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Home›Traditions›Progressive/Social Justice

Progressive/Social Justice Illustrations

Reading scripture through liberation, equality, and advocacy for the marginalized.

Key question: “How does this text speak to issues of justice, equality, and the liberation of the oppressed?”

25,724 sermon illustrations through the Progressive/Social Justice lens

Poetry

The Human Abstract

Pity would be no more If we did not make somebody poor, And Mercy no more could be If all were as happy as we. And mutual fear brings Peace, Till the selfish loves increase; Then Cruelty knits a snare,...

Universal

William Blake

114 words

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Poetry

Sonnet 49: Against that time, if ever that time come

Against that time, if ever that time come, When I shall see thee frown on my defects, When as thy love hath cast his utmost sum, Call'd to that audit by advis'd respects; Against that time when thou shalt strangely...

Universal

William Shakespeare

105 words

Poetry

Lines Written on Hearing the News of the Death of Napoleon

alive and so bold, O Earth? Art thou not overbold? leapest thou forth as of old In the light of thy morning mirth, The last of the flock of the starry fold? leapest thou forth as of old?

On the Star of "the Legion of Honour."

Star of the brave!--whose beam hath shed Such glory o'er the quick and dead-- Thou radiant and adored deceit! Which millions rushed in arms to greet,-- Wild meteor of immortal birth! Why rise in Heaven to set on Earth?

Universal

George Gordon, Lord Byron

235 words

Poetry

To Woman

experience might have told me That all must love thee, who behold thee: Surely experience might have taught Thy firmest promises are nought; But, plac'd in all thy charms before me, All I forget, but to _adore_ thee.

Universal

George Gordon, Lord Byron

124 words

Poetry

Protus

Among these latter busts we count by scores, Half-emperors and quarter-emperors, Each with his bay-leaf fillet, loose-thonged vest, Loric and low-browed Gorgon on the breast, One loves a baby face, with violets there, Violets instead of laurel in the hair,...

To My Son

Those flaxen locks, those eyes of blue Bright as thy mother's in their hue; Those rosy lips, whose dimples play And smile to steal the heart away, Recall a scene of former joy, And touch thy father's heart, my Boy!

Universal

George Gordon, Lord Byron

206 words

Poetry

To My Dear And Loving Husband

If ever two were one, then surely we. If ever man were lov'd by wife, then thee. If ever wife was happy in a man, Compare with me, ye women, if you can.

Summer Evening (excerpt)

The sinking sun is taking leave, And sweetly gilds the edge of Eve, While huddling clouds of purple dye Gloomy hang the western sky. Crows crowd croaking over head, Hastening to the woods to bed. Cooing sits the lonely dove, Calling home her absent love.

Verses on a Cat

A cat in distress, Nothing more, nor less; Good folks, I must faithfully tell ye, As I am a sinner, It waits for some dinner To stuff out its own little belly.

Mary Bayfield

How beautiful the summer night When birds roost on the mossy tree, When moon and stars are shining bright And home has gone the weary bee!

Misconceptions

This is a spray the bird clung to, Making it blossom with pleasure, Ere the high tree-top she sprung to, Fit for her nest and her treasure.

O Me! O Life!

of the questions of these recurring; Of the endless trains of the faithless—of cities fill’d with the foolish; Of myself forever reproaching myself, (for who more foolish than I, and who more faithless?) Of eyes that vainly crave the light—of...

From "The Parish: A Satire"

In politics and politicians' lies The modern farmer waxes wondrous wise; Opinionates with wisdom all compact, And een could tell a nation how to act; Throws light on darkness with excessive skill, Knows who acts well and whose designs are...

Sonnet 30 (Fire And Ice)

My love is like to ice, and I to fire: how comes it then that this her cold so great is not dissolv'd through my so hot desire, but harder grows, the more I her entreat?

An Enigma

"Seldom we find," says Solomon Don Dunce, "Half an idea in the profoundest sonnet. Through all the flimsy things we see at once As easily as through a Naples bonnet-- Trash of all trash!--how _can_ a lady don it?

My Soul Is Dark

My soul is dark--Oh! quickly string The harp I yet can brook to hear; And let thy gentle fingers fling Its melting murmurs o'er mine...

Universal

George Gordon, Lord Byron

116 words

Poetry

Translation From Catullus. AD Lesbiam

Equal to Jove that youth must be-- _Greater_ than Jove he seems to me-- Who, free from Jealousy's alarms, Securely views thy matchless charms; That cheek, which ever dimpling glows, That mouth, from whence such music flows, To him, alike,...

Universal

George Gordon, Lord Byron

130 words

Poetry

Answer to the Foregoing, Addressed to Miss----

Dear simple girl, those flattering arts, (From which thou'dst guard frail female hearts, Exist but in imagination, Mere phantoms of thine own creation; For he who views that witching grace, That perfect form, that lovely face, With eyes admiring, oh!

Universal

George Gordon, Lord Byron

Short83 words

Poetry

Sonnet 115: Those lines that I before have writ do lie

Those lines that I before have writ do lie, Even those that said I could not love you dearer: Yet then my judgment knew no reason why My most full flame should afterwards burn clearer.

To the Sighing Strephon

Your pardon, my friend, If my rhymes did offend, Your pardon, a thousand times o'er; From friendship I strove, Your pangs to remove, But, I swear, I will do so no more.

Universal

George Gordon, Lord Byron

228 words

Poetry

Love, Hope, Desire, and Fear

And many there were hurt by that strong boy, His name, they said, was Pleasure, And near him stood, glorious beyond measure Four Ladies who possess all empery In earth and air and sea, Nothing that lives from their award is free.

Psalm XXXII: Happy the Man

Happy the man to whom his God No more imputes his sin, But, washed in the Redeemer's blood, Hath made his garments clean. Happy beyond expression he Who debts are thus discharged; And from the guilty bondage free, He feels his soul enlarged.

Holy Sonnet IX: If Poisonous Minerals, And If That Tree

If poisonous minerals, and if that tree Whose fruit threw death on else immortal us, If lecherous goats, if serpents envious Cannot be damned, alas, why should I be? Why should intent or reason, born in me, Make sins, else equal, in me more heinous?

Universal

John Donne

Short96 words