dear Sally, Thanks for your post and for your link to mine. Good reading! Blessings, Ken

Thanks, Amy! I do have to say, though, that you are quite articulate and incisive in your own writings, and I do like hearing your thoughts. And Nicholas, I have really enjoyed reading yor thoughts as well. I list you as a suggested blog on my book website, http://www.practicingparadoxy.com, which includes my mini-blog, "Beyond Us & Them." Blessings to you both! Ken+

Hi Wendy, While I agree that the Church's interpretation of passages like these has been imperialistic and oppressive, I'm not sure this particular passage is. After all, Jesus could have used the Greek term for "religious converts" here, but instead used the term which meant "learners." And the only commandment he gave was to love God and love your neighbor. If that is what he is asking his "learners" to teach, it is not so imperialistic, challenging perhaps, but not imperialistic.