Here's an idea for using Luke 3:1-6 and showing its relationship to King's “I Have a Dream” speech in which he quotes John the Baptist and the prophet Isaiah.
Academic Intersection: Civil Rights Movement, MLK Day, 20th Century History
Academic Objectives:
Understand the historical context of the quote from both Luke and Isaiah and how King applied it to the Civil Rights Movement.
A. Read or listen to this portion of King's "I Have a Dream" speech.
B. Watch The Jesus Film section of Luke 3 from 14:00 to 15:30.
C. Read Isaiah 40: 1-5
Questions to Discuss:
1. What did it mean to the Israelite readers of Isaiah? 2. What did it mean to the listeners of John the Baptist? 3. How did the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. "render it anew" (to use Common Core terminology) and apply it America? 4. What is the Christian understanding (King’s understanding) of the prophecy? 5. How did he use this to this to give his listeners hope for their current struggle and their ultimate future?
The Parable of the Good Samaritan - Every state (plus the District of Columbia) have "Good Samaritan" laws. The story that is the basis for that term -- also called the Good Samaritan Doctrine -- is found in Luke 10:25-37.
Here's a link to find your state: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_many_states_have_the_Good_Samaritan_law
Religious Freedom, Martin Luther, and Thomas Jefferson - Luke 12:4-5
Here's an idea for creating a lesson plan that shows students the intersection of Jesus’s words in Luke 12:4-5, Reformation thinking, and American religious freedom.
Academic topics: •Civics •Religious Freedom Day (January 16) •Reformation •American Revolution •the First Amendment
Compare the writing of Martin Luther in 1523 with Thomas Jefferson in 1786 on the topic of freedom of conscience. Notice how much Jefferson borrows from Luther.
Temporal Authority: To What Extent it Should Be Obeyed By Martin Luther, 1523
“...no human being can kill a soul or give it life, or conduct it to heaven or hell. If they will not take our word for it, Christ himself will attend to it strongly enough where he says in the tenth chapter of Matthew, "Do not fear those who kill the body, and after that have nothing that they can do; rather fear him who after he has killed the body, has power to condemn to hell." [NOTE: for use with the Jesus Film’s dramatization of the book of Luke, refer to Luke 12:4-5] I think it is clear enough here that the soul is taken out of all human hands and is placed under the authority of God alone.
“How can a mere man see, know, judge, condemn, and change hearts? That is reserved for God alone...Therefore, it is futile and impossible to command or compel anyone by force to believe this or that....How he believes or disbelieves is a matter for the conscience of each individual, and since this takes nothing away from the temporal authority the latter should be content to attend to its own affairs and let men believe this or that as they are able and willing, and constrain no one by force.”
Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom By Thomas Jefferson
"Whereas Almighty God hath created the mind free; that all attempts to influence it by temporal punishments or burthens, or by civil incapacitations, tend only to beget habits of hypocrisy and meanness, and are a departure from the plan of the Holy author of our religion, who being Lord both of body and mind, yet chose not to propagate it by coercions on either, as it was in his Almighty power to do...”
This is the same point Luther made 250 years earlier. Jefferson also reflects Luther’s argument when he asserts that forcing someone to profess a certain religious belief in order to hold elected office leads to lying. Jefferson wrote:
“...it tends only to corrupt the principles of that religion it is meant to encourage, by bribing with a monopoly of worldly honours and emoluments, those who will externally profess and conform to it; that though indeed these are criminal who do not withstand such temptation, yet neither are those innocent who lay the bait in their way.”
Notice Jefferson’s last point about state authorities bearing the responsibility for the lie they coerce. Luther wrote this same argument in 1523:
“What is the effect of their trying to force people to believe in their hearts! All they achieve is to force people with weak conscience to lie, to perjure themselves, saying one thing while in their hearts they believe another. And in this way load on themselves the horrifying sins done by others, because all the lies and perjuries such weak consciences utter, when they are spoken under compulsion, fall back on the one who compels their being done.”
Part of the American value system, rooted in Christian thinking, is that people not only have the freedom to maintain their religious beliefs, but to profess them to others, as well. This is the free exercise of religion. The Virginia Statute on Religious Freedom was an important influence on the drafters of the First Amendment three years later:
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.”
MLK's "I Have a Dream" speech
ReplyDeleteHere's an idea for using Luke 3:1-6 and showing its relationship to King's “I Have a Dream” speech in which he quotes John the Baptist and the prophet Isaiah.
Academic Intersection: Civil Rights Movement, MLK Day, 20th Century History
Academic Objectives:
Understand the historical context of the quote from both Luke and Isaiah and how King applied it to the Civil Rights Movement.
A. Read or listen to this portion of King's "I Have a Dream" speech.
B. Watch The Jesus Film section of Luke 3 from 14:00 to 15:30.
C. Read Isaiah 40: 1-5
Questions to Discuss:
1. What did it mean to the Israelite readers of Isaiah?
2. What did it mean to the listeners of John the Baptist?
3. How did the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. "render it anew" (to use Common Core terminology) and apply it America?
4. What is the Christian understanding (King’s understanding) of the prophecy?
5. How did he use this to this to give his listeners hope for their current struggle and their ultimate future?
The Parable of the Good Samaritan -
ReplyDeleteEvery state (plus the District of Columbia) have "Good Samaritan" laws. The story that is the basis for that term -- also called the Good Samaritan Doctrine -- is found in Luke 10:25-37.
Here's a link to find your state:
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_many_states_have_the_Good_Samaritan_law
Religious Freedom, Martin Luther, and Thomas Jefferson - Luke 12:4-5
ReplyDeleteHere's an idea for creating a lesson plan that shows students the intersection of Jesus’s words in Luke 12:4-5, Reformation thinking, and American religious freedom.
Academic topics: •Civics •Religious Freedom Day (January 16) •Reformation •American Revolution •the First Amendment
Compare the writing of Martin Luther in 1523 with Thomas Jefferson in 1786 on the topic of freedom of conscience. Notice how much Jefferson borrows from Luther.
Temporal Authority: To What Extent it Should Be Obeyed
By Martin Luther, 1523
“...no human being can kill a soul or give it life, or conduct it to heaven or hell. If they will not take our word for it, Christ himself will attend to it strongly enough where he says in the tenth chapter of Matthew, "Do not fear those who kill the body, and after that have nothing that they can do; rather fear him who after he has killed the body, has power to condemn to hell." [NOTE: for use with the Jesus Film’s dramatization of the book of Luke, refer to Luke 12:4-5] I think it is clear enough here that the soul is taken out of all human hands and is placed under the authority of God alone.
“How can a mere man see, know, judge, condemn, and change hearts? That is reserved for God alone...Therefore, it is futile and impossible to command or compel anyone by force to believe this or that....How he believes or disbelieves is a matter for the conscience of each individual, and since this takes nothing away from the temporal authority the latter should be content to attend to its own affairs and let men believe this or that as they are able and willing, and constrain no one by force.”
Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom
By Thomas Jefferson
"Whereas Almighty God hath created the mind free; that all attempts to influence it by temporal punishments or burthens, or by civil incapacitations, tend only to beget habits of hypocrisy and meanness, and are a departure from the plan of the Holy author of our religion, who being Lord both of body and mind, yet chose not to propagate it by coercions on either, as it was in his Almighty power to do...”
This is the same point Luther made 250 years earlier. Jefferson also reflects Luther’s argument when he asserts that forcing someone to profess a certain religious belief in order to hold elected office leads to lying. Jefferson wrote:
“...it tends only to corrupt the principles of that religion it is meant to encourage, by bribing with a monopoly of worldly honours and emoluments, those who will externally profess and conform to it; that though indeed these are criminal who do not withstand such temptation, yet neither are those innocent who lay the bait in their way.”
Notice Jefferson’s last point about state authorities bearing the responsibility for the lie they coerce. Luther wrote this same argument in 1523:
“What is the effect of their trying to force people to believe in their hearts! All they achieve is to force people with weak conscience to lie, to perjure themselves, saying one thing while in their hearts they believe another. And in this way load on themselves the horrifying sins done by others, because all the lies and perjuries such weak consciences utter, when they are spoken under compulsion, fall back on the one who compels their being done.”
Part of the American value system, rooted in Christian thinking, is that people not only have the freedom to maintain their religious beliefs, but to profess them to others, as well. This is the free exercise of religion. The Virginia Statute on Religious Freedom was an important influence on the drafters of the First Amendment three years later:
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.”