Jubilee

I wrote in a former blog that I rarely abandon a book, but I had to let one go this morning: Moral Ground, a collection of writings about environmental changes. There are 88 articles in the book. I managed to read 51 of these, more than half. I have decided to put it on my shelf because as I read another article, I find there is nothing new to learn or to inspire.

The other day, while shopping at the Friends of the Library used book store, I picked up a book by Maria Harris, Proclaim Jubilee! A Spirituality for the Twenty-first Century. Harris’ name rang a bell. I am sure I read some of her work during my studies in college. That makes her pretty old by now. The book was 1996 so I don’t even know if she is still alive. Reading a foreward by Walter Brueggimann, another bell-ringer, I realize that Harris’ book is about the biblical view of justice and the jubilee year in the Old Testament and its implications for today.

It has baffled me how fundamentalists manage to conscrew* in their brains that their conservative political and economic agenda is somehow biblically based. I have known since my studies that the idea of justice, wealth, and economy as presented in the bible is not at all what religious conservatives preach. They certainly have a right to their opinion, but claiming that they have the bible to back them up corks me. I am looking forward to this book by Harris. I pray it will ignite hope in me rather than dampen it further.

* Conscrew isn’t a real word, my computer and dictionary tell me. But I know I have heard and used it before. I will use it again and maybe one day it will be real, like the rabbit.