This is a project I've thought about doing for a while, and I have
time for it over this holiday.  I'm going to look at the Book of Amos in
UU context in a series of posts; others can feel free to jump in.  I'm 
a novice at Bible scholarship, so this will be a personal, anecdotal 
look at it, not an exhaustive one.  I'll probably post one part of 
my comments each day; I anticipate about 6 parts.

If anyone strongly objects to the idea of examining this kind of "Old
Testament" religious text here, I'd rather you just kill-filed
the thread than spend time arguing about whether it should take place 
at all.  But you can argue that if you like.  The writings attributed to 
Amos make up one of my foundational religious texts as a UU.
For my source, I'm using _Tanakh: The Holy Scriptures_, copyright 1985 
by The Jewish Publication Society, ISBN 0-8276-0283-9.  This is a rather 
modern translation.  I hope that my quotes from it constitute fair use.


Amos, a root text for social justice

Part 1: Introduction

One summer day not too long ago, I was invited to the ordination of a
UU community minister.  The event took place in the usual way: songs,
food, a sermon, ceremonies, charges to the new minister, and a 
medium-sized crowd.  "Rank by Rank" was sung, as is the tradition
at an ordination, with its usual stirring effect.  Another ritual involved
everyone coming forward at once and touching the new minister, or touching
someone who was touching them, so that for a moment the whole room was
webbed together by the hands of well-wishers.  Altogether it was a
cheering and comforting afternoon.

But there was one other matter.  In mid-ceremony, the following text
was read (in a different translation):

I loathe, I spurn your festivals,
I am not appeased by your solemn assemblies.
If you offer Me burnt offerings -- or your meal offerings --
I will not accept them;
I will pay no heed
To your gifts of fatlings.
Spare Me the sound of your hymns,
And let Me not hear the music of your lutes.
But let justice well up like water,
Righteousness like an unfailing stream.

As soon as I heard the text begin, I was compelled to start looking
at the faces of the others in the audience.  They were calm, showing
little reaction, apparently considering this of a piece with the
other parts of the service.  They were also, I had to notice,
overwhelmingly middle-class, as are most UUs.  What did they think 
of this?  What did the new minister think?  I wondered.  Do
they have any idea just how radical a statement is being made, or
what it implies about this very gathering?

What do UUs think of when they say "social justice"?  Almost every
UU seems to support it on some level.  But what is it?  Why should
we care about it?  What do people mean when they say we should
support it?

The Book of Amos is one of the earliest social justice texts.  As
such, it provides a way of studying the underpinnings of our ideas 
about social justice in their positive, and also their negative 
aspects.  Other texts are more modern, more polished, but
in my opinion they tend to grow out of this material.

Let's look at it.

I'll start with the next post.