REVELATION: Vengeance and Sacrificial Bloodshed

Front Row

The Book Of Revelation has been described as the most misunderstood and misinterpreted book of the Bible and ought to come with an adults-only "reader's caution" for all its violent imagery. Thomas Jefferson, 3rd President of the United States (1801-1809), denied the divine inspiration of the Book of Revelation, describing it to Alexander Smyth (US Representative from Virginia) in 1825 as "merely the ravings of a maniac, no more worthy nor capable of explanation than the incoherences of our own nightly dreams."

Despite Revelation's reputation, some, particularly Black people and other people of color, have found it to be hopeful and relevant. Revelation speaks to marginalized and powerless people, to anyone familiar with struggle. Some scholars call it the literature of the oppressed. And yet, we have seen over and over again, people going through tough times are remarkably resilient. There's something within them that keeps them hoping for life to get better, even when darkness seems to be winning. "True hope" is what preacher Peter Gomes calls a muscular hope, the stuff that gets us through and beyond when the worst that can happen happens. "Hope is forged on the anvil of adversity," Gomes famously said.

This FRONT ROW podcast features special guests Charlene Sinclair and Peter Laarman.

Dr. Charlene Sinclair is an organizer, thinker, and writer whose work centers on the intersection of race, gender, economy, and democracy. Strongly influenced by the pathbreaking thought of the late James Cone, founder of Black Liberation Theology, Dr. Sinclair is committed to fashioning strategies that embrace a liberationist approach to faith and spirituality in the context of popular struggles for racial, economic, and gender justice.

Peter Laarman is a retired United Church of Christ minister and activist who led Judson Memorial Church in New York and Progressive Christians Uniting in California. He is currently involved with the King & Breaking Silence webinar project of the National Council of Elders and with the development of a new formation called Social Ethics Energizing Democracy.

Charlene and Peter approach Revelation from very different positions.