Culture Care
Rev. David Wynn
So, this last Sunday at our gathering I offered this question to add to our litany of questions that we are wrestling with in the day, maybe months, possibly years to come? It was, “How does being a Christian change the way you live?” It’s a big question…but I would dare to say not as big as the next question? “What is the hardest part of loving your neighbor as yourself?”
In my reading this week, I stumbled upon this quote from Jerry Falwell Jr. in a recent article by Peter Wehner, called
The Deepening Crisis in Evangelical Christianity.
Jerry Falwell Jr., the president of Liberty University, one of the largest Christian universities in the world, said this: “Conservatives & Christians need to stop electing ‘nice guys.’ They might make great Christian leaders but the United States needs street fighters like Donald Trump at every level of government b/c the liberal fascists Dems are playing for keeps & many Repub leaders are a bunch of wimps!” I’m having a hard time loving this neighbor.
In my lifetime there have always been undertones of what I’ve come to call the Christian Civil War. Too much of life feels like a battle zone to me and I’m getting weary of it. We just keep acting out and behaving in ways that would garner serious consequences if my children made those choices. And, we are in the midst of serious consequences aren’t we…deteriorating physical health, mental health, spiritual health, emotional health; rage, violence, overwhelm…we are having an epidemic of failing to thrive. Jesus would call us a damn mess and he’d be right.
So, what do we do? Well we will talk about this on Sunday…there is a way to move from culture wars to culture care. The artist Makoto Fujimura describes it as “a commitment to grace, beauty, and creativity, not antipathy, disdain, and pulsating anger. It’s the difference between an open hand and a mailed fist.”
God bless the wimps for to them belongs the kin-dom of God…
