But As I Pursued That Dream Of

The Early Christians Felt A Deep Collision With The Empire In Which They Lived, And With Politics As Usual. They Carelessly Crossed Party Lines And Built Subversive Friendships. And We Should Do That Too.

With The Early Christians You Couldn't Have God As Your Father Unless You Have The Church As Your Mother. This Isn't Accepting The Church As A Perfect Thing.

We Are Faithful Not To The Triumphant Golden Eagle (ironically, Also An Imperial Symbol Of Power In Rome) But To The Slaughtered Lamb.

Karl Barth Said It Well: "we Have To Read The Bible In One Hand... And The Newspaper In The Other." Our Faith Should Not Cause Us To Escape This World But To Engage It.

I Moved To Philadelphia To Go To School At Eastern Partly Because I Wanted To Study The Bible And I Also Went To Study Sociology. I Like How Karl Barth Said We Have To Read The Bible In One Hand And The Newspaper In The Other So That Our Faith Doesn't Just Become A Ticket Into Heaven And A License To Ignore The World Around Us.