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VOW
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Justice and Peace: Its because
Jesus is Lord
Many of the articles in the new edition of Horizons, January/February 2004, are about human needs. The focus of the magazine is, “Working for Justice and Peace.” Some of the articles have legitimate concerns about poverty, racism and the violent deaths of women. On the other hand this edition smacks too much of the tenor of human manipulation. While great needs are lifted up, needs which must be addressed and attended to, many of the answers in this edition had to do with the manipulation of people and congregations through consulting and selective education. Reading some of the articles was like reading various mission statements with God and the redeeming love of Jesus Christ left out. Reading this issue sent me back to two of my favorite books: C.S. Lewis’ fictional That Hideous Strength and its non-fictional complement, The Abolition of Man. These two works of Lewis are his rebuff of both logical positivism and social engineering. Logical positivism, simplified, is a philosophical view that insists that only what can be verified by sense knowledge is true and has value, while social engineering has to do with tampering with humanity in physical ways, by psychological behaviorism, and other means in order to produce an ideal society. The needs of poor migrant workers are explained in the article, “Fast Food or Fair Food?” Whether one agrees with the boycott of Taco Bell or not the fact that these agricultural workers have no voice is important. As author Ellen Birkett Morris points out when quoting Noelle Damico, “Growers are under no obligation to dialogue with the workers about wages or working conditions and can fire them for organizing.” (11) The prophets of the Old Testament had a lot to say about taking care of the poor and the immigrant. And James thunders in the fifth chapter of that book in the New Testament about the rich who abuse the poor laborer. “Behold, the pay of the laborers who mowed your fields, and which has been withheld by you, cries out against you; and the outcry of those who did the harvesting has reached the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth.” (Verse 4) Also the article, “Las Desaparecidas,” by Ann Crews Melton, focuses on the devastating deaths of many poor women who come to Ciudad Juarez, Mexico to work. Many have been found sexually abused and dead, while some are not found at all. The need for the Christian community to care and to do something about these murders, just screams out. However, it is the first article in Horizons that sets the tone. Kikanza Nuri Robins in her article, “Working for Justice,” focuses on a popular new method of encouraging diversity both individually and in institutions. Cultural Competence, as it is called, was first defined by Terry Cross and was meant to be helpful when working with children of different ethnic groups with medical needs. Robins who is a consultant using this method explains some of it in her article, although her explanations are a bit vague. She writes of her reasons for liking the methods of Cultural Competence and states, “the focus is behavioral not emotional; and it can be applied to both organizational practices and individual behavior. Her statement that the Church is called by “our communities to reinterpret and refocus business models for use in the church,” is unnerving to say the least. (7) Robins on her consulting web site has links whose owners have mostly Eastern or New Age world-views. A Presbyterian minister, her list of expectations for her clients who come to her for spiritual counseling include, “Discover and grow in the presence of Universal love.” Additionally, she offers wedding counseling and marriage services, which “reflects your spirituality” and “your faith tradition.” This is a merger of questionable spirituality and business slipping into the church together. Tinkering with human beings is dangerous. Tinkering with human beings in the church without the transforming grace of Jesus Christ is the Church committing suicide. Teresa Chavz Sauceda’s article, “Becoming God’s Beloved Community,” does provide an account of the condition of humanity and the reason for human tragedy. She writes, “Just as human sin alienates us from God, it also alienates us from each other.” Yet, there is little discernment and less biblical theology in this issue of Horizons. Because of that lack there is little theology offered to back up mission to the poor and abused. Perhaps it is because of a lack of biblical theology that one of the greatest injustices happening in this country, the killing of millions of unborn babies, is not mentioned. The one biblical accounting is the extra material offered for lesson seven of the Presbyterian Women’s Bible Study. But this turns into a lesson about radical feminism rather than a study about God. Magdalena I Garcia, using the book, Beyond Anger: On Being a Feminist in the Church, by Carolyn Osiek, explains the various ways women cope with the supposed patriarchy in the Judeo-Christian Church. She writes of the woman in Luke 7:36-50: It strikes me that the woman in our biblical passage, whether energized by the anger of the marginalist, the denial of the loyalist, the idealism of the symbolist or the determination of the revisionist, storms into the room as a liberationist, embodying a conversion that begins with the self and exhibits a new way of thinking and a new way of being. (33)In other words her conversion is a kind of an awakening, an understanding that she is oppressed by patriarchy and it begins with her feelings about herself. In this version of the story Jesus is not the Lord who forgives her sin accepting her into a fellowship of forgiven sinners, rather he is the one who accepts her as she is: biblical redemption is not a part of the story. While it is true that this story pictures the self-righteous Simon against the One who allows sinners to touch Him that is not the whole story. The text, rather, is telling us, that it is the forgiven sinner who loves the Lord Jesus; it is the self-righteous who do not. They offer Him no acts of kindness, not even the kindness due to any guest. The woman came with great love because she knew that Jesus had forgiven her.1 The Church doesn’t need social education or manipulation, she needs the gospel, the words of God, the scripture. She needs it preached and taught, loved and respected. The Church needs Jesus Christ, clear and simple and unattached to anyone’s agenda. The editors and authors, who write for Horizons, could offer to Jesus the gift of proclamation, telling of His wonderful redemption. They could give to the thirsty reader the good tidings that Jesus Christ is the Lord who died for the love of sinners. Only this will renew and transform the Church. Justice and peace belong to Jesus Christ. _______________ 1 “According to some commentators ‘love’ is the ground for forgiveness,
but this violates the context (7:41 ff.) and is contrary to New Testament
teaching in general. “For (hoti) she loved’ is rather the evidence
of her prior forgiveness. Cf. 13:2; Manson; Moule, p.147. Thus NEB: ‘Her
great love proves that her many sins have been forgiven.’” E. Earle Ellis,
The
Gospel of Luke, The New Century Bible Commentary, Ed. Matthew Black,
reprint, (Grand Rapids: Wn. B. Eerdsman Publ. Co. 1991) 122.
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