The church's first calling is to preach the gospel and make disciples. Impacting the society's practices should be the fruit of a gospel-filled life. That's why William Wilberforce, David Livingstone and Alexander McLeod called slavery evil. It was the social issue of their day.

All 'social issues' are moral and theological issues first. They fall under Lev. 19:18. When we fail to address them rightly - either by ignorance of scripture on the topic or by ignoring scripture in place of secular conservativism or secular liberalism, we fail.

And every time we fail to address these issues rightly, the enemies of God are given occasion to blaspheme, the witness of the church is called into question and believers end up further separated from each other.

I view the present time as judgement. God is sovereignly allowing unbelievers to unite over an issue the church should be leading the way on. They do so with unbiblical frameworks (intersectionalism, critical race theory, etc...) & come up with unbiblical solutions.

I know it's an unpopular view and may rub some of you the wrong way. It's easy to see the sin in others, give a stump speech to your faithful tribe of followers, and pat yourself on the back, believing yourself to be righteous.

Newsflash: That's Pharisaism, not Christianity.

The church is ONCE AGAIN at a crossroads. Praise God there have been many solid believers in Christ who have risen up and started dealing with these issues from a Biblical (not secular) approach. Praise God men like @DennyBurk wrote articles like this: https://www.dennyburk.com/can-we-weep-with-those-who-weep/

Yet, we're still seeing too many supposedly orthodox believers default back to secular conservative americanism (which they conflate with Christianity - it is not) instead of scripture. They default to Candace Owens-level rants that harden the heart instead of leaving folks

coming away with a love for God and for neighbor.

Using abortion & fatherlessness as talking points (with no actual care for the people they are talking about) reduces folks to 'those people' and only useful for making a point and winning an argument.

But the Christian is commanded to view 'those people' as image bearers, equal in dignity as they themselves.

Lev. 19:18 in thought.

Love doesn't use neighbor as a talking point for winning an argument. That's secular conservative americanism, but it isn't Christianity

and has no place in the Christian's mouth or heart. NONE.
But people become products of the media they consume (as a conservative, you should know this).

LIKEWISE, 'white evangelicals' as a broadbrush term to deride and blame, makes the same error over on the 'liberal' side.

'White fragility' accusations are (in a lot of cases) blatant 9th commandment violations and the Christian should have no part in repeating or perpetuating arguments like these.

Even if we fall on different sides of an argument, those 'white evangelicals' are also

image bearers. White sin isn't justification for black sinful response. And the framework of intersectionalism and critical race theory that underly 'white fragility' denies original sin and holds to an anti-Imago Dei viewpoint.

The Christian's approach begins with scripture. Leviticus 19:18 and Genesis 1:26-29, 9:5-6 form the basis for human value and dignity. ALL humans.

Ephesians 4:26-32, Col. 3:13 form the basis for interpersonal relationships. 1 John 3:4-10 set the boundaries for

Christian behavior in these interpersonal relationships. Include Romans 12:3-8 as far as personal responsibility (and practical application of it in v. 9-16).

If you aren't doing these things, but instead choose to follow the lines of reasoning set out by 'conservatives' or

'progressives', both of your houses are built on sand.

Keep it scriptural, folks. Be more Christian than American. Be more Biblical than secular. Then you will learn how to react rightly to the culture - TOGETHER - with your fellow image bearers in Christ.

G'nite.

@threadreaderapp unroll please