amos of tekoa, a prophet to the american mindset I

how do we make scriptures something more than beautiful language? how can the words of the prophets bite us as they would have the original hearers? how can the word become living? translation.

here's a translation of Amos' message...for the israelites, it was too late. is it too late for us? is it ever too late after Christ? even if there is no pending destruction, can we mourn how american wealth at the cost of the global poor as tarnished the Lord's name? can we mourn that the holiness of Yahweh's is washed with the blood of the oppressed? more to come when my paper is turned in...

anyway, here's the translation/introduction:

I had a dream of you, reader. You were living the American Dream. I saw you lounging in a over-stuffed IKEA couch, feeling lush fabric beneath you and drinking an ice-cold Coca-Cola on an unusually hot Seattle summer day, whose temperature and skin-toning UV rays were brought to you by way of your Hummer, sitting in your garage with better accommodations than the homes of the people who made that couch on which you perched. You were watching American Idol, and feeling quite confident that American Idol means Global Idol, since America is number one.

Then, the haunting music preceding a FOX special report interrupted Simon’s reaming of the latest reject. As you heard the sound, terror gripped your heart, like the roar of a lion in an ancient near eastern village. The voice of a right-slanted FOX news anchor followed the foreboding music and your lackadaisical evening came to a halt as he brought this message: God is going to destroy American Christianity. For you, there is no hope. Christ’s cross and resurrection are no longer applicable to your transgressions. Your businesses will be laid waste. The stock market will crash. America will no longer be number one, but will be destroyed. The lush lives you have gained at the expense of global poor will be wiped like a tear from the face of the Earth. The end has come and Jesus, the Lord God of hosts will uphold his name through your destruction.