 Neither Jew Nor Greek The Vision
Unless otherwise noted, |
Dear Brother Harry, I can't pretend to know what drives you. I can admit that after years of having our shared commitments to the sovereignty of God, and the evils of the state looked upon as the ravings of a madman, that I am tempted not to join our ideological enemies because I can't beat them, but drive them mad by taking ever more extreme positions. I can admit that I am tempted to reaction, to adopt an epistemology and an ethic that says, "Whatever the left says, the opposite is true." (And I trust you have seen already that the left is often wildly wrong on issues of race.) I don't understand what you're thinking, how you can be so right on so many things, and so wrong here. What I can do is call you to repent. Not only do you seek to tear asunder what God has brought together, the very bride of His Son, but you have muddled the proclamation of the gospel to the lost. No, I'm not saying you have to be racially sensitive to call people to repent. I'm not saying that we should meet people where they are by trying to talk in ebonics. Rather, I'm arguing that you must call people to repent for their sin, not their ethnic heritage. That is, even if there were some sort of Jewish conspiracy, the problem would the conspiracy, not the Jews. If assorted Jewish businessmen are "running" Hollywood, and spewing forth cultural garbage, the issue isn't what they put on their census, but what they put on the screen. You can't call someone to repent of their parents. They can only repent of their sin. The answer isn't for them to somehow become uncircumcised, but that by the grace of God they might have their hearts circumcised. The strange irony is your racism is an implicit denial of your post-millenialism. Jesus rules over all things. As such, there is no neutral thing we call "culture" whereby we politely note that some blacks or Jews will go to heaven, but that here on earth we go our segregated ways. No, the Lordship of Christ transforms every culture, or rather consumes every culture as He builds His own. Such doesn't mean a lack of variety, a denial of all distinctives, but it does mean a true blending of those distinctives. It is both true that we are all one loaf, and that the kingdom unites, and yet keeps distinct unleavened bread, corn bread, and even our pathetic culture's contribution to the bake-off—anemic, Gnostic white bread. All the colors will not bleed into one. They will be what they are, and what they are will still be one. The kingdom of God rejects both a Unitarian uniformitarianism, and a polytheistic Balkanization. There is no dingy brown melting pot. Nor is there a bag full of marbles. Instead there is a tapestry, a beautiful marriage of complexity in harmony. The truth is, Harry, I admire you. You have a courage that earns respect. You have an insight that demonstrates deliberateness. You have, at the same time, the character that defines the southern gentleman, and the racial confusion to defines the bigot, whatever side of the Mason-Dixon line contains his home. I also think I know something about what it's like to be you. I'd wager this isn't the first time you've heard this from your friends. I have dozens of friends who likewise think I'm a swell guy, full of courage and wisdom, but whose blind spots turn the world off. When people tell me to tone down the rhetoric, to become a softer, gentler me, I hear the voice of the devil. I can only hope that because we have shared that experience, that you will believe that I am not the devil. My hope is that you will repent. That your virtues are apparent doesn't diminish your sin. For racism is not only the failure to love ordinately, it is the failure to love those whom the Father loves, those for whom the Son died, those in whom the Spirit dwells. I know, I know. You would not characterize your views as racist. But if such were so, race would never be an issue with you. You would not turn up your nose at your distant cousins. Far less would you love those in your temporal family more than those in your eternal family. Harry, please, repent. Our enemies are the seed of the serpent, wherever their ancestors spring from. And our family is the seed of the woman, wherever their ancestors spring from. And as time goes on, my brother, remember that more and more of the seed of the serpent, from every corner of the globe, will become the seed of the woman. Where their ancestors spring from is, to quote a sometimes insightful heathen, "of no more significance, than the color of their eyes." Remember that we too were strangers to the covenant, that we who were once not a people are now the people of God. Remember that if the nature could be cut off, so too could we. Love your Father, how He works for you. Love your Mother, she bore you. Love your sister, she's good to you. Love your brother, your brother. Your Brother, |
