I am often puzzled at how a message I think good and useful and true - that Jesus has come to bring freedom to the Beloved Community, which especially is focused on those in oppression - to bring release to the captives, sight to the blind, and so on, and that message has been turned into a tool *of* oppression to the very people Jesus said he came for specifically.
The church in America has often become a tool for those who oppose Jesus and his work. How did that happen? How did a "gospel" message become something that has turned so many American Christians into oppressors who delight in furthering oppression?
Not all American Christians, of course, and the desire for oppression is centered in those who control the levers of power, but still - shouldn't the gospel be *powerful* enough to change even those caught up in this spiderweb of deceit and dishonesty and destruction?
I don't know, really. I don't know the "why." And I don't know the tools to fight against it when the gospel message itself has become a tool for oppression.
All I know is that Jesus as represented in the New Testament Gospels is a man I find worth emulating in love and service, and for me, for now, I don't know what else to do but try to pursue these goals for myself and hope, against hope, that others will also find this Jesus of compassion and power and love and restoration.
The Gospel of freedom and liberation always remains even when some pervert the gospel to become a way to convert others into oppression.
A very good discussion.
I am often puzzled at how a message I think good and useful and true - that Jesus has come to bring freedom to the Beloved Community, which especially is focused on those in oppression - to bring release to the captives, sight to the blind, and so on, and that message has been turned into a tool *of* oppression to the very people Jesus said he came for specifically.
The church in America has often become a tool for those who oppose Jesus and his work. How did that happen? How did a "gospel" message become something that has turned so many American Christians into oppressors who delight in furthering oppression?
Not all American Christians, of course, and the desire for oppression is centered in those who control the levers of power, but still - shouldn't the gospel be *powerful* enough to change even those caught up in this spiderweb of deceit and dishonesty and destruction?
I don't know, really. I don't know the "why." And I don't know the tools to fight against it when the gospel message itself has become a tool for oppression.
All I know is that Jesus as represented in the New Testament Gospels is a man I find worth emulating in love and service, and for me, for now, I don't know what else to do but try to pursue these goals for myself and hope, against hope, that others will also find this Jesus of compassion and power and love and restoration.
The Gospel of freedom and liberation always remains even when some pervert the gospel to become a way to convert others into oppression.