Amen. Well said.

Truth.
I’m not in love with my wife because I’m afraid she’ll divorce me.

If you follow Jesus because you’re afraid of hell more than you love Jesus, you’re not really following Jesus.

And you end up creating hell for others on earth.

NEW: Statement from Swalwell's senior staffers: "We stand with our former colleague and the other women that have come forward. We believe you should stand with them, too."

My book, The Justice of Jesus, has been out for over 6 months now and it is somehow still the #1 Bestseller in Liberation Theology on Amazon Canada.

Truly astounded, friends! Thank you. 🙏🏽

Get your copy here: linktr.ee/joashpthomas

Christians can’t go from, “Jesus defeated death!” on Easter Sunday to “Let’s destroy a civilization” 2 days later.

Death is the enemy. And Christians have a moral duty to non-violently oppose the empires that kill.

Jesus suffered death in Empire’s hands so no one else has to.

Impossible to disagree with a single word that Ben Rhodes (Obama era NSC official) is saying here:

I say this as a Christian Priest & Theologian:

Any Christianity that threatens to kill an entire civilization needs to be ripped up, shredded & incinerated.

Burn it so from its ashes a more ancient, love-oriented Christianity that looks, tastes & smells like Jesus may rise.

And the context here imo is human trauma shaping false understandings of God.

If that’s all you got from those books, you need to go back and read it again. Anyone can proof text the Bible to say whatever they want. Which is why context matters.

If you’ve been parroting Israeli Empire and American Empire talking points to defend the bombing of children in Iran and Gaza all of Lenten season, don’t expect anyone to take you seriously when you say, “He is Risen” on Easter Sunday.

Some @joashpthomas.bsky.social Good Friday wisdom:

The Justice of Pilate vs. The Justice of Jesus A Good Friday Reflection

“This Good Friday, don’t rush to Easter.
Hold off on posting, “Sunday is coming.”

But sit in the weight of Good Friday and the crucified Palestinian detainee sentenced by an apartheid military court to die on the Cross of Calvary.”

Absolutely!!!

Dear evangelical church marketing teams:

Please don’t post “Sunday is coming!” just yet. We still need to get through the heaviness of Good Friday first.

If we don’t lament what’s broken, the good news of Easter just won’t feel as good.

My opening line from my Palm Sunday sermon at Elevation Church (not that one) in Waterloo, ON today:

My original title for this sermon was ‘Decolonizing Palm Sunday’ but after the events of yesterday, I’ve got a new title for us -

‘Palm Sunday - The Original No Kings Day’

Available worldwide wherever you get your books / audiobooks or here for 30% off + free shipping if you’re in the US:

bakerbookhouse.com/products/978...

So proud of the Christians marching for justice across the American Empire today.

If you get pushback from your family or friends for your witness for justice being ‘unbiblical’, gift them a copy of my book and tell them to read it and get back to you.

Blessings in your journey of wrestling. Keep wrestling. And refuse to settle for certainty.

We likely have different understandings of the Gospel. My view of the Gospel (in sync with that of my St. Thomas Christian ancestors who have followed Jesus for 2000 years now) is far more expansive of the “going to heaven when you die” narrow version of our colonizers.

The Gospel is liberation.

Jesus, Justice & Empire My talk in the belly of the beast of the Albertan Empire

As for Jesus and his resistance to Roman imperialism, I dive into a bit of that here: open.substack.com/pub/joashpth...

Jesus defines his Gospel as coming to set the captives free - which to the early church included slavery. This is why you see Paul saying slaves are equal in Galatians 5, tells slaves to get free if they can in 1 Cor 7, and strongly advocates for a slavemaster (Philemon) to set his slave free.

I hear ya but I don’t read the Bible as an ethics textbook. I read it as a library of perspectives of different human authors (all with deep trauma being from colonized, occupied, or imprisoned backgrounds) grasping to understand the divine through Christ.

As for slavery…1/2

Many white Americans will call a couple of Arab / Latino families moving into their neighbourhood “an invasion” and then simp for politicians who bomb and invade the countries their Arab / Latino neighbours are forced to flee.

We have removed Jesus and his anti-Empire ethics from Christianity so much that we’ve reduced the ancient, historical Christian faith to a doomsday fertility cult. 2/2

The Bible has over 2000 verses on greed, economic exploitation and systemic injustice against the refugee, the widow and the orphan but only 6 verses on ‘sexual sin’. Empire would rather we focus all our attention on the 6 so that we’re distracted from paying attention to the 2000+. 1/2

The President of the United States said I insulted Jesus.

You want to know what insults Jesus?

Kicking the sick off their healthcare.
Bombing schoolchildren in Iran.
Deporting moms and babies.
Covering up the Epstein files.

Some Christians think Justice means the guilty get their due. Others think Justice is when everyone gets what they need. In an unjust world, why are we so divided on this? What would it mean for us to do justice Jesus’ way?

1/4

@joashpthomas.bsky.social
#Justice

youtu.be/N3q2P66eQck?...

Great turnout at my ‘Jesus, Justice & Empire’ talk hosted by King’s University in Edmonton last night. We had 100+ local church leaders, students, faculty & practitioners.

So inspired by these Jesus-centered folks quietly and faithfully resisting Empire in the heart of Alberta.