Richard Rohr never ceases to stimulate my thoughts and theological musings. Our country is presently mired in the state of “Right” vs. “Left”. This was exemplified for me in the ugly display which took place yesterday on Capitol Hill at the confirmation hearing for former Senator Hagel as Secretary of Defense. Many Americans also take their “Left”/“Right” agendas into worship and the study of the Holy Scriptures. The only problem is that the Bible is “alternative” history. Richard Rohr explains….
Bible as an Alternative History
“The terms “Right” and “Left” came from the Estates General in France. It’s interesting that now we use them as our basic political categories. On the left sat the ordinary people, on the right sat the nobility and the clergy! (What were the clergy doing over there?!) I think you see the pattern. The Right normally protects continuity and the status quo. The Left predictably looks for change and reform, and there is a certain need for both or we have chaos.
“In history you will invariably have these two movements in some form, because we didn’t have the phenomenon of the middle class until very recently. The vast majority of people in all of history has been poor, as in Jesus’ time, and would have read history in terms of a need for change. The people who wrote the books and controlled the social institutions, however, have almost always been the comfortable people on the Right. And much of history has been read and interpreted from the side of the “winners,” or the Right, except for the unique revelation called the Bible, which is an alternative history from the side of the enslaved, the dominated, the oppressed, and the poor, leading up to the totally scapegoated Jesus himself.” Richard Rohr, adapted from CAC Foundation Set: Gospel Call to Compassionate Action (Bias from the Bottom) and Contemplative Prayer
Love One Another - Brian
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