#parables

🐸 I'm not sure I should. You have a deadly stinger.

🦂 I will not sting you. Were I to do so, we would both... Wait, does this parable support racism?

🐸 What?

🦂 In this parable, I'm unable to resist the urge to sting you in spite of it dooming us both.

🐸 I think it's supposed to be about the nature of wicked individuals?

🦂 Maybe that's the intent, but it's not about me being a wicked scorpion. It's about scorpions being wicked.

🐸 What's the difference?

🦂 One's about an individual, one's about an entire species! We're supposed to be stand-ins for humans, right? The literal point isn't the complications of scorpion-frog relations?

🐸 I imagine so, yes.

🦂 So it stands to reason that I represent a people who are wicked, not an individual! A people so flawed that they can't be relied on to care for themselves! That exact excuse has been used in attempts to justify oppressing others!

🐸 I think you're reading too much into this.

🦂 I'm reading just above the bare minimum into this!

🐸 Well, yeah. Do any parables really hold up to nitpicking the specifics? They always represent something else.

🦂 And in this case, I think what it represents is "bigotry is right!" That's terrible!

🐸 I really don't think that's the intention. I think the scorpion form is representative of the nature of an individual, the stinger symbolic of their personal nature. I don't think it's meant to represent a group.

🦂 Again, maybe that's the intent, but you can see my point, right?

🐸 I suppose so, yes. Look, do you want a ride across this river or not?

🦂 No, I'm going to go write a really long blog post about this. Thanks anyway.

Title: Parable of the Good Samaritan Artist: Jan Wijnants (Dutch, 1632-1684) Date: 1670 Genre: religious art (Christianity) Period: Dutch Golden Age Medium: oil on canvas Dimensions: 127 cm (50 in) high x 137 cm (53.9 in) wide Location: Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia

This painting illustrates Luke 10:25-37, in which Jesus recounts the parable of the Samaritan who cared for a man beaten by robbers when a priest and a Levite would not.

Actor Allison Hayes, known best for her role as “the 50-foot woman” (American, Mar. 6, 1930 – Feb. 27, 1977).

Because Christianity is reality. It the framework upon which everything else hangs. So it would be like if I made a movie about elephants. I could go out and document an elephant's whole life from start to finish. I could produce a faithful account of what the elephant was feeling and thinking. And I could dramatize it without fudging the facts or skewing the truth observed about that elephant in any way.

But when you look at it, it'll still just be A Story About an Elephant. It won't be the elephant. And because it's not all-inclusive, because it's not everything there is to know about the elephant right down to its atoms and ancestry and how many breaths it took and what every other animal thought of it, etc., it won't even be a perfect explanation of the elephant. It'll just get super close.

Because stories are communication. But communication has nuance and suffers from limitations. Especially clear and impactful communication. So, while I might say something true about elephants by making a story about them, I'll never be saying the whole and perfect truth about elephants. Just like you can use a story to say something true about Christianity (or any truth) but you'll never be saying the whole and perfect truth about Christianity.

I love these details because they reveal to me a God who is immersed in creation, deeply embedded within the lives of God’s beloved. Ours is a God who knows how to mend clothes and bake bread, a God familiar with the planting and harvest seasons, the traditions of bridesmaids, and the tickle of wool on the back of the neck."