May 21
For nearly two thousand years, the church has had a biblical theology that all people are bearers of God’s image and that all humans deserve justice. Sadly, that has not often been lived out. In America, many white evangelical Christians sat silently on the sidelines as black Americans and their black Christian brothers and sisters went through police dog attacks, church bombings, lynching, murder, and other forms of terrorism… BIblically and scientifically, there is only one race: the human race. The human race has different ethnicities. (Gray, Derwin “The Good Life” pg. 174-175)
Day 87 of Russia’s war on Ukraine. For nearly the past three months, I have been focused on the evils that are being committed on the other side of the world. If you want to read the updates on that conflict, click here. But today, I want to focus on the constant evil happening within our country.
I wrote about the horrific shooting at the Topps Supermarket back on Tuesday of last week. The AP News has been publishing some important pieces of journalism concerning this topic. Click here to read the pain this demented young man has caused for many in the community. The words taken above, from Dr. Derwin Gray’s book, “The Good Life,” also highlights the ethnic division the church has not always addressed properly. This summer, we will dive deep into the racial divide that is keeping our country from fulfilling our true calling of greatness for the world. Exactly a week ago, a young man, disillusioned by conspiracy theories like “The Great Replacement”, slaughtered innocent men and women who had a different skin tone than he did. This theory is being pushed by the extreme Right, a dangerous segment in our society that surfaced in our last Presidency and has returned to the darkest corners of this country since January 6, 2021. It is mind boggling to me that someone can be so evil to want to kill a person because of the color of their skin. I hope that this summer, when studying Dr. Gray’s “How To Heal Our Racial Divide”, we can all learn some tangible steps we can take to permanently heal the pain our racist history has caused, and unfortunately continues to cause in pockets throughout this country.
Another New Music Friday brought a great day for refreshing, energizing music yesterday. The soundtrack for the summer has quickly begun, and this new single from The Belonging Co, is an appropriate title for summer work: “Rise and Shine.” We’ve got work to do, let’s not sleep on our duties as Christian Apostles, let’s get out and help heal the hurt, grow the faith, and rebuild the first century Church, the Church Jesus built.
Common Sense Reborn 