Loving the Klan Too
I should have waited one more week to post “On Sheep, Wolves, and Sheepdogs: If you want to be a sheepdog, you must make a conscious and moral decision every day to dedicate, equip and prepare yourself to thrive in that toxic, corrosive moment when the wolf comes knocking at the door.” Author Lt. Col. Dave Grossman lays out what is certainly the view of a least some in police and military service. Many find it simplistic and morally distasteful in parts, and it is both in some respects. But unless we think Lt. Col. Grossman completely depraved and irrational, it contains grains of truth that we need to consider.
I now repost that piece and pair it with another extreme point of view: The Siege of the Third Precinct in Minneapolis: An Account and Analysis. It’s not just “an account” but also an apologetic for anarchy. It is long, but you will get a lot by just skimming and popping in here and there. It is likewise simplistic and morally confused in parts (e.g., the author repeatedly refers to looting as “liberating” goods). And yet it opens a window to realities we also need to bear in mind.
The point for the Christian reader is this: The most important reality about Lt. Col Grossman and the anonymous anarchist, and their friends and allies, is that they are objects of God’s love, people for whom Christ gave his life, people who, whether we consider them neighbor or enemy, we are called to love. And love begins in silence, with listening. Care-framed, empathetic listening, not just to their words but also to the assumptions and beliefs (usually grounded in their own stories) that those words reveal. Not listening to correct. Not listening to agree. But listening to understand the other, in all their turmoil, confusion, sin, and goodness. To love them as we love ourselves, which means, under the mercy of God, as we read to recognize our own turmoil, confusion, sin, and, yes, goodness.
This doesn’t mean we throw up our hands because we’re all sinners. It does mean we fall on our knees and pray for the very people and groups we find most disturbing. It doesn’t mean we stop working for justice as God has given us the light to see it. It does mean that the pursuit of justice must be woven through and through with the unbounded mercy of our Savior.
As a product of the sixties, I have long been impressed with the witness of Will Campbell, a man who marched for justice in the Civil Right struggle. But he did more than that. As noted by The Christian Century upon his death in 2013:
Yet Campbell spent time with members of the Ku Klux Klan. He slowly realized that many Klansmen had a history of being oppressed—giving them something in common with the black people they vilified. He reached out to Klan members with the gospel of Christ, all the while maintaining his biblical convictions about equality and justice for all. “Christ was reconciling the world to himself,” Will preached—and all people in that world.
(He realized this when a friend confronted him, asking him who God loves more, the victim of a recent murder (a friend of Campbell) or the murderer (a policeman)—though the language was a tad more “salty.” The story is too good to summarize in a newsletter, so I encourage you to read it here, skipping down to the the fifth paragraph, which begins, “Shifting gears….”
A New Saint?
Speaking of gospel faithfulness in the face of great injustice, let us thank God for—and pray and advocate for—one young woman in Africa:
Leah Sharibu was the only Christian among 110 schoolgirls kidnapped by the Islamic State’s West African Province (ISWAP) on February 19, 2018 in Dapchi located in Nigeria’s Yobe state. The rest of the girls – all Muslims – have been released. Leah is still being held, since she refused to renounce her faith.
The Sky Is Not Falling Yet
Although some social conservatives believe that religious freedom is in dire strais with the recent Supreme Court decision in Bostock v. Clayton County, Georgia, I’m not convinced. Here are two pieces—one at Christianity Today, another by theologian John Stackhouse--that discuss what was and was not decided in this case, and why, yes, we need to be vigilant about religious freedom, and yet also why we need a bit more patience to see how the rights of the LGBT community and the religious community will be adjudicated.
Did A Cat Create the Universe?
A short but to me persuasive, albeit indirect, argument for theism.
Suppose I insisted that the Big Bang happened due to a cat generating an extremely high energy hairball. You would think I’m crazy. But why is the cat theory any worse than a theory on which the Big Bang happened for no reason at all?
Grace and peace,
Mark Galli
markgalli.com