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The Perils of Privilege
Dear Friends,
All relationships come with expectations and responsibilities. Relationships aren’t one way. Not healthy or lasting ones anyway. When we receive the blessings of intimacy, love, loyalty, care, service, or provision in a relationship, it also means that something is required from us. It’s as simple and obvious as saying that the more intimate and special a relationship is, the more intimate and special that relationship is!
This Sunday, and next week in our Daily Worship Devotions, we are considering what I’m calling “The Peril of Privilege.” God’s people probably received the Lion’s roar of Amos, thus far in Amos 1:1-2:3, with multiple and loud “Amens!” The first section of Amos is a pronouncement that God would judge the people and nations who had used their power and position to take advantage of God’s people in awful ways. God will defend his people. However, in Amos 2:4-3:2, the Lion turns towards his own people. And he roars.
God reminds his people of their privilege: He has chosen, forgiven, loved, saved, and provided for them. He also reminds them that relationships are reciprocal – even relationships that are founded on unconditional grace and mercy!Read More
National Culpability & Human Rights
Dear Friends,
Negative, inhibiting, and repressive: that’s how Christians in North America are regarded today. And their God, the God of the Bible? He is judgmental, angry, and blood-thirsty. People need to be protected and liberated from the oppressive practices of Christians and their God.
This Sunday, and next week in our Daily Worship Devotions, we are considering a passage (Amos 1-2:3) that probably could be cited as proof that the above accusations are true and that Christians and their God are a danger to society. After all, it’s an Old Testament prophecy of judgement. Not only do we have God roaring like an attacking lion in the second verse, the rest of the passage has six references to the “fire” that God is going to send to consume all the sinners! Ummmm, that pretty much sounds like the definition of fire and brimstone, “Sinners in the hands of an Angry God” stuff, right? Is it any wonder that Christianity is perceived so negatively?
These perceptions and assumptions are behind actions like those of Alberta, Canada’s, Department of Education. Curtis Clark, the Deputy Minister for Education, recently threatened independent schools informing them that their Religious Beliefs & Policy statements were in violation of the government’s Safe & Caring School Act policies. Statements about gender, sexuality, and marriage were highlighted as examples of policies that were not “safe or caring.” But among the objectional statements that were cited, one in particular stood out to me. The following statement, allegedly, violates the School Act because it is “unwelcoming, uncaring and/or disrespectful.”
- “We believe men and women were created in the image of God, after His likeness, and therefore have transcendent, intrinsic worth.”
Think about it: that statement is cited as one that is “unwelcoming, uncaring and/or disrespectful.”Read More
Kavanaugh, SCOTUS, and the Anger of God
Dear Friends,
The past few weeks have been traumatic for our nation. I’ve seen the pain and the anger played out again and again, day after day, not just on the news, but especially on my social media news feeds. It has broken my heart and weighed on me. In my first job out of seminary, I served as a Pastoral Counselor. The majority of the people I counseled were adult victims of childhood sexual abuse. It’s a topic and a suffering I have been especially impacted by and one that is close to my heart. I am thankful that we live in a time where those who have suffered sexual abuse are being encouraged to speak out.
I have also been deeply distressed about how these serious issues have been used and exploited in one of the most distasteful moments of raw political theater in living memory. I am deeply distressed about how we, as a nation, have been drawn into this political theater and (somehow) made to feel that we must speak out personally – we need to judge, we need to declare, we need to pick a side, and we need to attack those who are not on our side. I am not sure how we got to that place this week. But it distresses me.
I’ve been asking questions of myself: What’s my role here? I’m a pastor. Do I speak to this? Can I speak to this?Read More
