Author: Jim Naughton

For leaders of the ancient church, hospitality was an important practice for transcending the status boundaries of the surrounding culture and for working through issues of recognition and respect. It was crucial to meeting human needs—especially the physical needs of impoverished believers—and it made sense in the economy of God. Generous hosts, though not seeking gain, would find themselves blessed in the hospitality relationship.

Identified both as apostle to the apostles and as a redeemed prostitute, perhaps no other biblical saint has been the subject of as much interpretation and misinterpretation as Mary of Magdala. Although her commemoration was added to the Western church calendar only in the Middle Ages, a number of patristic writers comment on the biblical texts about her.

The main thing is that the government and the people should be democratic to the core. It is relatively unimportant who is in the government. I am not opposed to the present government because it is white. I am only opposed to it because it is undemocratic and repressive. I do not cherish such expressions as “the all-black government,” “the African majority.” I like to speak about “a democratic majority,” which should be a non-racial majority, and so could be multi-racial or not.