Adam Ericksen: “Same Sex Unions: A Faithful Response“
[Christians] who embrace same sex unions are attempting to be faithful followers of Christ. I know because I’m one of them. We read the Bible. We know our Christian history. We have sound doctrine. And it’s because we are rooted in those places that we feel called to embrace those who find themselves excluded.
For example, let’s take a look at Original Sin. This doctrine is based, in part, on the human tendency to form our identity against an “other.” In other words, once we eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, we know who is “good” and who is “bad.” And, of course, “I” am always the good guy, which means (sorry about this!) “you” are the bad guy. I take it that Original Sin is universal. In some way we all grasp for a sense of goodness, which means we grasp against someone else. For some reason, humans don’t like to share “goodness” so we compete for it. We make religious and political rules that distinguish “us good guys” from “those bad guys.” We feel the need to exclude “them” from our community, thinking that they hold some special power that will contaminate us. We start making distinctions between “clean” and “unclean.” Indeed, that distinction is made in scripture, but scripture also critiques that distinction.
Anthony B. Susan: “Douglas Wilson on Slavery: The Evangelical White Man’s Burden“
So let’s recap: we have one Calvinist preacher and a neo-Confederate, and they agree on two things: slavery and the evils of same-sex marriage. At no point does Wilson acknowledge or condemn the League of South’s extremist leanings. He can’t, really. Wilkins is a necessary ally in the culture war.
Wilson goes to explain that he is not racist; in fact, he identifies racism as the South’s great sin. I think he sincerely believes this. He also sincerely believes that African culture during the antebellum was “inferior” to white Southern culture. …
… Ultimately, it doesn’t really matter if Wilson considers himself a racist. He explicitly locates non-white cultures as inferior. That is itself racist. The belief that others must be civilized, and taught to assimilate into Western cultural mores, is racist. Racism isn’t just an irrational hatred for other ethnic groups. If it were, the degree of entrenched racism revealed year after year to still be present and relevant in the United States would reflect the size and influence of the white power movement. It would certainly not be so pervasive. But it is, and so racism’s definition has to be expanded. It’s more than hatred; it is an attitude of cultural superiority and the characterization of the American black as something Other. And by this standard, Douglas Wilson is a racist.
Caleb Wilde: “Ask a Funeral Director …“
Very religious people are used to putting on a front and/or trying to accept the belief that “it all happened for a reason” that when it comes to grief and loss, they have a hard time realizing it. They’re trying too hard to act like their immutable and impassible god that doesn’t exist.
Part of the reason death doesn’t affect us is because we have a theology that promotes an unaffected God. I wonder how pastors would approach funerals and the bereaved if we really believed that Jesus not only wept, but he probably still weeps with us today?
For many Christians, it’s too easy to major on orthodoxy and minor on orthopathos. During death, perhaps there’s nothing more in line with living like Jesus than attempting to feel with the bereaved family.
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