These have been difficult days for our church. Difficult days drive us to God’s throne in prayer.
An elderly lady recently passed away, after some very difficult final weeks. She didn’t attend our church, but has children and grandchildren and a great-grandchild who do, so her passing affected our church quite a bit.
If you get our email update, you may have been praying with us for our friend who suddenly collapsed two weeks ago, and has not regained consciousness. He is not only a good friend, but a man who has been a key servant to the church. We continue to pray earnestly for him and his family. [Edit: As I was posting this, our brother in Christ Edgar passed away.]
Last week his family and some of his wife’s family came to the service. His daughter and son volunteered to join the worship band, and they helped lead us in praise to God. It was a moving service, as we prayed together for this and many other needs in the congregation.
In the midst of all this, we’re preparing for the 6th anniversary of the church – this Sunday. We’ve simplified the celebration somewhat due to the circumstances, but we’re still looking forward to thanking God for His faithfulness over the past few years.
(The photo above is from the music time last week – Rod is leading, and you can see Nathanael on the ukulele to the right. The banner in behind is actually from last year’s anniversary service, with text from Exodus 6:7 – “I will take you to be my people, and I will be your God”. We’re just finishing our study of Exodus now, seeing the fulfillment of this promise in the book, and the application for us.)
You may have also been praying for our fellow missionary Chalo, who was in the hospital. He’s doing much better, and we were able to visit him last week. He’s home and already working, although he probably should be resting some more! 🙂
In the mundane of our own lives, this has also been a strange time. Without going into details, we’ve had some doctor’s visits. And as I mentioned in the last podcast, we went on an overnight trip to get Nathanael’s visa, only to find that the person who needed to complete the process wasn’t at the office! So this past week we made the trek again, and this time – success! Thanks for your prayers.
So in the end, the last few weeks have included a lot of unusual travel and appointments. It makes it hard to keep up with regular work (including Nathanael’s school). On the bright side, we’ve enjoyed some good family time together in the midst of it all. The “unusualness” will probably continue for the next couple of weeks, as we have at least one more appointment, the anniversary service, a wedding, rather urgent van maintenance…
So we appreciate your prayers as we navigate these turbulent times; that we would have the strength to deal with the “mundane” and still to be a light and an encouragement to others. I guess that’s a good prayer request for us all, isn’t it?
When we went through the topic of partiality at our local church, we talked about an illustration that was common at the time – the “privilege walk”.
You may have seen this done – I’ve seen it done in a couple of countries, in English and in Spanish. But here’s the basic idea. Everyone starts off in a straight line. And then the facilitator calls out something like, “You grew up with a father in your home”, or “You have never wondered where your next meal is coming from”, and so on. Everyone who had this perceived privilege or advantage takes a step forward. Then there might be negative statements, like “My parents warned me before I left the house that I could encounter violence”. Take a step back.
In the end, you see that some people are far more “privileged” than others. And what generally happens is that the black woman is in the back, and the white man is in the front (in other words, the most “privileged”).
Now, I have some problems here, but let’s clarify something. Is there discrimination in this world based on the colour of your skin? Is there favouritism based on the country you’re from? Does life tend to be more difficult for someone who lives far from their family?
To all these we say – of course! And so there is no doubt there is something real and true, to say that some people have privileges or challenges, that other people don’t have.
But there are some things that are missing in these “privilege walks”. For example, there’s no personal responsibility. And that’s part of the point – you didn’t “merit” the privileges you have. But there is a danger of ignoring personal responsibility, personal choice (because remember, the ideology here is that personal “sin” or “merit” is deemphasized, and value based on your group is emphasized).
Another problem is that a few questions result in drastic oversimplification. Who decides which questions to ask? It’s easy to “design” such an activity so that a certain type of person ends up at the back of the pack. What’s more important? Being rich? Being powerful? Feeling safe? Living close to family? Living in the country? Again, those in power, the “experts”, decide.
What if someone is lazy? I suppose that the answer would be that everyone should start at the same place. But it becomes not important if the experts decide that you’re in the “oppressed group”. That lazy person should have the same resources as the hard worker. What if a person decides to stay home with the children, instead of being in the workforce? That’s a personal decision – should they be given some of the money of the worker? What if someone decides they would like to live in the country instead of the city?
We actually did a “privilege walk” at our church, but with some twists. First of all, we used completely invented countries and backgrounds to guarantee a certain level of diversity. Everyone received a card with their own invented biography.
Once we finished the activity, and saw who all the “privileged” people were, we had a few more questions. And it turned out that they weren’t so privileged after all.
The point was that the maker of the questions can manipulate where people end up, and that sometimes people with more money and more education are actually not as privileged as you may at first think. People with big houses may have massive debt. People in private schools may be mercilessly bullied. It’s complex – everyone has their own story. Slotting them into groups is not so easy.
Marxism, or neo-Marxism, wants everyone to end up with the same amount. And there are some serious problems with this. We’ve already mentioned one problem – it turns God Himself into an unjust “oppressor”.
Some people put it this way. It’s not about equality of opportunity – for example, the basketball tryouts are open to everyone. If they’re in the top few regarding skill, they’re on the team. No, it’s about equality of results. In other words, everyone gets on the team. Or, the experts choose not based on your basketball skills, but on your group. We need so many of each oppressed group on this team. That’s the idea behind what is familiarly called “social justice”.
Social justice, according to the world, has less to do with equality of opportunity, or equality before the law, and more to do with equality of results, according to the experts in control.
And it might sound great at first. But we’re going to end up with a terrible basketball team (worse, how about airplane designers?). We end up with people who don’t care about working hard, or gaining skills, because it’s simply not necessary. But what does the Bible say?
For even when we were with you, we would give you this command: If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat. For we hear that some among you walk in idleness, not busy at work, but busybodies.
2 Thessalonians 3:10-11
We want equality, that sounds great. And we’ll talk about what the Bible teaches about equality. We don’t want to see anyone hated for the colour of their skin, or because of the country they come from. Agreed. But sometimes the solution that sounds good humanly speaking isn’t wise.
We’ll take a closer look at this concept in action, as an imaginary government tries to bring equity to their country.
There’s no doubt that one of the biggest concerns that the world seems to have right now is racism.
Well, it’s not just racism. There are a lot of words that are used today to identify the “oppressed”. Sexism (against women). Classism. Intellectualism. Sizeism. Or, sometimes we simply say “discrimination”. Discrimination based on age, discrimination against the disabled. And all the phobias, right? Homophobia. Cacomorphobia (that’s a fear of fat people). It’s an endless list. And there are huge problems with the way these terms are used, and with the terms themselves.
Now this may be a shocker for some people, but the term “racism” that is so popular today isn’t found in the Bible. The word “race” is mentioned, but how many times depends on the Bible version you’re using. Actually, in the Authorized (King James) Version, the only “race” is the kind you run in.
Usually in Scripture we have the idea of nations. In Greek, ethnos. We may say in English, ethnic groups. Ethnicity, of course, may include DNA, physical descendants. But it also includes the idea of structures, countries, cultures.
Culture is something that most fundamentally comes from family. You family does things in a certain way. You all talk like that. And then a group of families come together in a community, and that community is influenced to have a certain culture. And so on.
The Apostle Paul was making a speech in the city of Athens, at the Areopagus. During his discourse, he explains a biblical perspective of race and ethnicity:
The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us…
Acts 17:24-27
“…he made from one man every nation of mankind…” – there’s that word, ethnos. Literally, in Greek, “he made from one” – that is, from Adam. In that sense, how many races are there in the world? One, of course.
We all come from God, as Creator. We are all descendants of Adam. We are all one family. And God, in His providence, decided where we would live, from what family we would come.
How strange and ridiculous to negate the value of another person in the family, someone else created by God. We are one race.
Of course, today, we commonly use the term “race” somewhat differently. We think about descendants of various groups/families. Or in DNA – physical characteristics, such as skin colour. (Note: this is a more traditional view of race, but new ideas have been introduced here too. Stay with me.)
Dr. Harold P. Freeman has studied this concept of race. He explains that the physical characteristics that we associate with race, differences in physical appearance, are from 0.01% of our DNA! In other words, 99.9% of our DNA has nothing to do with the stereotypical idea of race (see Are There Really Different Races?).
But we insist on a simplistic idea of race – stereotypes. Mexicans have a certain colour of skin, and they eat hot food (in reality, Mexicans come in many shades, and some actually prefer food that’s not so spicy hot). Chinese people are like this. Africans (let’s just have a simplistic view of a whole continent while we’re at it!) are like that. Race.
In 1859, Charles Darwin published a book which is another historical milestone for us. Do you know the title of his book, off the top of your head?
If you said, “On the Origin of Species”, I’m afraid you left out most of the original title, which was “On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life”. Read it carefully, and it will help you understand where Darwin was coming from.
You see, Darwin believed that some races were more evolved, more advanced, than others. In fact – and you’re going to love this – he believed that men had evolved with larger brains, meaning that they were more intelligent than women!
And the ideas of Darwin (and it’s not just Darwin, but remember, we’re trying to simplify) have been used to promote racism.
In contrast to Darwin’s ideas about various races, we know that there’s only one race, created by God. The human race. Every individual with value and dignity.
So what is the world’s solution to racism? Well, people have come up with various ideas throughout time, but let’s talk about the common narrative that we hear most often today.
You may remember our discussion of intersectionality. We all have various characteristics, various histories, that place us more in the “oppressed” group or the “oppressor” group. But remember, for them, individual sin is not so important, or may not exist at all.
Very often, according to the world, your value doesn’t come from God (imago dei), but from your group. And your sin isn’t something from your heart, it’s from your group (if it exists at all). In fact, because of your group, you may have no sin at all.
How does it feel to be profiled because of the group you supposedly belong to?
As we discussed before, many people believe that the problem is actually the system in which we find ourselves. That may be the “patriarchy” or the “hegemony”. And the problem with the system, they say, is that it gives certain privileges to some, and not to others.
Next time we’ll talk about one way in which this concept is illustrated, and why I have questions.
I mentioned in the last post that we were catching up on a lot of personal things – and that has meant a lot of travelling around. And that is not always simple, as you might imagine…
(Edit: If you get our email update, you know some of what has happened over the past few days. It’s probably appropriate to note that this was recorded earlier.)
I’m sorry I haven’t been writing here more, but we’ve been trying to catch up on a number of things, as I mentioned earlier.
A chicken at church. That’s all.
But that’s not to say that nothing has been happening!
For example, one Sunday this chicken ended up on the church property. (No, this has nothing to do with Church’s Texas Chicken.) It did get out alive, you’ll be glad to hear (although there was some talk about wanting to illustrate the burnt offerings in Exodus). (Many of us may or may not have been inspired to have some yummy chicken dinners, though…)
For example, the last class of the Church History course was completed, with certificates being handed out. These are currently being given under our “civil association”. That’s how our community centre is recognized by the government.
This last class marked the end of three years of classes, with four churches involved, covering five college-level courses. We will likely be continuing with something in the new year, but we’re not sure yet what that will look like. We would like to do some more pastorally-focused courses (such as a preaching class), but I’m sure there are others who would like to continue their education as well, so we’ll see.
Shari and Nathanael enjoyed some time with other missionaries to Mexico at the annual InterMission Conference. What happened to Jim? Well, he was a little sick and so decided to sit this one out. Thankfully, it was a quick recovery.
Last Sunday I spent some time with some of the leaders of the churches in the Mexico City area. We’re hoping to restart having some meetings and activities on a regular basis, starting in the New Year. It was great to see some familiar faces and share and pray together.
Services and studies continue, of course. I won’t speak for everyone, but I’ve really enjoyed our study of Exodus! Lord willing we’ll be finishing our study in November, after more than a year. Right now we’re talking about the priests – their special clothes and their consecration.
Shari was teaching Sunday School last week. Look – rainbows! As you might guess, they were in Genesis 9. A wonderful testimony of the mercy of God in the face of our sin. They’re going through the Generations of Grace curriculum, which takes them right through the Bible.
And meanwhile, we’re trying to get some personal things done – some fixes around the house (our internet is still suffering, but a lot better than it was!) – Nathanael catching up with school – some doctor’s appointments – and working toward Nathanael’s new permanent residence visa. (Yes, he already has a “permanent” visa, but because he got it before he was an adult he needs to renew it once to get his adult version.)
There’s lots of planning going on as well. We’re already looking toward next year and what will be happening in the church. But more immediate is our church’s 6th anniversary – on the 6th of November! Lord willing I’ll be able to show you some pictures – maybe even some video, if I’m on the ball.
Who are we, as humans? We’re people who live in communities, in countries. People who desire justice.
I’m calling the next section of our study “Partiality”, and you’ll see why, but it’s basically a continuation of our study on justice. And in this section, we’ll be talking more about racism.
I imagine that most of us – maybe all of us – have experienced some kind of prejudice against us because of the colour of our skin, because of our faith, or because we’re not from “around here”, or because of our economic status.
The topic of equity or justice is very important – we could easily spend a year or two just on this topic. It’s important, and in a way very complex.
My hope, my goal, is that through this study we will see the incredible wisdom of God’s Word. But first, it’s important to understand more about the versions of “justice” that the world tries to sell us.
To start with, it may be helpful to clarify a couple of things.
In the first place, in this study we’re talking about many very current topics. And in taking on the topic of justice, or what the world thinks of as justice, remember that neither you nor I are experts. Why? Because the world is changing very quickly.
Now, of course, the truth of God’s Word never changes. And the majority of Satan’s lies are the same as always. But both are seen in different ways – or, we might say, applied in different ways – in different situations.
And so, on the one hand, we have a solid anchor in the Bible. Sometimes we notice that a child who simply believes what God says can see the lies better than an intelligent adult. “I have more understanding than all my teachers, for your testimonies are my meditation.” (Psalm 119:99)
At the same time, we all need to keep learning. Our enemy is clever and subtle. As Paul said, “we are not ignorant of his designs” (2 Corinthians 2:11). But yes, they are designs – schemes. Complicated.
Don’t forget about the house we talked about earlier! The lies always come mixed with truth. The lies are nothing – they’re not real. And so the enemy has constructed a house that is unstable, incomplete, in ruins. But from this, his headquarters, he still attacks.
In the last section we talked about Marxism. Marxism is an anti-christian philosophy that divides the world into two groups – the oppressed, and the oppressors. That’s the basis for the ideology of communism. And we’ll talk more about Marxism in this section.
But remember that every philosophy has its history, its roots. Marxism is only a part of the history of modern ideas of justice. It’s not the beginning of the story, nor is it the complete story. And so many who use ideas that are common in Marxism will deny that they’re Marxist, and may even claim that they are against Marxism. And if they’re in a Christian environment, they will use Christian terminology for their ideas.
Of course, some people admit their Marxist roots openly. As a recent example, the leaders of Black Lives Matter in the USA. They were listed by TIME Magazine as some of the most influential people in the world. One of the founders explained that they are trained Marxists. And also talked about invoking spirits – an involvement in the occult.
But there are indeed Christians making use of these ideas, who will deny any connection with Marxism. So why are we even bothering with this term?
Simply because it is a useful marker in history, a hook to hang our conversation on. Some may call modern ideas “neo-Marxism” – new Marxism. And from this come ideas such as liberation theology (so common in Latin America), social justice, critical race theory, and many related concepts.
Many believers have expressed concern about this stream of ideology for a while now. A well-known example, Pastor John MacArthur has said that the current ideas of social justice among Christians is the greatest danger to the church that he has seen in his lifetime. He, of course, is talking about the United States. But as many of you know, these ideas are all over the world, although sometimes they come in different forms.
And so what we’re doing here is taking very very complex ideas, and trying to simplify them into a manageable form. My hope is that we can take home some practical concepts that we can use in everyday life.
Often Marxist ideas are connected with a symbol – a symbol I’m sure you’ve seen: a raised fist. You see it everywhere if you take the time to look.
Mexico City 1968
This symbol was actually made famous in the Olympic Games in Mexico City in 1968, when two athletes from the USA raised their fists during the playing of their national anthem.
Now of course, no every time someone raises a fist is it related to some neo-Marxist ideology. But when you see the symbol, it’s not a bad idea to ask some questions.
Is there a division being made between oppressed and oppressor? Who is who? Are the ideas being promoted here biblical? Is someone asking a government or political party or other group to promote non-Christian ideas? Are these ideas promoting constant conflict and division? Is there a “revolution” being advocated here? (We’ve talked about many of these things earlier – be sure to read the series in order.)
And always remember – the lies will always be mixed with the truth. Remember the house.
And here’s another question to ask. What does this person or organization believe about sin?
Marxism advocates an idea known as the perfectibility of human nature. What’s that? The idea is that if we have proper systems in place, a properly organized society, if everyone had the same opportunities and resources, the world’s problems would disappear. The solution to the human problems is to improve the human environment – society, culture.
And so, what is said? Tell me if you’ve heard any of these phrases, or something similar. “This is for your safety, for your health.” “The poor children, suffering from racism, climate change, COVID-19…” “Look at all the disruptions in our world systems. We need to rebuild better.” All you must do is give us, the experts, the control. The problem isn’t the heart – it’s the social systems and institutions.
Ok, they may not exactly say that last part out loud. Or, they may.
As Christians, we know that this is not the solution. Why? Because humans are sinners. Don’t forget what Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn said (from an earlier post): “…the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being.”
A human being can never be perfected, outside of a spiritual new birth. If there are unjust, unbiblical laws, we should be happy to fight against them. But evil will never be erased until the human heart changes. And so the final solution will never be a political party, a new law, a new system.
If our problem is that we don’t all have the same resources, that makes God Himself the evil oppressor. Listen:
Beware lest you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth.’ You shall remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your fathers, as it is this day.
Deuteronomy 8:17-18
Human perfectibility. For the neo-Marxists, we enter the world like a blank memory stick. And it is the culture, the government, and the systems that copy data onto that stick – good or evil, written onto our being. It’s not our fault – it’s the system. And that’s why we must burn it all down and create something new. That is the Marxist hope.
But as Christians, we know that we start life as sinners who need a Saviour – the Lord Jesus Christ.
And yet many people are attracted to this type of activism. Why? Because we all want justice! Right? We all want to do something. And we want to be seen as people who really are concerned about the oppressed – we want to be known as good people.
At the end of this section, we will try to get to some practical things that we can do. Because yes, action is very important. But we’ll leave it there for today, and get on to the topic of racism, etc., next time.
