“To get an initial hint of the distance between the mind-set of parable's original audience and our own twenty-first-century perspectives, we might begin by reflecting briefly on the term 'good Samaritan.' Today, we use the term as if it were not peculiar. Yet as far as I am aware, there are not 'Good Catholic' or 'Good Baptist' hospitals; there are not social service organizations called 'Good Episcopalian' or 'Good Mexican' or 'Good Arab.' To label the Samaritan, any Samaritan, a 'good Samaritan' should be, in today's climate, seen as offensive. It is tantamount to saying, 'He's a good Muslim' (as opposed to all those others who, in this configuration, would be terrorists) or 'She's a good immigrant' (as opposed to all those others who, in this same configuration, are here to take our jobs or scam our welfare system), or, as Heinrich Himmler put it to a gathering of SS officers, every German 'has his decent Jew' - that is, knows one good Jew - and as far as Himmler was concerned, even one was too many, because that might create sympathy. The problem with the labeling is not simply a lack of sensitivity toward the Samaritan people - yes, there are still Samaritans. It is also a lack of awareness of how odd the expression 'good Samaritan' would have seemed to Jesus's Jewish contemporaries.”
― Short Stories by Jesus: The Enigmatic Parables of a Controversial Rabbi
― Short Stories by Jesus: The Enigmatic Parables of a Controversial Rabbi
“In no way should we minimize the psychological difficulties that a person with one of these conditions might experience. These are ripe pastoral opportunities to embody the love and life of Jesus toward people who, for whatever reason, might feel “othered” by society (intentionally or unintentionally) or by their own self-perception of what it means to be a “real” man or woman.”
― Embodied: Transgender Identities, the Church, and What the Bible Has to Say
― Embodied: Transgender Identities, the Church, and What the Bible Has to Say
“The Bible’s primary invitation to every Christian is not to act more like a man or to act more like a woman, but to act more like Jesus.”
― Embodied: Transgender Identities, the Church, and What the Bible Has to Say
― Embodied: Transgender Identities, the Church, and What the Bible Has to Say
“Our work, rather, is to help reawaken the sense of the sacred that is already deep in the human soul, our primordial relationship with nature, our ancient mother love of the earth. We can be part of its rising again.”
― Sacred Earth, Sacred Soul: Celtic Wisdom for Reawakening to What Our Souls Know and Healing the World
― Sacred Earth, Sacred Soul: Celtic Wisdom for Reawakening to What Our Souls Know and Healing the World
“Religion has been defined as designed to comfort the afflicted and to afflict the comfortable. We do well to think of the parables of Jesus as doing the afflicting. Therefore, if we hear a parable and think, 'I really like that' or, worse, fail to take any challenge, we are not listening well enough.”
― Short Stories by Jesus: The Enigmatic Parables of a Controversial Rabbi
― Short Stories by Jesus: The Enigmatic Parables of a Controversial Rabbi
Shane’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Shane’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
More friends…
Polls voted on by Shane
Lists liked by Shane








































