{"id":38503,"date":"2024-09-19T05:41:15","date_gmt":"2024-09-19T12:41:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=38503"},"modified":"2024-09-18T05:42:29","modified_gmt":"2024-09-18T12:42:29","slug":"anyone-interested-in-advancing-gods-kingdom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/anyone-interested-in-advancing-gods-kingdom\/","title":{"rendered":"Anyone interested in advancing God\u2019s Kingdom?"},"content":{"rendered":"

This week, I found it incredibly meaningful to engage in the writings of two of our Advance guest presenters, Brett E. Fuller, and Jim Wallis. My title might be a bit playful, as it comes from Fuller\u2019s expressed desire in writing High Ceilings<\/em> that he wanted to \u201cshare [his] insights with anyone who has an interest in advancing the Kingdom\u201d [1]. By unpacking his Complementarian-Egalitarian position, I say a bit tongue-in-cheek, Kingdom-building begins at home.<\/p>\n

And so it is that the other books from this week\u2019s readings carry with them a call to \u201cbegin at home\u201d for the United States. If there is an interest in advancing the Kingdom of God, this nation (and as a Canadian, I say mine too) must look to its own house first, and address systemic issues related to race and power, and the negotiation of faith and politics.<\/p>\n

Fuller\u2019s invitation in\u00a0Dreaming in Black and White<\/em> is for Christ-following people to offer experientially-grounded wisdom that builds a society of racial justice and peace [2]. He draws upon his own lived experience, and the story experienced by black Americans. One profound example he shared was how his father responded to racism when his kids were denied access to the public pool, by putting in the first backyard pool on their street, and offering it to others who were denied access. Near the end of the book, he shared a principle that aligns with his father\u2019s example.<\/p>\n

\n

We are at our best when we are not retreating in anger but investing our gifts for the good of others. This is what we are made for. This is what changes lives. This is how we fulfill our destinies. This is also what the great chronicle of black America illustrates for us. This is the inheritance we are called to steward, and how we fashion change in our time [3].<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Here\u2019s a question. While in Washington, I plan to visit the National Museum of African-American History and Culture, and will have had a chance to confirm for myself how they handle slavery. I would love to ask Brett about the current developments towards his vision to acknowledge and memorialize slaves in a way that has not yet been done in Washington [4].<\/p>\n

Jim Wallis\u2019 work,\u00a0God\u2019s Politics,<\/em> foreshadows its raison d\u2019\u00eatre<\/em> through it\u2019s amazing subtitle: \u201cWhy the Right Gets it Wrong and the Left Doesn\u2019t Get It\u201d. <\/em>Wallis\u2019 basic argument is that the Right has \u201chijacked the language of faith for its political agenda\u201d and has limited its sense of the Christian moral agenda to issues like gay marriage and abortion, when the Scriptures issue a clear moral call to care for the poor and the sojourners, protect the environment, and peace making [5]. The Left, on the other hand, tries to leave faith out of ethics and society building, engaging in some selective memory about how people of faith were the leaders in issues like the suffrage movement and emancipation of slaves within the progressive history, and the Civil Rights movement [6]. Instead of Conservative in everything, <\/span>Liberal on everything, <\/span>Libertarian (just leave me alone in my moral choices, and don\u2019t spend my money)<\/span>, Wallis offers what he calls a \u201cfourth option\u201d that remains traditional on issues of family values, sexual integrity, and personal responsibility, but very progressive on tackling poverty, injustice and inequality [7].<\/p>\n

My question relates to his \u201cpredictions for a new millennium\u201d near the end of the book [8]. The current election cycle aside, what are some of the most critical steps that Christian people ought to take now to address the current course of history in and from the United States?<\/p>\n

I look forward to interacting with both these leaders, and in picking up the challenge to get our own Christian house in order in terms of how we live as followers of Jesus in the public square.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

______<\/p>\n

[1] Brett E. Fuller, <\/span>High Ceilings: Women in Leadership,<\/span><\/em> Independently published, 2021, 1.<\/span><\/p>\n

[2] Brett Fuller, <\/span>Dreaming In Black And White<\/em>,<\/span>\u00a0S.L.: Bookbaby, 2021, 14.<\/span><\/p>\n

[3]\u00a0Dreaming<\/em>, 150.<\/span><\/p>\n

[4]\u00a0Dreaming<\/em>, 78-79.<\/p>\n

[5] Jim Wallis: \u2018God\u2019s Politics\u2019 Interviewed by C.T. Vivian (Part 1 of 2) – YouTube,\u201d August 23, 2012, 2:40.<\/span><\/p>\n

[6] \u201cGod\u2019s Politics: Why the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn\u2019t Get It\u201d, C-SPAN.Org\u201d, Accessed September 17, 2024, https:\/\/www.c-span.org\/video\/?189504-12\/gods-politics-wrong-left-it,\u00a0<\/span>1:48.<\/p>\n

[7] Jim Wallis, <\/span>God\u2019s Politics: Why the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn\u2019t Get It<\/em>, <\/span>New York: HarperSanFrancisco, 2008, 74.<\/span><\/p>\n

[8] God\u2019s Politics, <\/em>368-370.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This week, I found it incredibly meaningful to engage in the writings of two of our Advance guest presenters, Brett E. Fuller, and Jim Wallis. My title might be a bit playful, as it comes from Fuller\u2019s expressed desire in writing High Ceilings that he wanted to \u201cshare [his] insights with anyone who has an […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":203,"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":[1],"tags":[2969,3208,3250],"class_list":["post-38503","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-dlgp3","tag-fuller","tag-wallis","cohort-dlgp03"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38503","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\/203"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38503"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38503\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38537,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38503\/revisions\/38537"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}