Yesterday was Martin Luther King Day in America. As part of our collective social memory, we set aside yesterday to remember Dr King's prophetic voice in demonstrating the evils of racism in our lives. What we forget, so often, though, is that Dr King's prophetic voice also offered connected criticisms in economics and in violence. Ultimately, that lack of memory is connected to our inability to grasp the unifying theme of Dr King. He was, after all, a minister of Jesus Christ . Which means his voice and work and life were attempts to understand America biblically . What does it mean to "understand America biblically"? First, let's explore what it doesn't mean. To understand America biblically doesn't mean to construe the Bible Americanly. The goal of the prophet is to speak the word of The Lord. But, more often than not, when Americans approach that word they do so with a radical violence to its character and content. We find...
A "restless" theologian in service to the church of Jesus Christ