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Humanity revels in polarization...

Illustration
Proper 7 | Ordinary Time 12 - C
Galatians 3:23-29
Mark J. Molldrem
Humanity revels in polarization. Everywhere one looks, locally and globally, people are pitting themselves against one another according to various distinctions: ethnic heritage, racial genetics, or gender differences. Rodney King, an African American whose claim to fame was that he got beat up by four white cops and it was on tape for the whole world to see, recently died. His famous quote was: "Can we all get along?" Apparently not. The acquittal of all four officers in the aftermath of the beating is credited for starting the 1992 Los Angeles riots in which 53 people died.
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At the beginning of his masterpiece, Paradise Lost, John Milton articulates a part of his task in writing as to “justify the ways of God to men.”1 That may be an ongoing task for us. Fallen humanity is like a perpetual adolescent, always questioning and challenging (and disobeying) the parent. And so there is a continual need for the ways of God to be explained and justified to human beings.
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