Serendipity

Image: Fair observer I recently came across an article on Anthony Ekundayo Lennon, a middle aged Irish Caucasian accused of cultural misappropriation and profiting from passing himself off as a mixed race person. The Guardian article offered me a fresh perspective on his story. He had before now seemed to me to be just another ‘Rachel Dolezal’, who was also white but presented herself as a black person. And if you’re wondering how this is even possible, it actually isn’t that difficult to achieve. I’ve always found this concept of what makes a person black or white to be quite interesting. So, on the one end you have white individuals with white parents and white ancestry as far back as they know, identifying and presenting as black people. Rachel was president of a chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), one of the most regarded bodies for civil rights in the US for African Americans. You don’t get to such a position by not being black,...

Image: Wikipedia I think many would agree that Christianity as a religion has evolved over the years. As we have evolved as people and as societies, so has the way in which we practice religion. One could argue that the core tenets and message of Christianity have remained largely the same since biblical times but the other, somewhat complementary aspects of religion have been influenced by time and culture. The distinction between religion, the faith and religion, the practices, may not always be a clear cut one. There are a number of issues today that challenge our understanding of scripture and what is acceptable within Christianity. Some are as old as the issue of salvation for non-Christians while some are as contemporary as the ethics of stem cell research and recombinant DNA technology. Is there any wiggle room in interpretation for these matters? Or is God’s word cast in stone? - [pun intended]    Let us consider the fact that the Israelites in earlier parts ...