tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2722447614945782871.post4478660748160336648..comments2023-09-12T11:31:20.729-05:00Comments on Straight-Friendly: Hill PeopleTimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01271248501086241494noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2722447614945782871.post-19370341976807252572010-04-17T15:26:53.896-05:002010-04-17T15:26:53.896-05:00Change the conversation and tear down the walls......<i>Change the conversation and tear down the walls</i>...<br /><br />Just what you are doing in your book :-)<br /><br />I will go back and read again your post to understand better the connection between the Samaritans and the hill. <br /><br />Thank you.claire bangasserhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12380558962103134334noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2722447614945782871.post-25591463060503345862010-04-17T15:10:58.357-05:002010-04-17T15:10:58.357-05:00While I've always thought (and treasured) the ...While I've always thought (and treasured) the table as the center of our home, I never thought of it as a eucharistic way of life. Yet that's exactly what it was, wasn't it? Thank you for this joyful blessing, Claire!<br /><br />I agree the Pharisees, and their simpatico pals, the scribes and Sadducees, earn their place as the Gospels' bad guys. But the ambivalence you pick up on re 'politicians' and 'traders' is the same as the Jews' regard for them, I think. There was a Nicodemus for every Saul of Tarsus, just as there are noble politicians and LePens, circumspect investors and Madoffs. <br /><br />Other than outcasts--lepers, eunuchs, "sinners," et al., who were shunned in accordance with Mosaic Law--no group was more roundly vilified than the Samaritans, though. That's why, when I looked into the "city on a hill" proverb and caught the Samaria connection, it intrigued me. And (to me, at least) it made sense, given how many times Jesus brings up enemies, persecution, and alienation during the Sermon, always urging us to regard unearned opposition and prejudice as a "badge of honor."<br /><br />I truly believe it's essential for all sincere Christians--as well as women, GLBT people, and other "minorities"--to own the prejudice against us (though not to validate it, of course) simply to change the conversation and tear down walls. Mostly to enable us to shake its oppression and negativity, and take control of our self-image. That's what we see in both Samaritan heroes.<br /><br />Thanks for the comment. As this overlong response indicates, it adds a much-needed layer of depth to consider here!<br /><br />Blessings always,<br />TimTimhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01271248501086241494noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2722447614945782871.post-18600857818693315082010-04-17T14:00:45.578-05:002010-04-17T14:00:45.578-05:00I love your mother's response of opening her t...I love your mother's response of opening her table to every possible group in her environment. What a beautiful eucharistic way of living!<br /><br />As to the great insult in my book, it is more Pharisee than Samaritan. Which was 'politician' in France when I was a child; or today 'Wall Street trader' in the US.<br /><br />And though, all Pharisees were not bad, nor French politicians or Wall Street traders...<br /><br />Glad you found a way of exorcising the term, making it instead a badge of honor :-)claire bangasserhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12380558962103134334noreply@blogger.com