Fwd: Richard Rohr’s Daily Meditation: What Bible Do We Read?

[Gabrielle Dean]

Yesterday  at morning tea I made the comment that I don’t think the Christian Nationalists are using our lectionary, otherwise they would hear Sunday after Sunday in church in a three year cycle about Christ’s message to care for the poor and the oppressed. This post from Richard Rohr’s daily meditations is one explanation why:  although they haven't actually censored the Bible as they did with the Slave Bible, they’re probably only reading the bits that don’t say that, if they are hearing it at all. (Especially not “the rich he has sent empty away”!) Just like Gemma said in a recent sermon, the Magnifiicat was banned in various countries because of its subversive message. But lest I get too smug, it probably applies to me as well - doing my own selective reading! 

BTW there is a  Subscribe button at the very end if anyone wants to receive the meditations every day

Begin forwarded message:

From: "Center for Action and Contemplation" <medit...@cac.org>

Subject: Richard Rohr’s Daily Meditation: What Bible Do We Read?

Date: 8 January 2026 at 3:03:21 pm AWST

To: "Gabrielle Dean" <gabriel...@icloud.com>

Reply-To: medit...@cac.org

No images? Click here     Good News for a Fractured World What Bible Do We Read? Thursday, January 8, 2026  READ ON CAC.ORG     We do not all follow the same Jesus. We also do not all read the same Bible.   —Whitney Wilkinson Arreche, “Talking Book” Minister and theologian Whitney Wilkinson Arreche compares the Bible that was preached to enslaved Africans with the good news they encountered while worshipping in clandestine hush harbor gatherings:  When enslaved Africans were taught the Bible, it was a heavily redacted version. The Exodus was removed, as was most of the Old Testament. References to racial unity disappeared, as did the entire book of Revelation. Scripture was butchered by white supremacy, leaving only what was good news to white people. Masters and pastors charged with the spiritual “care” of enslaved persons instead leaned heavily upon Paul…. Scripture was also forced into a sort of smiling compliance: writings about slaves obeying masters were elevated to supra-canonical status. This slave Bible was unequivocal when it came to obedience and submission….   In the hush harbors, enslaved Africans taught one another a different Bible. They pointed to and created a new reality. Through story-songs, they learned of an Exodus where the liberation of enslaved people was God’s primary concern. As Noel Erskine writes, “Down in the hush arbors, enslaved people … learned early to gather to worship and strategize under the cover of night or under the cover of the woods where a redefinition of their status took place.” [1] Under cover, hidden in plain sight for those with eyes to see, they learned of prophets who called out greed, especially money gained through unjust means. They learned of a Jesus who was very different from that so-called “good” ship [named “Jesus” used in the Transatlantic Slave Trade]; a Jesus who, like his mother, cast down the mighty from their thrones, filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty (Luke 1:46–55). They learned of a fire-in-the-bones Spirit poured out on all flesh, even and especially enslaved flesh (Acts 2:1–21). They learned of a Revelation of all that is wrong being turned upside down, in a flourishing garden not tended by enslaved labor (Revelation 22). This talking book was the antidote to slavery's  prooftexted shouting.   Arreche cautions us against reading Scripture in oppressive ways:  That antidote is still sorely needed in a church and theology that continues to perpetuate the prooftexted lies of white supremacy. These lies come in many forms. They appear as an overrepresentation of Paul’s words, particularly his words about submission and obedience. They also appear as ideas that the New Testament renders the Old obsolete, or worse, evil…. If we only read, teach, and preach the New Testament, particularly when we heavily center the writings attributed to Paul, we are perpetuating a plantation church ethic of Scripture. If, instead, we center narratives of liberation and survival, refusing to sanitize Jesus and refusing to spiritualize physical freedom, we get closer to the hush harbor. We get closer to the power of the Talking Book. We get closer to what can actually be called gospel—good news.     SHARE THIS MEDITATION     Brian McLaren on Good News for a Fractured World   CAC faculty member Brian McLaren shares the theme for the 2026 Daily Meditations. Watch the video.     Good News for a Fractured World   Explore Further   Practice With Us   New at CAC     Story From Our Community Brian McLaren’s Daily Meditation “In All Circumstances” was enlightening to me, all the way down to his beautiful ending: “For this breath, thanks. For this tear, thanks. For this memory of something I used to enjoy but have now lost, thanks. For this ability not simply to rage over what has been taken, but to celebrate what was once given, thanks.” I immediately felt compelled to add one more line: “For loving me so incredibly then, now, and forever, thank you so very much!” —Art D. Share your own story with us.     Was this meditation shared with you? Subscribe to the Daily Meditations.   SUBSCRIBE     References [1] Noel Leo Erskine, Plantation Church: How African American Religion Was Born in Caribbean Slavery(Oxford University Press, 2014), 134. Whitney Wilkinson Arreche, “Talking Book,” in Liberating Church: A Twenty-First Century Hush Harbor Manifesto, ed. Brandon Wrencher and Venneikia Samantha Williams (Cascade Books, 2022) 46, 47, 48.   Image credit and inspiration: Paul Macallan, untitled (detail), 2021, photo, Unsplash. Click here to enlarge image. Like this bright flower, the gift of contemplation and action brings us hope in the midst of painful reality.     The work of the Center for Action and Contemplation is possible only because of people like you! Learn more about how you can help support this work.         Copyright © 2026 | Center for Action and Contemplation. All rights reserved. Our mailing address is: 1705 Five Points Road SW Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA 87105 Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe. Unsubscribe