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A batch of the best highlights from what Todd's read, .
When asked to identify the origin of Satan, we are commonly directed to Isaiah 14. This is the passage where the king of Babylon is called Lucifer (Day Star) and described as “fallen from heaven” for coveting the throne of God. But what should be readily apparent is that Isaiah is giving us a prophetic critique of empire by using the king of Babylon as a personification for the whole imperial project.
A Farewell to Mars
Brian Zahnd
But here’s the weird thing. A lot of Christians are embarrassed by sin. We don’t want to talk about it. Especially when it comes to sex. You see this embarrassment a lot among Christians who are post-evangelical or post-fundamentalist, Christians who were raised in puritanical churches where sin, holiness, purity, piety, and personal morality were talked about all the time in ways that created loads of guilt, fear, and shame. I understand. Growing up in a conservative church I knew that being a “good person” meant avoiding drugs and sex. And coming out of pietistic churches like this we want to avoid talking about sin because talking about sin makes you sound like a judgmental and holier-than-thou Christian who’s obsessed with sex. The other hesitancy to talk about personal morality has to do with how we need to address systemic evils—social injustice and oppression. By focusing so much on this struggle we can come to wholly ignore the personal and moral aspects of the Christian walk. We talk a lot about justice, but we have almost nothing to say about holiness.
Reviving Old Scratch
Richard Beck
Christians would do far more good for our country by learning not to look to DC for solutions but to the glorious Son of God, who loves us and gave himself for us and, in doing so, gave us a whole new way of life—one not shaped by the power of force but the force of the gospel.
A Farewell to Mars
Brian Zahnd
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