The croaking raven doth bellow for revenge. Hamlet (3.2.250) How would you respond if a group of people became jealous of your influence and they decided to do away with you? Revenge, retaliation, reprisal and retribution. These are four words with the same connotation: returning an offense taken in back onto the offender;…
“How many children around the globe, we continue to ask, are growing up with “jihad,” “war,” “crusade,” “revenge,” “hatred” not only inscribed in their names but woven into the very fabric of their lives! For reconciliation to take place, the inscriptions of hatred must be carefully erased and the threads of violence gently removed.…
Love prospers when a fault is forgiven, but dwelling on it separates close friends. -Proverbs 17:9 ~~~ If anyone had a right to settle accounts it was the young dreamer Joseph. Cast into a hole in the ground by his brothers over a dream he relayed to them and a love gift his father…
“I’m not implying that I’ve already received “resurrection,” or that I’ve already become complete and mature! No: I’m hurrying on, eager to overtake it, because King Jesus has overtaken me. My dear family, I don’t reckon that I have yet over taken it. But this is my one aim: to forget everything that’s behind,…
Vanishing Point (Homage to the brothers and sisters in Christ at Emmanuel AME Church, Charleston, SC, 2015) Lines converged At the front of Emanuel AME church. UnWise Blood, brooding in the back, ran cold. ~~ Lines converged As Emanuel AME-“God with us”-black brother and sisters. Wise Blood sought the unconditional, indiscriminate embrace of the Other.…
Recently, on my daily train ride into the city, I had, for me, a ‘typical’ conversation with those standing in the vestibule. The subject: going to church. A fellow passenger brought up the fact that he attends to a certain church. Another passenger then mentioned that she attends a Catholic Church. I mentioned that I…
Tomorrow, before I receive the Body and Blood of the Lord I will again kneel and pray the Lord’ s Prayer: Our Father, which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy Name. Thy Kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, As it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us…