Amos 7: 12-15 (links validated 6/21/22)

In an article some years back, a psychologist from Britain’s penal system described the startlingly loopy ways by which criminals attempt to sneak out from under their own crimes. He opened his article by reminding us that in his pseudo-suicide note years ago, O.J. Simpson had the audacity to write, “Sometimes I feel like a battered husband.” Whether or not O.J. killed his former wife, one fact that was nowhere in dispute was that while they were married, he beat the living daylights out of her on more than one occasion. But, according to this British doctor, O.J.’s reversal of who was the battered one is typical...

In Dostoevsky’s masterpiece, The Brothers Karamazov, the section entitled “The Grand Inquisitor” is “the classic depiction of an institution (the church) that has things so well under control that it does not even need Christ anymore.” (The New Interpreter’s Bible)

American artist Charles White (1918-1979), born in Chicago, trained at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He worked for three years with the Illinois Art Project, affiliated with the Works Progress Administration. His 1964 piece, Birmingham Totem, was created in response to the bombing of Birmingham's Sixteenth Street Baptist Church...

Does this account of the plumb line, of justice and righteousness, do anything for us today? Is there anything still to be learned from Amos? One possible value is highlighted by Martin Luther King Jr. in his Letter from a Birmingham Jail. Writing while incarcerated for a demonstration, King directed the letter not to the white racists or segregationists, not to Klansmen or white supremacists, but to the “white moderate.” As King writes, “I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen’s Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to ‘order’ than to justice.” Indeed, one would search the Letter in vain for a sustained argument against racism. The Letter has an entirely different aim. It is a letter about tactics. The Letter is first and foremost a defense of nonviolent direct action—protests, sit-ins, letter writing campaigns, marches, boycotts, etc.—as a viable tactic in response to racism...

The truth, it seems, is becoming an endangered species in our culture. Nowhere has this been more the case, historically, than in politics — but for decades now we’ve been seeing a blatant and unapologetic style of political lying, that goes beyond the elastic campaign promises of the past. You see it most clearly in the phrase, “fake news.” The phrase was invented in the era of social media: when political operatives realized they could create whole news agencies to churn out completely made-up articles. Unlike the era of “yellow journalism” of the late 19th century — when the likes of William Randolph Hearst at least had to sell newspapers for a penny or two — today’s fake news stories are circulated for free, by legions of eager acolytes.

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Opera singer Luciano Pavarotti tells of taking voice lessons while also attending teachers college. At graduation, he said to his father, "What shall I do, be a singer or a teacher?" His father said, "Luciano, if you try to sit on two chairs, you will fall between them. For life, you must choose one chair."...

On August 28, 1963, The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. stood before 250,000 people on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC and delivered what would become one of the most famous speeches of the 20th century: his “I Have a Dream” speech. In it, he called for civil rights and economic protections for all people, and decried the systemic racism and violence that haunted every corner of America. In articulating his vision for a peaceful society that moves away from racism and embraces unity and harmony, King declared, “No, no, we are not satisfied and will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.” 1 With these words, Dr. King, a modern prophet, was recalling the ancient prophet Amos, who first wrote, “Let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream.”...

("In an article some years back, a psychologist from Britain's penal system described the startlingly loopy ways by which criminals attempt to sneak out from under their own crimes. He opened his article by reminding us that in his pseudo-suicide note years ago, O.J. Simpson had the audacity to write, 'Sometimes I feel like a battered husband'. Right!...")

"Garret Keiser wrote a wonderful book about his experiences while serving as a lay vicar in the small town of Island Pond, Vermont. The title of his book came from the passage from Amos appointed for this day A Dresser of Sycamore Trees. While reflecting on his institution as a lay vicar, Keiser describes why he selected this title..."

("How about a little test? It is a test of how well we know the neighbor's of famous people on TV...")