Summer 2009 – Meet Our Writer
June 1st, 2009
Kevin Baker
I know you guys have already read the “Meet Our Writer” blurb in this quarter’s Adult Bible Studies Student Books . . . NOT . . . so you can read about him here!
Kevin Baker has an M.Div. from Duke Divinity School, is currently pastor of Reconciliation United Methodist Church in Durham, North Carolina, and has been a United Methodist pastor for fifteen years. You may want to check out Kevin Baker’s blog, Christian Conversations, or the Reconciliation United Methodist’s blog.
Dear Kevin,
With all due respect. I as a teacher in a small UMC church must take rather strong exception to something you wrote in the Summer issue of Adult Bible studies. While for the most part, the lesson presented to us as Christians was right on target. That is, our propensity(which we all have)for ‘pulling down the shades’ on grief and poverty is unfortunately true.
On page 5 you build a case for the turning of “a blind eye to suffering, injustice, poverty, and oppression.
However, your assigning that problem to Moses is totally off the target. In Exodus 2;11 Moses went out to his brethren, saw their burdens, saw an Egyptian smiting one of them, and came to his rescue and in the process killed the Egyptian. There might of been some doubt as to whether or not it was intentional. He did not ‘pull down the shade’. He fled for his lfe when he was aware of Pharoh’s intention. When he arrives at Median he took on the shepherds who where abusing the daughters of the Priest of Median. In neither case could this be called ‘pulling down the shade’ within the context of your writing. And there are no other cases to refer to. My problem is simply that when a young(not necessarily in age)Christian reads this they get a totally wrong impression of who Moses was, regardless of his later relationship with God. This is not written with any animosity, but only as what I feel to be constructive.
Yours in Christ,
Verne L. Middleton