Rachelle Lyndaker Schlabach reflects for Third Way Cafe on the words of Amos in light of the relaunch of peace negotiations between Palestine and Israel:
Three years ago I stood on a rooftop in the Deheisheh refugee camp in Bethlehem. On a hillside a few miles away I could see the distinctive red roofs of Tekoa, one of many Israeli settlements built on occupied land in the West Bank.
Fresh from a course in biblical Hebrew, studying and translating the book of Amos, I could not help but wonder what Amos would think. I knew that the shepherd from Tekoa had much to say about justice.
He is, after all, the one who proclaimed, “Let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream” (5.24). All throughout the book of Amos are unequivocal calls to address injustice, particularly condemning the wealthy for profiting off the poor.
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MCC Washington Memo 