RESPONDING TO THREAT (21 OF 52)
Scripture: 1 Peter 2:18-25
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Responding to Threat (21 of 52)
Series: Lectionary, Year A
Christopher B. Harbin
1 Peter 2:18-25
We live in a culture that idolizes violence, force, coercion, and the wielding of power. That is not so particular to our own culture. It has been a recurring theme in cultures throughout human history. The church has hardly been immune to this reveling in violence with the Spanish Inquisition, Crusades against infidels in the Holy Land, the Salem Witch Trials, and stealing the children of native peoples in North America to re-educate them by force for their redemption. Time and again, the church as an institution has become complicit in the political battles of the larger society rather than standing for the spiritual priorities of Jesus as laid out in Scripture. When we feel threatened, why is it so hard for us to find direction for our response in Jesus?
In the Antebellum South, we taught slaves certain principles of our faith, yet it would seem the application of those faith principles was different among slave populations than among the white overlord class. It was somehow easy to teach slaves to submit to their masters according to Scripture, while the application of loving one another was seldom, if ever, applied to their treatment by those wielding power to keep them in their place of submission. When the gospel applies to someone else, it is one thing. When its constraints apply to ourselves, our application and reaction are quite different.
That is how we allowed for baptizing the horrors of the Spanish Inquisition under the banner of the cross. It is how we garnered support for the Crusades to convert those infidels holding the Holy Land at the point of the sword. It is how we turned a blind eye to the sweatshops of England and America of the late 1800s. It is how we upheld the efforts of colonizing Europeans and our efforts to profit off of nations of Latin America. It is how we have so often throughout history wielded power for political and ...
Series: Lectionary, Year A
Christopher B. Harbin
1 Peter 2:18-25
We live in a culture that idolizes violence, force, coercion, and the wielding of power. That is not so particular to our own culture. It has been a recurring theme in cultures throughout human history. The church has hardly been immune to this reveling in violence with the Spanish Inquisition, Crusades against infidels in the Holy Land, the Salem Witch Trials, and stealing the children of native peoples in North America to re-educate them by force for their redemption. Time and again, the church as an institution has become complicit in the political battles of the larger society rather than standing for the spiritual priorities of Jesus as laid out in Scripture. When we feel threatened, why is it so hard for us to find direction for our response in Jesus?
In the Antebellum South, we taught slaves certain principles of our faith, yet it would seem the application of those faith principles was different among slave populations than among the white overlord class. It was somehow easy to teach slaves to submit to their masters according to Scripture, while the application of loving one another was seldom, if ever, applied to their treatment by those wielding power to keep them in their place of submission. When the gospel applies to someone else, it is one thing. When its constraints apply to ourselves, our application and reaction are quite different.
That is how we allowed for baptizing the horrors of the Spanish Inquisition under the banner of the cross. It is how we garnered support for the Crusades to convert those infidels holding the Holy Land at the point of the sword. It is how we turned a blind eye to the sweatshops of England and America of the late 1800s. It is how we upheld the efforts of colonizing Europeans and our efforts to profit off of nations of Latin America. It is how we have so often throughout history wielded power for political and ...
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