Someone has said, "a Christianity without courage is cultural atheism." If so, what does it mean to respond "courageously" to cultural assaults leveleSomeone has said, "a Christianity without courage is cultural atheism." If so, what does it mean to respond "courageously" to cultural assaults leveled against Christianity and Christians? Erwin Lutzer provides a thorough and level-headed answer in We Will Not Be Silenced.
Christianity is both all-encompassing and highly exclusive. Jesus tells us to love our neighbors without exception (that message "sells") and he declares himself as the "only way to God" (that message... not so popular). It is those exclusivity points that culture finds irksome, these days especially in matters of sexuality, gender, and marriage.
And then there is that issue of Christianity's place as shaper of culture. Debates aside as to whether America is or ever was a "Christian nation," Western civilization in general and America in particular owe much to the followers of Jesus. However, as Mark Sayers explains in Disappearing Church, our present post-Christian culture wants what Christianity has brought (justice, peace, fairness, and equality) without the King who brings them. He writes:
Post-Christianity is not pre-Christianity; rather post-Christianity attempts to move beyond Christianity whilst simultaneously feasting upon its fruit (p. 15).
When kingdoms clash, difficulties follow. Christians get that. Jesus never promised his followers a walk on Easy Street. He said, "in this world you will have trouble" (John 16:33). The Apostle Paul adds, "all who want to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted (2 Timothy 3:12), and Peter voices his "amen" when he writes, "don’t be surprised when the fiery ordeal comes among you to test you" (1 Peter 4:12).
Of course matters are made complicated when certain historical failures in America, e.g. slavery, Jim Crow, and civil-rights, were at times perpetuated and defended by Christians, many even using the Bible to validate their attitudes and actions. And while many believers have been champions of abolition and equal-treatment under the law, without a doubt, some Christians have not helped the cause. These failures have left a stain on the reputation of Christ followers.
Stains are one thing; attacks, marginalization, and culture-cancelling quite another.
How should Christians respond when they see their cultural influence wane, history re-written, and cultural norms turned upside down? Does "faithful presence" mean standing idly by while the foundation brought by Christianity is being upended? If judgmentalism and angry reactionary protests are not the answer, what is?
Silence is not working.
When Paul's life was threatened, he exercised his right as a citizen of Rome and said, "I appeal to Caesar" (Acts 25:11). In We Will Not Be Silenced: Responding Courageously to Our Culture's Assault on Christianity, Erwin Lutzer helps readers with that "appeal." He identifies the challenges, traces their roots, and brings clarity to volatile issues today, issues such as Critical Race Theory (CRT), gender upheaval, the destruction of the nuclear family. He doesn't shy away from topics which, while not foundational to Christianity, have certainly benefited from it, i.e. democracy and capitalism. In doing so he helps Christians move from placards to a solid cultural polemic, one that is historical, critical, and biblical.
When it comes to how to address and change the cultural landscape, hope is not a strategy. Neither is silence. Lutzer helps. We Will Not Be Silenced provides the kind of careful analysis, counter-argument, and winsome approach necessary to respond. I highly recommend it....more
Some people admire bridges. Tasha Morrison builds them. Be The Bridge: Pursuing God's Heart for Racial Reconciliation is a compelling case, a helpful Some people admire bridges. Tasha Morrison builds them. Be The Bridge: Pursuing God's Heart for Racial Reconciliation is a compelling case, a helpful map, and a catalytic spark to better understand the racial divide; more importantly, how to begin to heal it.
I appreciate Ms. Morrison's careful work. She strives to be biblical and historical, showcasing biblical patterns as she uncovers historical atrocities. To her credit and our benefit, she does not leave us gazing in outrage at the inequities of the past. A summary hope (p. 222) gets to the "heal of the matter":
If this book serves to highlight just one truth, I hope it's that real beauty can come from the ashes of our country's history with racism. So we continue to spread the message. As the apostle Paul declared, "Because we understand our fearful responsibility to the Lord, we work hard to persuade others."
We must listen closely as she, like Mark Vroegop in Weep with Me: How Lament Opens a Door for Racial Reconciliation, urges us to listen deeply, confess, lament, repent, and seek to do what we can to repair the ripped, frayed, and tattered threads of the past.
Morrison addresses the problem of "filtered history" in America, how our history books often fail to satisfactorily address the racial inequities and atrocities committed against African Americans in particular, but also meted out against Native American and Japanese Americans (WWII). She takes pains to help us look back upon our troubled history. This is helpful. Historians can debate the volume of the historical record, educators the amount of information and time devoted to it. And we can all take responsibility for our own education.
At times, Ms. Morrison seems to apply examples of collective repentance (Daniel and Ezra on behalf of Israel) as models for us to follow. In some of these places, I cannot tell if she is chiding and challenging America or the church in America. Her call for reparations fails to consider or account for billions in governmental reparative and restoration legislation and social programs. And while I don't want to discount the need to lament and repent, how much and for how long is enough?
While I understand her book is an exploration of and pursuit of "racial reconciliation," I feel like I am on a one-way street. The problem is with the majority culture. And though she highlights the need for forgiveness and personal responsibility for owning one's "blackness," there seems to be a screaming silence when it comes to personal responsibility; i.e. the problem is the past wrongs committed against one, not the failure of any one "victim."
I appreciate Shelby Steele here. Steele notes,
The point is that those poetic truths, and the notions of correctness that force them on society, prevent America from seeing itself accurately. That is their purpose. They pull down the curtain on what is actually true. If decades of government assistance have weakened the black family with dependency an dysfunction, poetic truth argues all the more fervently that blacks are victims and that whites are privileged. Poetic truths stigmatize the actual truth with the sins of America's past so that truth itself becomes the "incorrect." (Shelby Steele, Shame: How America's Past Sins Have Polarized Our Country, p. 25
We need the message of Be The Bridge. I need it! But personally, and as a country, we must guard against and move from narratives of victimhood. Ultimately, they leave us in the unforgivable past despite our best attempts to move from it....more
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