Lizzington Trash

Matt 5:39

This specifically refers to a hand striking the side of a person’s face, tells quite a different story when placed in it’s proper historical context. In Jesus’s time, striking someone of a lower class ( a servant) with the back of the hand was used to assert authority and dominance. If the persecuted person “turned the other cheek,” the discipliner was faced with a dilemma. The left hand was used for unclean purposes, so a back-hand strike on the opposite cheek would not be performed. Another alternative would be a slap with the open hand as a challenge or to punch the person, but this was seen as a statement of equality. Thus, by turning the other cheek the persecuted was in effect putting an end to the behavior or if the slapping continued the person would lawfully be deemed equal and have to be released as a servant/slave.   

(via thefullnessofthefaith)

THAT makes a lot more sense, now, thank you. 

(via guardianrock)

I can attest to the original poster’s comments. A few years back I took an intensive seminar on faith-based progressive activism, and we spent an entire unit discussing how many of Jesus’ instructions and stories were performative protests designed to shed light on and ridicule the oppressions of that time period as a way to emphasize the absurdity of the social hierarchy and give people the will and motivation to make changes for a more free and equal society.

For example, the next verse (Matthew 5:40) states “And if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coat as well.” In that time period, men traditionally wore a shirt and a coat-like garment as their daily wear. To sue someone for their shirt was to put them in their place - suing was generally only performed to take care of outstanding debts, and to be sued for one’s shirt meant that the person was so destitute the only valuable thing they could repay with was their own clothing. However, many cultures at that time (including Hebrew peoples) had prohibitions bordering on taboo against public nudity, so for a sued man to surrender both his shirt and his coat was to turn the system on its head and symbolically state, in a very public forum, that “I have no money with which to repay this person, but they are so insistent on taking advantage of my poverty that I am leaving this hearing buck-ass naked. His greed is the cause of a shameful public spectacle.”

All of a sudden an action of power (suing someone for their shirt) becomes a powerful symbol of subversion and mockery, as the suing patron either accepts the coat (and therefore full responsibility as the cause of the other man’s shameful display) or desperately chases the protester around trying to return his clothes to him, making a fool of himself in front of his peers and the entire gathered community.

Additionally, the next verse (Matthew 5:41; “If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles.”) was a big middle finger to the Romans who had taken over Judea and were not seen as legitimate authority by the majority of the population there. Roman law stated that a centurion on the march could require a Jew (and possibly other civilians as well, although I don’t remember explicitly) to carry his pack at any time and for any reason for one mile along the road (and because of the importance of the Roman highway system in maintaining rule over the expansive empire, the roads tended to be very well ordered and marked), however hecould not require any service beyond the next mile marker. For a Jewish civilian to carry a centurion’s pack for an entire second mile was a way to subvert the authority of the occupying forces. If the civilian wouldn’t give the pack back at the end of the first mile, the centurion would either have to forcibly take it back or report the civilian to his commanding officer (both of which would result in discipline being taken against the soldier for breaking Roman law) or wait until the civilian volunteered to return the pack, giving the Judean native implicit power over the occupying Roman and completely subverting the power structure of the Empire. Can you imagine how demoralizing that must have been for the highly ordered Roman armies that patrolled the region?

Jesus was a pacifist, but his teachings were in no way passive. There’s a reason he was practically considered a terrorist by the reigning powers, and it wasn’t because he healed the sick and fed the hungry.

(via central-avenue)

In other words, Jesus was executed by the State because he challenged the State’s power.

(via rindle-spikes)

Yes, and isn’t it telling that the state ultimately adopted Christianity and started teaching everyone that Jesus said to obey your parents and to just do what you’re told…else he’d send you to hell?

(via iandsharman)

This is why context is important, folks.

The Black Panther fights for us. And I will be there beside him.

Headcanon Meme

20 - Kills the spiders.Liz abhors snakes and spiders and everything in-between. It’s the main reason why she won’t indulge his fantasy to ‘make out in a tent like a pair of teenagers’. 

23 - Makes the dirty jokes.Red is all smug winks and off-color anecdotes. Liz has gotten used to it by now, and over time she has learned to play his game. She loves how he sputters helplessly whenever she makes a raunchy comment, how his eyes would go wide, deer-caught-in-the-headlights, before catching himself again. 

Red: Funny all these wonderful manuscripts, and my favorite thing about this place is still the view from the sofa. I love how the light breaks through the trees. Liz: I don’t even know why I’m here.

Bessie Stringfield (1911-1993): The Motorcycle Queen of Miami

She was a great woman. Full entry here. Book here. Art notes after the cut.

Headcanon Meme

8 - Makes the other late for work. It took Liz a while to catch up on it, but after a while she finds that she has underestimated Red. She initially thought that his attempts to get her to stay in bed with him for just five minutes longer, Lizzy, please were quite transparent. Puppy eyes and pouting lips, hands wandering over her skin, caressing in loving touches. And she was always happy to give in, rolling her eyes and heaving a sigh as if put-out. But after Cooper had to remind her for the fourth time in a row that she should arrive at work on time, Liz had to stay firm whenever Red pleaded with her. Which worked well enough for a while. Until his schemes became more elaborate. Towed cars and missing keys, and at some point Liz just gives an exasperated sigh and throws herself back into bed, burying her face in his neck and mumbling I’ll just call in sick while he smiles - clearly pleased with himselfs.

18 - Kisses the other’s injuries better.Liz is absolutely certain that she will never get over the way Red looks at her whenever she’s managed to hurt herself. How he would take her in, his eyes dark, his brow slightly furrowed as if trying to make sense of the sight. How he would slowly reach out, gently touching his fingers to her bruised and broken skin. How he would patiently patch her up before putting the first aid kit aside, never saying a single world. And then he’d cup her face, his hands warm and soft, and he’d look at her, searching her face, and say don’t ever do that again before kissing her.