Tag: Liberation

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Soulforce Bible Study

I know that many of you who read this blog have interest in learning more about the bible from a liberatory / inclusive / radical framework. I cannot recommend the work of Soulforce enough in this vain. Their work is to challenge “Sabotage Christian Supremacy” and they do this as Christians and other folks who are drawn to spiritual work but may not identify as Christians. I have known about the work of Soulforce for some time and am inspired by what they do.

That is why I am sharing this with you:

Starting in July they are hosting an online “Vacation Bible School” specifically for LGBTQI and questioning students ages 18-24.

Register for free here: http://www.soulforce.org/vacation-bible-school

They write:

Our theme this summer is The Wild and Magical World of God’s Good Creation!
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In order to prioritize youth-only space, we are hosting two sessions, one for youth* ages 18-24, and one for folks 25+

When: Tuesdays & Thursdays in July-
July 6 to July 27th (7 sessions):
Youth*: 1pm EST / 10am PST (90-min)
Folks 25+: 7PM EST / 4PM PST (60-min)

*This curriculum is specifically tailored for LGBTQI students attending Christian colleges, but all LGBTQI and questioning youth ages 18-24 are welcome in this space.
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Join us as we create spiritual community together that is based on the Biblical principles of life, abundance, and liberation.

Register here: http://www.soulforce.org/vacation-bible-school

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Sermons The Biblical

The Ten Words of Love (Exodus 20)

This is the sermon I gave at Camas Friends Church on October 2, 2011 about the ten commandments.

[First I asked some questions about people’s interactions with the ten commandments and we had a good time of sharing out of that. Then I shared a number of ten commandment-styled lists, such as the ten commandments of facebook.]

The Ten Commandments and Today

Given these lists it seems like the 10 commandments are both a popular thing, but that maybe we have come to a place where they are mostly gone from our collective memory, or they just don’t seem important to us anymore.

If there’s anything that can be said about Exodus 20 this morning it is that the giving of the divine law by YHWH directly to the people, notice that these 10 are the only portion of the law that YHWH delivers directly to the people, would have been something very grave, something rather traumatic. After all, as soon as God is done with the ten what do they ask Moses to do? They ask him to mediate for them because they are afraid they are going to die. It’s like, “on second thought maybe we don’t really want to know what God has to say in such a upclose and personal way!” These “traumatically imposed Divine Commandments” as one philosopher puts it, bore a great weight for the newly liberate people, but thousands of years later they seem to have very little weight or meaning for us.

Why is that?

Continue reading “The Ten Words of Love (Exodus 20)”