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Parkhurst: Christian leaven produced family equality—fathers once despots, husbands tyrants, now affection and equality. Women increasingly equal before the law. Conservative energy now reverses this, attributing it to secular corruption. Parkhurst would disagree. #presbyterian #equality

Wardlaw on Ecclesiastes 11: give to 7 or 8 because complete reversals of fortune happen. Those you’ve assisted may one day assist you. Not sentiment—prudence. Foreign aid once operated on this logic. It has been reclassified as political correctness. #bible #ecclesiastes #usaid #congregationalist

Bersier: Christianity insists the suffering of our brothers and sisters is our own, and none have the right to close their heart to it. Much of the stifling of this voice now comes from within Christianity itself. Cain would recognise the maneuver. #reformedchurch #christian #bible

Booth: the Greatest Commandments are a standard against which believers must test themselves until conformity is attained. Much apologetics energy goes toward stifling that conscience-prick instead. Booth would recognise this as failing the test. #baptist #blackvoices #christian #bible

Calvin on James 1:27: religion is not demonstrated in pomp and ceremony but in visiting those in necessity and alleviating distress. These are the duties God’s servants ought to attend to. Calvin considered this the actual definition of religion. #calvinism #christian

Jerome: wealth is no spiritual obstacle if used well. Poverty is no recommendation if the poor fail to avoid wrongdoing. Neither class gets automatic credit or condemnation. Contemporary factions have strong preferences. Jerome found both theologically unsupported. #christian #poverty #wealth

Raffles: if prayers work by being prayers, free ones work equally well. If every mass already commemorates all the faithful including the poor, what exactly are the fees purchasing? The economics demolish the theology without assistance. #congregationalist #worship #protestant

Dent quotes Exodus 22: trouble the widow or fatherless child, and God’s wrath kindles against you. He places this in a pathway to heaven—not as a minor caveat but a central warning. God notices. The pathway runs directly past their door. #puritan #justice

Ellinwood: medical missionaries brought vaccines, sanitation, and anesthetics to the developing world—heritage of all nations. Distraction from the gospel, or its fruit? Certain Christians today pursue a different conquest, whose benefits are less universally distributed. #presbyterian #christian

Barnes: no topic receives more thorough biblical treatment than oppression, and slavery is its perfect embodiment. Everyone agrees oppression matters most. The disagreement is purely about which sufferers qualify. Barnes, reading scripture, had no such list. #presbyterian

Luther: abusing gospel freedom leads to Mammon worship, ruthless accumulation, extracting wealth from land and people. Conservative warnings about gospel license cover certain sins vigorously. Covetousness features less prominently. Luther didn’t make that distinction. #lutheran #socialjustice

Gerhard: you wish to be a son of God, yet refuse to own God’s other sons as brothers. If someone deserves love, love them for that. If not, love them because God commands it. Even loving enemies demonstrates friendship with God. The logic is airtight. #lutheran #peace

Collyer: the Gospel breathes peace, promotes human joy, strengthens philanthropy. Jesus made friends with outcasts and offended religious people. Today’s pattern reverses: gospel-on-sleeve-wearers create division at church, argue against charitable urgency. #gospel #congregationalist #christian

M’Crie quotes an Inquisition victim who preferred cannibals to his baptized tormentors. Neither flinching nor excusing it. The Reformation’s heirs were primary targets, and they preserved the memory. Don’t be a fiend. Consider who kept this story alive. #reformed #presbyterian #churchhistory

Bartlett catalogs unsanctified commerce: the East India Company, slave trade, opium war, Pacific vice. Against this, missionaries fought fifty years. Commerce was the pollutant; missionaries were the resistance. Today that framing is inverted, and commerce is the idol. #christian #missionaries

Hopkins asks what enslaved people concluded about Christianity, watching its adherents practice slavery. Liberals call it biblical to indict the religion; conservatives to defend it. Same proposition, opposite direction. Hopkins found a third option. #christian #abolition #slavery #gospel

Simeon: claiming to admire Christ’s love for sinners means nothing without following the example—render good for evil, feed your enemies. That proves discipleship. Internet preachers admire this love far more than they practice it. #missions #reformedtheology #bible

Robinson: wealth confers a capacity poverty does not—to relieve prisoners, feed the hungry, ransom captives. He frames this as mercy from God. Considerable contemporary wealth instead persuades us to feel less compassion for the imprisoned and starving. #presbyterian #wealth #biblestudy #pulpitsky

Job didn't merely give aid—he rescued and delighted the suffering. Nott applies this to scenes that chill the blood: snow through roof holes, families without fuel. His response was prayer for relief, not theological satisfaction in the spectacle. #presbyterian #compassion #biblestudy #bookofjob

Burroughs reworks the Last Judgment: not failing to feed the hungry, but actively seizing meat, house, clothing; causing sickness and imprisonment. Active wrongs, not omissions. Would modern Puritan scholars preach to equivalent crimes today? Whom can you feed today? #puritan #christian #bible