Bones, Beads, Belonging, and the Bible: Just Where are We Standing?

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By Dr. Jim Perkinson, a sermon for St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in Detroit (03.22.2026) – pictured above at the annual Nakba Day march in Dearborn, MI (photo credit)

37 The hand of the Lord was upon me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord, and set me down in the midst of the valley; it was full of bones. 2 And he led me round among them; and behold, there were very many upon the valley; and lo, they were very dry. 3 And he said to me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” And I answered, “O Lord God, thou knowest. . . . 11 Then he said to me, “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. Behold, they say, ‘Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are clean cut off.’ 12 Therefore prophesy, and say to them, Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will open your graves, and raise you from your graves, O my people; and I will bring you home into the land of Israel (Ezek 37:1-3, 11-12).

I’m going to start weird and way out—something new for me, right?  But walk with me for a moment.  We need some background.

First, I want to suggest that this story of Ezekiel prophesying to bones is ultimately about bones in the right place of burial.  And its opposite is bones out of place.  If we read just two chapters further on in Ezekiel, we encounter another strange little vignette about bones in or out of place that reads thus:

They will set apart men to pass through the land continually and bury those remaining upon the face of the land, so as to cleanse it; at the end of seven months they will make their search. And when these pass through the land and anyone sees a man’s bone, then he shall set up a sign by it, till the buriers have buried it in the Valley of Manon-gog (“Multitude of Gog”) (Ezek 39:14-15).

And what is in view here are the bones of invaders that are not just allowed to lie around wherever they fell but collected and “placed” in a particular domain previously called “The Valley of Travelers,” now renamed “Valley of the Multitude.” In fact, chapters 37, 38, and 39 of Ezekiel are actually one whole piece of interaction between Ezekiel and YHWH concerning a vision of the Great End Times Battle of Gog and Magog, much later taken up in the Book of Revelation as “Armageddon,” the Final Apocalyptic Catastrophe that supposedly ruptures history as we know it (and which right now is being used by U.S. military commanders to motivate their troops to fight Iran as a prelude to provoking the Second Coming of Jesus).  The Valley of Dry Bones episode is actually the Preface to this War scenario.  We’ll come back to that in a bit.  But for now, Ezekiel is wrestling with an implicit question: where do bones belong?

Continue reading “Bones, Beads, Belonging, and the Bible: Just Where are We Standing?” →

The Nakba Never Ended

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From the Apartheid-Free Newsletter put out by the American Friends Service Committee. Subscribe to it here.

May 15 marks the 78th commemoration of the Nakba – “Catastrophe” in Arabic — which refers to the period in 1948 when Palestinians were ethnically cleansed during the creation of Israel. Between 1948 and 1950, an estimated 750,000 to one million Palestinians were forcibly expelled from their homeland by militias and the new Israeli army — about 85% of the Palestinian population. Most ended up in refugee camps in the West Bank, Lebanon, Gaza, Syria and Jordan. In addition to mass displacement, forced removal, the destruction of entire villages, and expropriation of over 4 million acres of land belonging to Palestinians, May 1948 marks the beginning of the Israeli apartheid system.Here are some of the early markers of apartheid that Israel would use to tighten its grip through ongoing occupation and erasure:
Creation of the “Transfer Committee” which oversaw the destruction of Palestinian towns and villages, repopulating them with Jews. The Zionist militias and Israeli army systematically destroyed more than 400 Palestinian towns. This map documents them. 

Passage of the “Absentees’ Property Law,” (1950) which granted the government “custodianship” over lands and property belonging to Palestinian refugees, (with no compensation for the owners). An “absentee” was defined as any Palestinian who left his or her home after November 1947, even if they remained inside what became Israel.

Passage of two additional laws — the Law of Return (1950), which still grants Jews from anywhere in the world the right to immigrate to Israel and automatically become a citizen, and the Entry into Israel Law (1952) which was designed to prevent the return of Palestinian refugees. 
It is important framing in this time to name that the Nakba never ended — that it is a structure and a system, not one event in history. You can use this month to raise education and awareness about the ongoing Nakba of the Palestinian people — a forced erasure which we continue to witness in its most recent and deadliest form in the Gaza genocide.

Splendor Within Humility

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A word from our comrades at Rabbis for Ceasefire. They are posting these everyday during the 49 days of Omer, which extends from the second night of Passover to the day before Shavuot.

When involved in solidarity movements, it is important that those of us who show up as allies defer to the leadership of those most directly impacted by state violence. So, for example, in Palestinian solidarity work, it is incumbent upon those of us who are not Palestinian and not directly impacted by the actions of Israel and the U.S. to ensure that the voices of Palestinians are centered, whether in our meetings, at events, with the press, etc.

This requires humility. The humility to know that your words are not more powerful or more important than those of Palestinians. The humility to recognize that deferring to the wisdom of those directly impacted is a true act of solidarity. I see splendor within humility as a beautiful mosaic of opening the white spaces between the black letters for the voices of the most directly impacted and marginalized to speak and share their truth and stories—stories that are far too often silenced in a society that awards narcissism and charisma over truth and justice.

In the Belly of my Brother

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An excerpt from Robin Wall Kimmerer’s essay “The Serviceberry: An Economy of Abundance” (2022).

As the berries plunk into my bucket, I’m thinking about what I’ll do with them all. I’ll drop some off for friends and neighbors, and I’ll certainly fill the freezer for Juneberry muffins in February. This “problem” of managing decisions about abundance reminds me of a report that linguist Daniel Everett wrote as he was learning from a hunter-gatherer community in the Brazilian rainforest. A hunter had brought home a sizable kill, far too much to be eaten by his family. The researcher asked how he would store the excess. Smoking and drying technologies were well known; storing was possible. The hunter was puzzled by the question—store the meat? Why would he do that? Instead, he sent out an invitation to a feast, and soon the neighboring families were gathered around his fire, until every last morsel was consumed. This seemed like maladaptive behavior to the anthropologist, who asked again: given the uncertainty of meat in the forest, why didn’t he store the meat for himself, which is what the economic system of his home culture would predict.

“Store my meat? I store my meat in the belly of my brother,” replied the hunter.

Call a Thing What it is

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From Dr. T. Wilson Dickinson, Professor of Theology and Director of the Doctor of Ministry and Continuing Education Programs at Lexington Theological Seminary.

The historical analogy for AI is not the printing press but the ship. While the ship was a technology that could have been used in many ways, the structural and strategic forces behind it made it the slave ship, the cargo ship, the naval ship. The tech barons and venture capitalists behind AI and the structures of racial capitalism that shape it are not seeking to improve our shared lives, but to grab more power and wealth.

To make these ships, forests were cut down and communities, ecosystems, and ways of life were destroyed. Likewise, AI is already having devastating environmental consequences with emissions, water, and communities. Those ships were used to transport enslaved and indentured peoples to plantations and mines, and they transported those extracted “resources” to factories. The commons were enclosed and privatized, so that the means of production could be held by a few, and the many would be so desperate and dependent that they were easily exploited. The growth of AI is being driven by the ambition that a few will own not just the means of production, but the producers themselves will be machines that can be owned. The vision is not to share this largess with all peoples but to consolidate power.

The age of the ship tried to call itself the Enlightenment. Its advocates were folks like John Locke who spun webs about freedom being rooted in private property and spent his life as a bureaucrat writing up constitutions that instituted slavery. Likewise, AI optimist are dressing it up as a kind of intellectual freedom, but its function will be to produce and control more docile populations.

Continue reading “Call a Thing What it is” →

From Golden Calf to Sacred Dwelling: Reimagining Jewish Identity Beyond the Nation-State

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By Ariel Gold

When Pope Leo XIV rebuked Pete Hegseth on Good Friday for using biblical language to justify war, it stopped me cold. What was a red line for the American pope — and sparked a “tidal wave” of complaints from active duty U.S. service members — has become so normalized in American Judaism that our siddurim (prayer books) include prayers that the State of Israel and the Israeli Defense Forces, with God’s help, be “crowned with victory” in all military endeavors.

I thought back to the Torah portion of the prior few weeks and the lessons it offers.

In Parsha Ki Tisa, the Israelites build a golden calf while Moses is on Mount Sinai receiving the Torah. Newly freed from bondage in Egypt, anxious and unmoored, they melt down their gold and create an idol to worship.

As the saying goes, those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. Despite thousands of years of Torah study, we have done it again — given in to fear and replaced our faith in God with the worship of another idol — this time, a nation-state.

When European Jews in the 19th century were allowed out of ghettos and into broader society, it raised a genuinely thorny question: was Judaism, as a religion, even necessary anymore? Like the Jews of biblical times, our emancipation created a void. What rushed in was nationalism. Zionism offered a secular answer — shift faith in God into faith in political and military power. But God was removed from the language while biblical promise continued to drive political action. Messianic longing was not replaced; it was nationalized.

Continue reading “From Golden Calf to Sacred Dwelling: Reimagining Jewish Identity Beyond the Nation-State” →

Not Our End Times

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Christians for a Free Palestine is hosting another community call this Wednesday, April 15 at 8pmET. Register here.

For more than two years, the U.S. government has enabled and normalized genocide against Palestinians in Gaza with impunity, and yesterday morning, President Donald Trump made overtly genocidal threats “that a whole civilization” could die in order to achieve his military goals in Iran. 

The U.S. and Israeli governments have already committed enormous harm in Iran, including war crimes. Even as a fragile ceasefire in Iran begins, Israel is continuing to bomb Lebanon, dropping bombs in 100 locations in just 10 minutes today. Over the past month, U.S. and Israeli actions in the region have displaced millions of people from their homes.

For years, the Christian Zionist lobby paved the way for this moment. According to them, any violence, war, and destruction can be justified and even celebrated if it is seen to help usher in the end times. That’s why Christian Zionists are cheering on the ethnic cleansing set to take place in Lebanon as a step toward “Greater Israel,” and hailing the war in Iran as the Battle of Armageddon. As Christians, we oppose genocide and ethnic cleansing against any people, and believe in a future for our world grounded in true and just peace— not false peace held up by domination, violence, and empire. 

Our April 15 Community Call, “Not Our End Times” will focus on how Christian Zionism has fueled the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran and how we respond. Join us to hear from:

  • Joy Metzler, a military defector and conscientious objector
  • Izzy Mustafa, campaigns coordinator with Adalah Justice Project
  • Tommy Airey, a leader with CFP-Detroit, and member of CFP’s Theo-Politics Team.

We hope to see you on April 15 at 8pm ET / 5pm PT to build community, make sense of this moment together, and continue creative, nonviolent resistance to Christian Zionism, including preparing for this summer’s action to counter Christians United for Israel (CUFI), the largest Zionist organization in the country. 

Let us work together toward the “world that ought to be.”

Preserved Proudly

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From author and professor Susan Muaddi Darraj, re-posted from social media.

I wish American Christians who are cheering Israel’s actions in Palestine and Lebanon could attend a Lebanese Maronite Church and hear the prayers read in Aramaic.

That was the language spoken by Jesus, and it is preserved proudly by these ancient Arab Christian communities.

They won’t recognize the language as Jesus’ language though, just as I cannot recognize their actions and thoughts as anything remotely resembling Christianity.