Betrayal

May has been a rough month for blogging to say the least. I am a week and a half away from finishing my quarter and things have compounded at work to rival the tornados tearing through the eastern parts of the United States. I have been immensely frustrated for the fact that I have been unable to chart or sort through my feelings and thoughts about the ethical dilemmas going on inside of me as a result of my schooling. I believe part of my frustration resounds in the fact that this quarter has been the most impactful quarters of seminary that I have encountered thus far. As I have recently realized, I haven’t had time to reflect on the changes that have been going on. Are they good? Bad? Do they work out systematically? Let's start to look...

I entered this quarter not anticipating it to be different than any other, however, as I finished the remainder of my reading this weekend I realized that one of the books concluded with three short chapters about pragmatically applying my newly acquired knowledge. This was a breath of fresh air! Most of the scholarly work that I read negates the fact that there is more to the intellectual pursuit of knowledge for the sake of knowledge. Thus, professors in the university system forget about the application of their subjects, which is why the ending of Stassen and Gushee’s book on “Kingdom Ethics” was so refreshing.

Reflecting on the application of ethics in my personal walk and not thinking that I had changed that much I was shocked when I tweeted and facebooked a message about supporting Obama’s position on the middle east. Thinking about the ramifications and comments I would be sure to receive I realized that it is more important to care for the downtrodden and outcast in the world. In the case of the middle east(what I tweeted about), the outcast and the weak are the Palestinians. I know I know…everyone thinks they’re terrorists right? Wrong! A large group of Palestinians are Christians and we are Americans are using our tax dollars for their persecution.

Don’t believe me? Check out some recent statistics! These are the people we are commanded to care for! It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that injustice has been done. It is weird that an ethics class, and not a Bible class, has provided me with a biblical outlook to see a world divided between the Kingdom of God and the Worldly Kingdoms. I haven’t realized all the ramifications of the changes taking place inside of me, but I have decided that I would like to pursue the Kingdom of God, no matter where it leads me.

As I hit post I realized that my initial thought for this blog had to do with being unfaithful to my upbringing...didn't turn out as the post I had anticipated it being...oo well