Like, what if we didn't feel we had to prove ourselves?
Arguing doesn't work. We know this - anyone who's engaged in political discourse knows this - but nobody actually acts as though they know it. We love the idea that arguing the right things brings people into the kingdom. But really, I think that loving and caring for people in ways that the world can't replicate brings people into the kingdom. I'm not sure that we do that so much anymore - we have outsourced it to government, but the solution is not to stop the government outsourcing, but to step in and fill what the government cannot - with the personal and intimate care that all humanity desires.
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Joseph Yoo's video about "fangirling Jesus" rather than "following Jesus" hits the mark a bit close...
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ONLY CHRISTIANS CARE ABOUT THESE FIVE THINGS! (NUMBER THREE WILL SHOCK YOU!!!!)
TODAY, I LOVED MY NEIGHBOUR (BY CRITICISING HER LIFE CHOICES AND TELLING HER SHE NEEDED TO FIND GOD)
HOW TO BRING YOUR FRIENDS TO CHURCH (INSTEAD OF BRINGING THE CHURCH TO THEM, WHY WOULD WE WANT TO DO THAT? EW!)
THE ONLY WAY FOR OUR SOCIETY TO THRIVE IS TO TURN TO GOD, AND IF PEOPLE DON'T, THEN WE SHOULD DESTROY ALL OPPORTUNITIES FOR THEIR FLOURISHING BECAUSE IF THEY WERE WORTHY PEOPLE, THEY'D BE CHRISTIAN
I feel deeply cynical about Christianity right now. A lot of "we need to tell people about God". No. No we don't. I know that we have some very nice white men in charge of our church, but either they don't understand how tired the majority of people outside the church are of first being told about God by 'the church' and then afterwards Christians are kind to them.
Sure, they want the kindness first and not to hear about God. I guess I just remember the 'love them until they ask why' framing.
Except that if the only 'love' we can show them is talking to them, then that's not really a very effective love, you know? And yeah, I know our personal-interaction segregated society doesn't want to deal with the messy reality of people who don't think and believe exactly as you do, but fences never actually keep livestock in, while the idea is that fresh and living water does.
Are we fresh and living water? I mean, we say we are, simply because we're the people of God. But can we ask what "the people of God" have done lately for society? Recently. As a big group? Online or off?
I mean, there are charities, yes. But even the charities running under the name of a church are usually "one step removed" from the actual church.
This puts me in mind of a conversation I had with a friend last week, about how many leaders of churches are theologians, but they are not pastors. That our zone of Christianity is right now so concerned with people pushing the correct theology that they're pretty terrible at pastoral care. But the wretched of the world do not care about our theology, whether it's the correct sort or the right brand. The 'lost' of the earth gives less of a shit about whether tradwife submission is the God-ordained way of living, and more of a shit about whether anyone cares that they have less to eat, fewer opportunities, and no kindness anywhere.
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I used to think that I could trust my white church friends to protect me.
I don't anymore.
There'll be a lot of huffing and puffing about this, I'm sure, but the fact of the matter is that White People Have No Practice At Resistance.
You know how you develop muscle? You use that muscle. You work that thing, slowly at first and then with growing understanding of what it can do, what it can take.
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