From the Editorial:
Proverbs 16:24 tells us that “Gracious words are like a honeycomb, sweetness to the soul and health to the body.” And yet, we know full well that words are often used ungraciously. The psalmists thus recognize wicked people who, in their desire to cause harm, “whet their tongues like swords, who aim bitter words like arrows” (Ps 64:3), who “encircle me with words of hate, and attack me without cause” (Ps 109:3). Words can cause severe pain when used to treat people of other ethnicities or cultures as less than fully human. This issue of Mission Round Table puts five more papers from the OMF Mission Research Consultation into print and looks at words and their effects from a number of different angles.
As in the previous issue of Mission Round Table, a series of questions follow each article for personal reflection or group discussion.
Contents
Genesis 11:1–9 The Tower of Babel—Scattered Humanity – David Eastwood
“For the Conversion of the Heathens”: Reflections on Insider/Outsider Dynamics – Jerry Hwang
Being Human: The Politics of Identity – Lightyear
The Church in an Age of Ethnic Polarisation and Religious Exclusivism in Southeast Asia: Some Practical Considerations – Eugene Yapp
Personal and Practical Reflections on People Group Thinking – Les Taylor
Book review – Stones of Remembrance in the Garden of Our Lives: One Family’s Experiences of the Faithfulness of God
Book review – Urban Spirituality: Embodying God’s Mission in the Neighborhood
