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When I first read J&JW by @kkdumez, my initial reaction was feeling sad, deflated, and hopeless. But I can say, after the passage of the past few months, her historical analysis leaves me feeling immensely... hopeful. Hear me out...
When celebrity pastors are embroiled in scandal, or when an apologist whom I have loved for decades is shown to be a predator, or when I read accounts of Christian camps turned into havens for abuse, or when my close church relationships evaporate over politics...
Or when a mob wielding crosses and nooses, singing hymns and praying to Jesus, ransack the Capitol, all under the pretext of falsehoods and misinformation. Or when dear friends give up on church (and Jesus) because evangelical culture selectively addresses the world's woes
These events, so densely packed into the last year, would have truly shaken my faith. But instead, Du Mez reminds the reader: the empires we've amassed for ourselves, the political tribes we've formed, even the rituals we've constructed in church... none of these are Jesus.
The answer isn't abandoning the God who loves us. The answer might be examining the sins we have committed in ignorance, or in rethinking our relationship with power and money, or in asking ourselves whether we are serving the least of these or our lust for more.
My own church family is in a very difficult season. I used to think the worst possible outcome would be for the church to fold and close its doors. Du Mez reminds me that we don't serve an organization, and we certainly don't serve any pastor or CEO. We serve the Lord alone.
