{"id":36653,"date":"2024-03-14T14:07:35","date_gmt":"2024-03-14T21:07:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=36653"},"modified":"2024-03-14T14:07:35","modified_gmt":"2024-03-14T21:07:35","slug":"wont-you-be-my-neighbor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wont-you-be-my-neighbor\/","title":{"rendered":"Won’t You Be My Neighbor?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood<\/i> was a television preschool program that ran from 1968-2001. What was the secret to the success of this 33 year running TV program?\u00a0 Read the lyrics to the song that Mr. Rogers would open the show with:<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s a beautiful day in this neighborhood,<\/span>
\n<\/span> A beautiful day for a neighbor.<\/span>
\n<\/span> Would you be mine?<\/span>
\n<\/span> Could you be mine?<\/span><\/p>\n

The song would continue:<\/span><\/p>\n

I have always wanted to have a neighbor just like you,<\/span>
\n<\/span> I\u2019ve always wanted to live in a neighborhood with you.<\/span>
\n<\/span> So let\u2019s make the most of this beautiful day,<\/span>
\n<\/span> Since we\u2019re together we might as well say,<\/span>
\n<\/span> Would you be mine?<\/span>
\n<\/span> Could you be mine?<\/span><\/p>\n

Throughout history, have people always wanted the neighbors that have joined their neighborhood? In his book <\/span>A Moral Reckoning,<\/span><\/i> Nigel Biggar describes colonialism as having combined ethos of neighborly good and dominating take over. [1] He describes an empire as a political organization where one people group dominates. He also describes colonialism as a dominant people migrating to another part of the world to settle. Biggars specialize in the British Empire and uncovers mixed intentions in their desire to explore the world and settle in distant lands. He poses the question: Could there be good intentions in colonialism? Desiring to trade goods appears to come from good intentions but racism birthed the slave trade, a cruel treatment of man. Biggar shares his hope to inspire honest debate among people by keeping the view that all humans have a mixture of virtue and vice. [2]<\/span><\/p>\n

Vice<\/b><\/p>\n

It is right to celebrate the end of slavery. \u201cOn February 8, 1815, eight powers in Europe signed a momentous declaration. Slavery was repugnant to the principles of humanity and universal morality.\u201d [3] The end of the African slave trade was a long, hard-fought battle. History provides the luxury of being able to look back and mark the end of this evil. But it should be noted that slavery lasted over 300 years. If we are a mixture of virtue and vice, as Biggar claims, what kept the abomination of slavery occurring so long? \u201cHuman community was intended to reflect the image of a triune God \u2013 to be a community of love \u2013 but it chose to follow the diabolical temptation to put self-interest first.\u201d [4] Biggar\u2019s hope is that people will recognize their own sinfulness thus tempering judgment towards neighbors. I believe it is safe to say that self- interest is here to stay. Is tempered judgment the solution, or is the solution extending forgiveness?<\/span><\/p>\n

Virtue<\/b><\/p>\n

Mr. Rogers \u201cWon\u2019t you be my neighbor\u201d diddy suggests: since we are together, we might as well say: Would you be mine? Could you be mine? For this neighborly reality there needs to be a reconciling function. Peter, the disciple, asked Jesus, \u201cLord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?\u201d Jesus answered, \u201cI tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.\u201d (Matthew 18:20-22) This is a biblically based view which is not embraced by the majority. Vishal Mangalwadi asserts that \u201crestoration of the authority of the Bible in the English world amounted to a civilization finding its soul,\u201d prior to the end of the slave trade. [5] Bebbington reinforces this view by stating that \u201cEvangelicals were central to the whole enterprise,\u201d in the abolishment of the African slave trade. [6] It can be assumed that for sin to be acknowledged and forgiveness to be extended, a Biblical ethic must be revisited.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It would be interesting to discuss with Biggar, his ethical view that judgment can be curbed with personal assessment of one’s own sinfulness. I would want to challenge him to consider how forgiveness is an imperative for neighbors to thrive. How else are we to be truly neighborly without following Luke 6:37? \u201cDo not judge and you will not be judged.\u00a0 Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

[1] Biggar, Nigel, Christa Ethicist with John Anderson, You Tube June 30, 2023<\/span><\/p>\n

[2] Biggar, Nigel, Christa Ethicist with John Anderson, You Tube, June 30, 2023<\/span><\/p>\n

[3] Holland, Tom, <\/span>Dominion <\/span><\/i>(Basic Books: New York) 2019, p. 411<\/span><\/p>\n

[4] Mangalwadi,Vishal, <\/span>The Book that Made Your World<\/span><\/i> (Thomas Nelson Books: Nashville) 2011,\u00a0 p.301<\/span><\/p>\n

[5] Ibid., p.270<\/span><\/p>\n

[6] Bebbington, D.W.,\u00a0 <\/span>Evangelicalism in Modern Britain, <\/span><\/i>(Routledge: London) 1989, p.71<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood was a television preschool program that ran from 1968-2001. What was the secret to the success of this 33 year running TV program?\u00a0 Read the lyrics to the song that Mr. Rogers would open the show with: It\u2019s a beautiful day in this neighborhood, A beautiful day […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":165,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1300,3111],"class_list":["post-36653","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-colonialism","tag-nigel-biggar","cohort-dlgp01"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36653","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/165"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36653"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36653\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36654,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36653\/revisions\/36654"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36653"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36653"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36653"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}