.

I’d go into detail but I’ve already discussed this to death.  Feel free to peruse my blog.

If you have further questions, please read the complete bibliography of Sarah Bessey, Rachel Held Evans, Lisa Sharon Harper, and Dr. Wil Gafney. 

After you’ve finished this reading, then you may argue with me about this. 

I’ll even link you up, since I’m all about spreading feminist resources and the Gospel.

“Jesus Feminist” by Sarah Bessey

“Out of Sorts” by Sarah Bessey

“Miracles and Other Reasonable Things” by Sarah Bessey

“Faith Unraveled” by Rachel Held Evans

“A Year of Biblical Womanhood” by Rachel Held Evans

“Searching for Sunday” by Rachel Held Evans

“Inspired” by Rachel Held Evans

“The Very Good Gospel” by Lisa Sharon Harper

“Forgive Us: Confessions of a Compromised Faith” by Lisa Sharon Harper, Mae Elise Cannon, Troy Jackson, Soong-Chan Rah

“Womanist Midrash” by Dr. Wil Gafney

[azspot]

The basic definition of liberalism is being more shaped by social, cultural norms than by the gospel/Scriptures. Using that definition, conservative white evangelicals may be the most theologically liberal group in the US. #liberatingevangelicalism

Soong-Chan Rah

[reluctant-mysticism]

The Treacherous Path of Forgiveness

The Treacherous Path of Forgiveness

Currently I’m reading Forgive Us: Confessions of a Compromised Faith (Cannon, Harper, Jackson, Rah, 2014).

Having been raised evangelical, I can say with all honesty that we don’t really like or appreciate laments or confession in our communal worship. Sure we’ll allow for a few minutes of personal silence before communion, but let’s face it: large groups of North Americans dislike silence. So…

[illustratedbooknotes-blog]

Prophetic Lament by Soong-Chan Rah: 10 - A Glimmer of Hope: Lamentations 3:21-60 & 11 - Persisting in Lament: A Recapitulation of Lamentations

[yungvango]

Monday, November 22, 2021

12:05am

Some books I’ve been reading. I’ll continue to add to this list as well as thoughts

Prophetic Lament by Soong-Chan Rah

Nobody Cries When We Die by Patrick B. Reyes

[persephones-fruit]

The American church avoids lament. The power of lament is minimized and the underlying narrative of suffering that requires lament is lost. But absence doesn’t make the heart grow fonder. Absence makes the heart forget. The absence of lament in the liturgy of the American church results in the loss of memory. We forget the necessity of lamenting over suffering and pain. We forget the reality of suffering and pain.

Soong-Chan Rah, Prophetic Lament: A Call for Justice in Troubled Times