Three New Books

[rivanna]

There's a new book out by Derek Flood, it's called Healing the Gospel - he was an outstanding contributor to Beliefnet discussions for years--

 

http://www.amazon.co...ag=therebgod-20

 

He has a blog at HuffPost this week which I thought was highly persuasive --

 

http://www.huffingto...hp_ref=religion

 

Also 2 other new books look interesting, one by Brian McLaren, Why Did Jesus, Moses, the Buddha, and Mohammed Cross the Road?: Christian Identity in a Multi-Faith World

 

and another one from Marcus Borg: Evolution of the Word: The New Testament in the order the books were written.

[GeorgeW]

Rivanna,

 

Thanks for the references. To take Flood's HuffPost essay a step farther, not even the Democrats dare mention "the poor." Sometimes they are referred to in code 'middle class' where other times they are ignored or forgotten.

 

This worldview is founded on the notion that people are poor because they are lazy. This is more true today than in Jesus' day because, at that time, there was very limited social mobility. Today, social mobility is possible, but to claim that a poor, minority child born to a single-parent home has the same opportunity as Mitt Romney, born into a wealthy family and educated at the best private schools is delusional at best.

 

While I agree with the conservative mantra of "equal opportunity, not equal outcome,' it assumes that opportunity is really equal. The opportunity field can only be even somewhat leveled with good public education, universal health care, a living wage, fair tax structures, etc. These are all policies that the conservatives oppose and undermine.

 

George

[Stanley]

Rivanna,

Thank for the Huffington post blog. I have been confused by the GOP-Christian match up for a long time. I recently wrote a blog that talks about almost the same thing: http://bit.ly/S94pOK Basically, I think the Republicans are a one issue party for most Christians. This thread is under "books" so I will stop here. But I would like to hear some other thoughts on the GOP-Christian match up so I may start a thread in the appropriate place later today. Thanks for the book recommendations.

[Yvonne]

Rivanna,

 

Thanks for the references. To take Flood's HuffPost essay a step farther, not even the Democrats dare mention "the poor." Sometimes they are referred to in code 'middle class' where other times they are ignored or forgotten.

 

This worldview is founded on the notion that people are poor because they are lazy. This is more true today than in Jesus' day because, at that time, there was very limited social mobility. Today, social mobility is possible, but to claim that a poor, minority child born to a single-parent home has the same opportunity as Mitt Romney, born into a wealthy family and educated at the best private schools is delusional at best.

 

While I agree with the conservative mantra of "equal opportunity, not equal outcome,' it assumes that opportunity is really equal. The opportunity field can only be even somewhat leveled with good public education, universal health care, a living wage, fair tax structures, etc. These are all policies that the conservatives oppose and undermine.

 

George

 

I think these are excellent discussion pionts - could this start a new topic?