Himalayan Misunderstanding PT 2
I hate life, because the work that is done under the sun [is] grievous to me. All of it is meaningless, a chasing after the wind. Ecclesiastes 2:17
If you did not, please, read the first post to this series or you will not be able to follow my argument. Reading is more than seeing words, it is about comprehension, please start there if you haven’t. The Evil One deceived Adam by miscommunication, through Eve. Reader, the Devil has no new tactics. He has been reusing the same ones since the genesis of mankind. Our battle is spiritual and an Evil spiritual being works against us, hoping to divide and conquer. We can’t ignore the fruit of his spiritual attacks—physical manifestations. As the quintessential Kingdom Man, Tony Evans put it, “Satan spends an inordinate amount of his focus trying to divide us, especially in the body of Christ. He knows that God’s power and glory are both accessed and magnified through a posture of true unity and authentic love.” Dr. Evan’s point is that Satan knows the Achilles heel of the Christian—division. One way we have recently experienced Satan’s work is through semantics which lead to miscommunication within the Body of Christ. Semantics have chopped God’s body up into pieces and dispersed it all over our world, therefore, the soul saving blood of Christ doesn’t flow like a river, because division has dammed up its channels.
Critical Race Theory (hereafter CRT) has been used by some Christians to help understand the world in which they live. It has been used as a stepping-stone to get to the mountain peak of understanding. While the philosophy itself is unbiblical, they understand that all truth is God’s truth. They use the truth and filter the whole and half lies. On the other hand, however, other Christians believe that CRT’s teachings are racist and present a misconstrued view of the world. They believe it is a philosophy that has no nutritional value and should not be consumed mentally or used exegetically. How can two people have one Holy Spirit and their understanding of one thing be diametrically opposed? There are only two answers. Someone is wholly wrong. Or, as I predict, semantics have divided the body. A lack of compassion, understanding, and love has built the chasm of division used by the bricks of miscommunication. The Evil One has used miscommunication once again, this time stirring the pot of division and its poisonous aroma subtly causes our affections towards one another to atrophy. Notice how I take no side, rather, I acknowledge truth and shame division.
The Evil One has used miscommunication once again, this time stirring the pot of division and its poisonous aroma subtly causes our affections towards one another to atrophy.
For simplicity I will call the left pro-CRT (for CRT). The right will be anti-CRT (against CRT). There are a few possibilities to the division within the Church: 1) Either both sides agree and disagree on different points of CRT—the left agrees with the points the right disagrees with and vice versa. 2) The right doesn’t find any positive in the CRT philosophy and shuns it in its entirety, apathetically negating and dismissing the basis of its teaching...experience. Thus, any explanation the left has to offer is not respected or co-opted, because of vast experiential differences. 4) There has been a sinful amount of prayerlessness for healing and growth and understanding. Time will not allow me to go into depth on all four issues and their causes. Time and thought and conversation with people who don’t think like you will give you the answers you seek from me. Keep in mind, there is no one answer as each situation is different depending on the context. Time will permit, however, a solution to each issue mentioned above.
There are only three solutions to all of this. Compassionate conversation, fervent prayer, and a Christ-like love. Without these, Christians will only grow cold. Frigid, icy, and artic. As I explained in my first post, the Christian’s endeavor is peace. It is not that we don’t know how to speak and listen with compassion, for we do it with our parents and spouses. We know how to pray fervently because we do it for our children and the things we want. It’s not that we don’t know how to love for The Most High, Himself, teaches us how to love every day. Shallow conversations that don’t challenge those in dialogue to action are like cigarettes, it harms you and those around you. Selfish prayers are blasted off to God’s ear like a rocket ship, only to hit the clouds and fall back to the ground. The superficial love that disappears like dew in the sunlight, is only good for attention on social media.
Shallow conversations that don’t challenge those in dialogue to action are like cigarettes, it harms you and those around you.
Injustice is of such an universal topic that it recurs again and again in the monologues of preachers, teachers, prophets, Apostles, and even from our great Teacher Himself. Over time, ideas only change through the personalities and vocabularies of the elocutionist. Over time, some words have been made crooked never to be made straight again. Some words are used in one context to mean one thing, and something totally different in another. A use of certain words flames the fires of miscommunication, rather than add bricks to build compassionate communication. Therefore, in order to restore peace, I must define some words lest I blow on the flames.
To do this, I must put the matter simply, or, as we now say, realistically. First, justice is one of God’s attributes. Therefore, the God of the Bible has the prerogative to determine what is just or unjust. He cannot be judged just or unjust, since He determines what is just. He cannot be judged for His justice. Therefore, the justice that flows down from Heaven and into men and women made in His image must be defined as He sees it. Ken Wytsma describes God’s justice as, “Justice describes both our rights—what we are owed—and our responsibilities that we owe others and God.” The essence of Wytsma’s definition is that justice is fairness and a fruit of love. Humans can’t apply justice in a way that God does, but we can implement a form of justice that treats people in equitable ways.
Justice is fairness and a fruit of love. Humans can’t apply justice in a way that God does, but we can implement a form of justice that treats people in equitable ways.
The only difference between social justice and justice is where justice is found. Social justice is found in the streets—advocating for the oppressed, taking care of the poor and needy, speaking up for those who can’t speak for themselves, even civil disobedience when needed. In his book, The Universe Bends Toward Justice: Radical Reflections on the Bible, the Church, and the Body Politic, Dr. Hendricks gives other tangible examples of social justice, “Social justice is to: stand against the criminalization of young black men and women while they are yet in the womb. Stand against ceremonial executions under the clock of legality. Stand against all penal laws and policies that disproportionately penalize the poor.” As we deduced, God’s justice, which lives through action, stems from love and fairness. Justice alone of all the virtues, implies the notion of duty not opinionated dialogue. This definition of social justice is not unbiblical at all. A skimming of the Bible will show that men and women pursued this according to their context. Actually, you won’t find any pages of Scriptures where social justice is absent. All red-blooded men know this fact. Injustice is being challenged at every turn and on every level in this world. How one goes about implementing this social justice varies, however, reader, remember there is a point where caution ends, and cowardice begins.
There is a point where caution ends, and cowardice begins.
Justice, on the other hand, is found in the executive, judicial, and legislative branches, which sometimes manifests through Civil and Human rights. That’s justice in good ole’ ‘Merica. But, we all know God’s justice isn’t bound to a country, rather God’s justice rides upon the back of the wind, floats on the rays of the sun, and swims through the waves of oceans to reach the entire world. Therefore, realistically, God’s justice looks one way, but varies depending upon the context. A goal of His justice, should be to bring about peace. A Christian must help, before they comfort. You have to feed the hungry before you preach to them, less their stomach growls as they listen to your sermon. That’s why the left will agree with the quote below by the man of peace, Bishop Todd, he who says:
“CRT is simply trying to understand the hidden, underlying issues of race (or other forms of injustice) that go beyond the individual and express themselves structurally. Understanding the structural nature of injustice, be it human trafficking in Latin America, child slavery in Asia, or racial discrimination in the United States, is fundamental to our work as missionaries. It is an act driven not by a secret devotion to Karl Marx, but by an open devotion to Jesus Christ and the neighbors he has given us to love.”
God’s justice isn’t bound to a country, rather God’s justice rides upon the back of the wind, floats on the rays of the sun, and swims through the waves of oceans to reach the entire world.
Nothing is easier than to prove that something human created has imperfection—especially a system created by the sinful, human mind. Just as the restoration of the Cross touches all, the effects of the fall touch everything, CRT isn’t needed to understand this. Again, CRT is inherently unbiblical, within its philosophy lies tools that Christians can use to bring God’s Shalom. Any man with a conscience and reason can come to this conclusion after objective study. Theologians, pastors, preachers, and teachers who take God’s word seriously, soberly study their Bibles. In this study, one milks the text like a nursing cow for rich, God-given context. This is how God has ordained it to be. Seek to understand, and rationally respond. To ascribe to any of the vocations aforementioned requires you to love strange people and places you only know in thought and to seek backgrounds you can only read about and to study these unknown places and people in order to teach people about the God who reveals Himself through these things. Is contextual study only applicable to our Bibles? Please think about that question for a moment. Think about what I have written and the Lord will give you understanding of all this.
Jeremiah 22:3: Do justice and righteousness, and deliver the one who has been robbed from the power of his oppressor. Also do not mistreat or do violence to the stranger, the orphan, or the widow; and do not shed innocent blood in this place.
Isaiah 1:17: Learn to do good; seek justice, reprove the ruthless, defend the orphan, plead for the widow.
Matthew 25:45: Truly I will tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.
“We must rise from the dark depths of prejudice and racism to the majestic heights of understanding and brotherhood.”
