Cosby, Gender Equality, and the Kingdom of God

This Los Angeles Times timeline shows that for fifty years Bill Cosby lived a lifestyle of repeated and continuous sexual assault of women he drugged. He got away with it because he was successful and made lots of money for other people. (Money often buys silence over moral wrongs in this imperfect world!)

But, as theologian Ed Stetzer points out, it wasn’t until a man, Hannibal Buress, in a video that went viral, said that Cosby was guilty of rape, that criminal investigations moved forward. 

It’s a commentary on how a male-dominated society has for too long taken the testimony of women less seriously than that of men. 

By the way, this also shows how different Jesus Christ and the kingdom of God are from the norms of most earthly societies and institutions: In the first-century Judean world in which Jesus was born, crucified, and raised from the dead, the testimony of women was deemed unreliable and so, inadmissible in disputes. But Jesus chose women to be the first witnesses and preachers of His Easter victory over sin and death! Jesus believed that the testimony of women was at least as credible as that of men; our society has rarely taken this attitude.

The New Testament teaches that in Christ, there isn’t male or female, slave or free, Jew or Gentile. 

I wish that society held men and women in the same equal regard as Jesus, God the Son, does. 

Maybe today’s Cosby verdict says that some in our society are ready to change. If we will trust in the God we meet in Christ, in His will, and in His sovereignty, maybe, finally, things will change for the better. 

Maybe, we’ll collectively turn from the world’s sin and turn instead to the life God only gives through Christ (John 14:6; John 3:16-18; John 10:30) and we will start to see one another as Christ sees all of us, as cherished children of God, each one to be loved and respected equally.

[I'm the pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio.]

Stetzer: Christians Need to Repent for Conspiracy Theories (I agree)

Ed Stetzer is a conservative evangelical Christian and the executive director of the Billy Graham Center in Wheaton, Illinois. He's an expert on and practitioner of Christian evangelism. He's also no mean theologian and social thinker. I really respect this guy.

Here is a piece he just published in 'Christianity Today' about the need for Christians, in this hyper-mediated and polarized era, to stop spouting conspiracy theories. Stetzer is right, I think, in calling this a violation of what we Lutherans know as the Eighth Commandment: "You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor."

In the Small Catechism, Martin Luther explains the meaning of this commandment for a Christian's daily conduct:

We should fear and love God so that we do not betray, slander, lie, or gossip about our neighbors, but defend them, speak well of them, and put the most charitable construction on all that they do.

Just because you're suspicious of someone on the right, or the left, or the middle, or somewhere else on the spectrum, doesn't mean that the bad things you hear about them must be true.

Our social compact is being daily eroded by loose ships sharing hot tips, not so much by major news outlets, most of whose journalists and editors work hard to corroborate good and bad news, but by ordinary citizens passing on the latest conspiracy theory on Facebook or Twitter. (I'm especially sensitive about this because my grandfather spouted all sorts of conspiracy theories when I was a kid. Because he was my grandfather, I believed what he said and often re-spouted them at school, only to be acquainted with the documented facts by good teachers.)

As a lifelong student of history, it's my observation that most conspiracies that involve more than four people eventually crack. If the conspiracy was nefarious, somebody talks to the right person, or takes money to betray the other conspirators or to write a tell-all, or to get revenge, or to look like a hero. In short, most "conspiracies" aren't.

Be that as it may, Stetzer is right: We Christians have a lot of repenting to do on this point.

As to counsel for the future, I turn again to Luther, who said that when we hear items of gossip (like conspiracy theories), we should let our ears be their tomb. Bury them; don't spread them.

[Blogger Mark Daniels is pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio.]

But How Do I Love My Neighbors?

The mission of the Church and of individual Christians can be summed up in three simple phrases:

• Reach Up (Love God, in response for His grace given in Christ)
• Reach Out (Love our neighbors through service and sharing the Good News of new life in Christ)
• Reach In (Love those in our church family and submit to God to grow in our faith in Christ)*

This article by Ed Stetzer gives ten solid, practical ways that individual Christians can reach out to their neighbors in love.

*Members of Living Water Lutheran Church will recognize the similarities of this distilled list to what we're describing as the building blocks of the mission and ministry of the Church and of individual disciples of Jesus:

• Love God
• Love neighbors
• Love fellow disciples
• Share the Gospel
• Grow in Discipleship

These five building blocks are based on three passages of Scripture in which Jesus gives the Church its marching orders: Matthew 22:34-40 (the Great Commandment); Matthew 28:19-20 (the Great Commission); and John 13:34-35 (the New Commandment).

Stetzer: No Reason for Christians to Be Anti-Muslim

Writes evangelical leader and researcher Ed Stetzer:

I am not naive about the issues involved in Islam and Islamic countries. I have spoken in national publications and before Muslim imams to the fact that there are real issues with how Muslim-dominated countries refuse to allow the right to convert and have not adopted the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights. So, as an evangelical leader and researcher, I have no vested interest in -- and receive no personal benefit from -- speaking out for my Muslim neighbors and friends. Yet, while it is irresponsible not to see the link between radical Islam and terrorism, it is the height of ignorance to assume that all (or most, or even many) Muslims are terrorists...

...Don't be so lazy to assume that the worst of a group represents the entire group. They hardly ever do. Perhaps a better idea is to meet them, learn about them, and treat them as your neighbor. You don't like to be stereotyped. Neither do I. So let's not do it to Muslims.

Read the whole thing, please.

Are Christian Conservatives the Big Losers of the 2012 Election?

A New York Times article asks, "Are Christian conservatives the big losers of the presidential election?"

My answer is, I don't know. 

But I do think that we who are charged with the proclamation of the Gospel should refrain from being identified with particular political philosophies. 

When we do so, we risk creating a false image of Jesus, turning Him into an idol made in our own images. 

We also risk conveying the false impression to the world that God endorses a particular political point of view, alienating people from God unnecessarily.

The true Christian message will alienate people. Bank on it. Jesus said so more than once. Check out His words in Matthew 10:35-38, for example.
 
But unless a government commands us to sin or to engage in idolatry, such as happened in Nazi Germany or happens in despotic states today, there shouldn't be a whiff of politics in what the Church or Christian leaders say. 

Individual Christians should be encouraged to be engaged in politics, whatever their philosophies. But the cause of Christ is too important to be made the hostage of politics.

My own denomination has made Jesus subordinate to liberal politics. 

Other Christian leaders have portrayed Jesus as marching to a conservative politics.

Both notions are lies. 

According to Pastor Ed Stetzer, an old saying has it right: When you mix politics and religion, you get politics. Politics is important. But only the faith commended by the Bible--faith that God in the flesh, Jesus Christ has died and risen so that all who turn from sin and believe in Him are reconciled with God, for now and for eternity--can change our lives.

And when the God we know in Christ changes our relationship with Him from enmity to friendship, He also will begin to transform the decisions we make and the reasons we make them. That includes political decisions. 

Will God make us more conservative or more liberal? 

The answer to that is probably, yes. 

When you dare to put yourself in the hands of the sovereign God of the universe, give Him the freedom to take charge of your whole life, there's no way of predicting where He will lead you. It makes me think of the risen Jesus' words to Peter on how Peter's life would be changed by following Him: "Very truly, I tell you, when you were younger, you used to fasten your own belt and to go wherever you wished. But when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will fasten a belt around you and take you where you do not wish to go” (John 21:18). 

Christians know that we are not in control. And that's a good thing, hard as it may sometimes be. 

That's what we mean when we Christians pray subversively, as Jesus taught us to pray, "Hallowed be Thy Name, Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven."

Our nation might not be in the state it's in, selfishness elevated to a paramount position, if the Church and Christian leaders were more committed to proclaiming the Gospel and less concerned about seeing their preferred candidates elected to office. 

After all, we could be wrong about who to vote for. 

But we will never be wrong in commending Jesus, "the Way, and the Truth, and the Life"!

So, I come back to the Times' original question. Were conservative Christians the big losers in last Tuesday's election? I hope so. 

I hope equally fervently that liberal Christians were the big losers last Tuesday.

I hope that anyone who would dare to take a political position and claim, "Thus saith the Lord," got burnt so badly that they'll turn in repentance to the Lord, seek His forgiveness for trivializing the death and resurrection of Jesus, and pray that God will help all of us who bear Christ's Name to proclaim the Gospel in its purity for as long as God gives us breath.

The gospel message we are called to share is too important to be intermingled with our own political notions. We owe Christ more than that.