Living for the City

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• The Wire is an American crime drama television series set and produced in and around Baltimore, Maryland. Created and primarily written by author and former police reporter David Simon, the series was broadcast by the premium cable network HBO in the United States. The Wire premiered on June 2, 2002, and ended on March 9, 2008, comprising 60 episodes over five seasons.

Each season of The Wire introduces a different facet of the city of Baltimore. In chronological order they are:

•the illegal drug trade •the seaport system •the city government and bureaucracy• the school system, and the print news media

•The most common impression of the bible is pastoral, country. (attributed to rural areas) Yet the urban theme of the bible is crucial to an understanding of it’s message.

•The city is the major context in which the theological events of the biblical message occur

A SYMBOL OF EVIL

•The city gets of to a bad start in the scriptures.

•The first urban reference is a negative one and associates the first “city” with a murderer named Cain. For some the city is the center of rebellion against God.

INTERRELATED INEQUALITIES

•Micah 6:6-10•Ezekiel 7:23; (9:9)

•The climax of the negative image of the city is seen in Revelation 17:1-18.

•David Simon has provided a critique of 21st century American Christianity by making the Church with in “the wire little more than a stage prop”…….

• “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” [Romans 12:2, NIV]“For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin.”

[Hebrews 4:15, NIV]

• Essentially the kingdom of God is a new world order of transformed relationships that are social, economic, and political.