aquart (1000+ posts) Sun Jun-08-08 08:59 PM
Response to Original message
1. Because it's fun.
Try telling a divinity student that all of Christian civilization came from a woman with her ass in the air. (Boaz first saw Ruth while she was gleaning. Posture of gleaning?)
Try again four pint.
The primitives completely miss the message of Ruth. It's one of my favorite bible stories, in fact. Ruth was poor and in a strange land. Her only family was her mother in law, who wasn't able to help. What the primitives should notice is that Ruth doesn't sit on her tail waiting on help to come her, or in the street begging, nor does she lament that God or the government isn't helping her.
Instead, Ruth takes advantage of the law, and goes down to the farmers field to collect wheat that the workers have dropped. According to Jewish law of the time, wheat that fell to the ground was to be left for the poor, that led to her being noticed by her mother in laws family who took her to his house. Further one can imagine that constantly leaning over with "her ass in the air" would have been uncomfortable according to our understanding of ergonomics. She likely bent her legs to collect the loose wheat. But I digress....
If the basis of Christian civilization is a poor woman collecting wheat in a field, then liberal theology is based on someone who should have "their ass in the air" instead having it firmly planted, waiting for another to come help them.
