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UID:Indybay-18770794
SEQUENCE:18891582
CREATED:20150406T003500Z
DESCRIPTION:Drop in on a reading/study group plumbing the justice details of Leviticus, 
 part of the book most influential in Martin Luther King's career, and the 
 book which shaped the voices of Amos and Hosea, the men inspiring Cornell 
 West's Black Prophetic Fire. This is not a religious studies group, it's an 
 intellectual bootcamp exploring the nitty-gritty economic and social 
 mandates of the Hebrew Bible. \n\nThe Exodus story provides inspiration for 
 any people desirous of freedom. The constitution which the Hebrews adopted 
 subsequent to the legendary Exodus enumerated social mandates that make all 
 demands of today's Labor Movements pale!\n\nAn intellectually honest 
 approach to appreciating MLK and the great sweep of Black Liberation 
 history in the US would have to include a (re)reading of the book which 
 inspired so many of the 19th century spirituals and so much of 20th century 
 Black Church and civil rights liberation rhetoric, and yet which so few 
 otherwise earnest, liberal, progressive do-gooders have taken account. 
 \n\nThe world's first documented constitutional society was in ancient 
 Israel. The collection of history, stories and homilies known as the Hebrew 
 Bible/Old Testament depicts a community which strove to adhere to a 
 constitution which in many significant respects could well inspire and 
 point the legislative direction for today's social justice advocates. 
 \n\nperiodic (7 year) debt abolition \nmandatory (!) vacation time 
 \nuniversal land enfranchisement \nmandatory social security \nno tax on 
 work \n\nTaken together, these five laws in ancient Israel resulted in a 
 staggeringly huge middle class, almost no bureaucracy, universal literacy 
 (on par with Cuba), and an astonishing absence of hierarchical governance 
 and society. \n\n"Go down, Moses, way down in Egypt land. \nTell old 
 Pharaoh, Let my people go." \nSpiritual, first published c. 1862 \n\n"Like 
 anybody, I would like to live - a long life; longevity has its place. But 
 I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And He's 
 allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over. And I've seen 
 the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know 
 tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the Promised Land. So I'm happy, 
 tonight. I'm not worried about anything. I'm not fearing any man. Mine eyes 
 have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord." MLK, 1968 \n\nThese are 
 words that touched hearts, launched action, and which only hint at the 
 depths of specific freedom legislation which the Hebrew Law in the Bible 
 book of Leviticus enunciated. \n\nYou are invited to join The Commons SF in 
 a secular reading of several texts treating the sociology of the Bible 
 without dependence upon supernatural forces, reading for profound lessons 
 to be learned by justice advocates today. Louis Wallis' "Sociological Study 
 of the Bible" and John Kelly's "The Other Law of Moses" will be supplied. 
 \n\nFor more info: info [at] TheCommonsSF.org \n\n 
 https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2015/04/05/18770794.php
SUMMARY:Passover, Martin Luther King, and Labor
LOCATION:Muddy Waters Cafe\n521 Valencia St.\nSF, CA\n
URL:https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2015/04/05/18770794.php
DTSTART:20150407T020000Z
DTEND:20150407T033000Z
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