Here is the poster and here is the article.
What is TeamPyro communicating? Again, generalization that Emergents do not value justice and that they embrace left-wing politics. The use of "duh" implies some lack of reason. Not positive - especially with the photo chosen depicting radicalism, distain for governmental leaders, etc.. Isn't that what people see when they see this or do you see something else? How does that inform your understanding of truth? How does that help your interaction with someone claiming to be Emergent or someone embracing one of these ideals? Again, the poster is destructive and not funny.
What is the horrible article that this is based on? Poor Mike Clawson, until now he thought of himself as "A follower of the way of Christ, a "postmodern" Christian, an amateur theologian/ philosopher, a husband, a father, a minister, a friend..."
What did he write that was so evil? Clawson posits that justice isn't always about "punishing wrongdoers". He invites us to consider the word injustice. He offers the following.
When we talk about injustice we talk about people being treated unfairly or unequally, being exploited, being falsely accused. If I were to put it in theological terms I'd say that to treat someone unjustly is to disrespect the Image of God in that person, to treat them as a mere object that can be exploited for my personal gain.
From that he suggests that justice might well mean "to respect people as God's Image Bearers? Wouldn't it mean to treat people with equity and value them as fellow human beings? Wouldn't justice ultimately mean to treat people with love? To heal the brokenness and sins that mar our relationships with each other? We might call this definition Restorative Justice, in the sense of restoring broken relationships between people and putting right all the things that have gone wrong in the world because of sin and injustice."
This is amazing, I'll simply quote the rest.
No doubt putting right the wrongs will sometimes require punishing the wrongdoers - to prevent them from continuing in their injustices and perhaps make them aware of the seriousness of their actions. But wouldn't a fuller application of justice actually be to restore the wrongdoers to a whole and healed relationship as well? If we are to respect the Image of God in all people, then we need to not only heal the ways that Image has been marred in the victims of injustice, we need to also heal the ways the Image of God is marred in the perpetrators of injustice.
This healing, restorative justice could also go by the name mercy. People often wonder how to reconcile God's justice with God's mercy, but this dilemma only exists if we define justice solely in terms of Retributive Justice. But if we instead definte it primarily in terms of Restorative Justice, then mercy is simply the application of justice to those who are oppressed by their own practice of injustice. True Justice thus liberates both the oppressed from the oppression of the oppressors, and liberates the oppressors from their own selves. Through the practice of justice and mercy, both are able to enter into a restored and reconciled relationship with each other. God's broken Image is thereby restored in all people, both oppressor and oppressed.
Now that's good stuff.
TeamPyro just took an article that had nothing to do with left-wing or right-wing politics and led people to believe Emergents are about left-wing politics. The article was well thought out and TeamPyro threw a "duh" on it.
The article was entreating believers to practice justice and mercy and to restore and to reconcile such that "God's broken Image is thereby restored in all people, both oppressor and oppressed." TeamPyro felt that this was something to mock and misrepresent - and somehow link to Emergents as opposed to all believers.
I hope TeamPyro will repent and get back to the business of God. I am done with these posters that clearly came from a blinded and bitter heart, one bent on bringing injustice and wrong understanding to the body of Christ.
1 comment:
Thanks for the support Rick. I too was rather confused about why they associated my article with a poster mocking left-wing politics (not that I necessarily have anything against left-wing politics).
I think it must be because I used the word "oppressors", and I've found that some people think you must be a Marxist to talk about oppression. (Forgetting of course that Jesus talked about releasing people from oppression in his Luke 4 description of the gospel.)
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