\u201cA third thing that the Church can do in attempting to solve the race problem is to take the lead in strong Christian social action. It is not enough for the Church to be active in the ideological direction; it must also move out into the arena of social action. The first act in this area should be the Church\u2019s determination to purge its own body of discriminatory practices. Only by doing this can the Church be effective in its attack on outside evils.\u201d (1) <\/p>\n
If you are wondering why I began with the excerpt from a speech that Martin Luther King gave on Social Action, please hold that thought. I will come back to that a little later in the post. <\/p>\n
I made a commitment to read all the books (cover to cover) this term and take my time with them, to let the information sink in, and take the time to interpret the material in a way that I can relate to my experience. It takes me a little longer to do that, but I am okay bringing up the rear with my posts. I did not know what to expect from this book but what I quickly realized is that it covered a topic that is so timely for me. This election season (just like the last and the one before that) has really brought to the forefront the political views and opinions of people that I interact with on a regular basis. I have had conversations both virtual and face-to-face with people in my Church circle and Bible Study group that left me with a terrible feeling. Not because we argued or had a heated discussion, but because the things that they shared were things that they believed with such conviction that there was no room for any other opinion. Their Christianity in so deeply intertwined with their nationalism that they cannot separate the two. So true is this statement, \u201cChristian nationalism is a danger to Christians and non-Christians alike.\u201d(2) And this is probably what left me feeling terrible, the danger of it all creates an awful pit in my belly and a saddest in my heart. <\/p>\n
N.T. Wright and Michael F. Bird state that this book has one objection, \u201cto say that, in an age of ascending autocracies, in a time of fear and fragmentation, amid carnage and crises, Jesus is King, and Jesus\u2019 kingdom remains the object of the Church\u2019s witness and work.\u201d(3) My immediate response to that was, \u201cYes, please, and thank you!\u201d. Before I go too far down the rabbit hole on that topic. I want to acknowledge that this book provides a great deal of historical and biblical information on the very contested issue of Church and State, so I would content that it fulfills a second objective. It provides Bible content to highly contested question of whether Church and State should remain separate. I appreciate this summary that the authors provide as it offers some clarity, \u201cTo recap, we\u2019ve seen that Christians have a complex relationship with the State, existing the poles of seeking political favour with civic leaders and being a political nuisance in Jesus\u2019 name.\u201d(4) This gets very confusing and murky during intense political seasons. I try to reconcile how I feel about the mixture of church and politics. Admittedly, it is difficult. The reality is the Church was the epicenter for organizing social action in the late 50\u2019s and 60\u2019s (Hence the MLK quote). The political momentum of the Civil Rights Movement began in the Church. This was before the coining of the term socio-political. Political activism for social action took place in the Church. It is important to remember and acknowledge that the premise of the movement was equality. That we might all be treated, under the law and in society, as equals. I have always felt like the movement was centered around an understanding that we are all God\u2019s children and just as he loves us, we should love each other, following the second great commandment to Love thy neighbor. I know that I am not alone in this belief. The authors articulate this so well,\u201d We can provide a Christian justification for \u2018liberalism\u2019 through the notion of \u201clove thy neighbour\u2019. In order to love our \u2018neighbor\u2019, we must allow our neighbour to be beside us and yet be different from us. Our neighbour has permission to be \u2018other\u2019 than us.\u201d(5) I feel differently about this when the political views do not seem to support \u201cLove thy Neighbor\u201d but instead promote divisive views. I have a difficult time hearing politicians solicit votes on Sunday morning when their platform does not reflect an inclusive message.<\/p>\n
For many, the Church is a place of safety and community. A place where we can share a sacred space. To achieve this it is necessary, as the authors state \u201cTo build for the kingdom, we need to confront the difficult subject of empire, appreciate the ambiguous place that Christianity has occupied in Western civilisation, and consider how best to offer a Christian witness in an age that has lost its ability to reason with others.\u201d(6)<\/p>\n
It is so interesting how many of us align on so many things until the one thing surfaces that creates an instant divide. Yet beyond that, if we leave that out, we can easily co-exist in our different opinions and find comfort in knowing that we are all children of God. If we are to live out the teachings of Christ, it is not a question of whether we vote different, it is really in a world where we lean in to being brothers and sisters in Christ. When we do that, the question of Church and State is not such a big debate because we are committing to lead with love and all things that flow from that will unite us in the most powerful way. This is Kingdom Building!<\/p>\n
1. King, Martin Luther, Jr. 1957. \u201cThe Role of the Church in Facing the Nation\u2019s Chief Moral Dilemma.\u201d Transcript of speech delivered at the Conference on Christian Faith and Human Relations, Nashville, TN, April 25, 1957. https:\/\/kinginstitute.stanford.edu
\n2. N. T. Wright and Michael F. Bird, Jesus and the Powers: Christian Political Witness in An Age of Totalitarian Terror and Dysfunctional Democracies (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Reflective, 2024), 129.
\n3. Ibid., xiii.
\n4. Ibid.,122.
\n5. Ibid.,159.
\n6. Ibid.,10.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cA third thing that the Church can do in attempting to solve the race problem is to take the lead in strong Christian social action. It is not enough for the Church to be active in the ideological direction; it must also move out into the arena of social action. The first act in this […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":174,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","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":[2310],"tags":[3257],"class_list":["post-38241","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-doctor-of-leadership-3","tag-dlgp02-wright-and-bird","cohort-dlgp02"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38241","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\/174"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38241"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38241\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38242,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38241\/revisions\/38242"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38241"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38241"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38241"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}