George Floyd and me
Shai Linne reflects on the issues surrounding the death of George Floyd: ‘In a nutshell, I’m so thankful for Jesus. I deserve to be consumed, but I’m not, because of God’s compassion. That’s what the cross and resurrection are all about. My pain and trauma are real. But my salvation, in a sense, is even more real, because my pain and trauma are temporary. My salvation is eternal. This is why I choose to focus on what I do in my music. It’s the glory of God, the supremacy of Jesus Christ, the centrality of the cross, and biblical theology that put my experience as a black man in America into its proper perspective.’
A free people’s suicide?
David Robertson reflects on the recent protests that have broken out around the world: ‘What I am concerned about in this article is the hypocrisy, the mob rule and especially the breakdown of law and order.’
“If the sources are non-white, the enthusiasm is not there”
I don’t usually link to twitter threads, but there have been so many good and important ones lately. Here, Dr Rakib Ehsan offers some thoughts on recent protests and asks some pertinent questions.
A dark cloud for democracy
In a similar vein, here is Carl Trueman: ‘In a context where democratic freedom is seen as part of the problem and identity is about self-assertion, then democracy and its concomitant institutions will seem a failed deity, a fallen idol, an impediment to freedom rather than its necessary facilitator. And in that situation, police brutality in Minneapolis will speak more powerfully to people in Portsmouth than will state-sanctioned violence in Hong Kong.’
How cancel culture makes liars of us all
Giles Fraser: ‘The new, highly secular “cancel culture” represents an extreme form of righteousness that has all the moral power of a certain kind of protestant Christianity, but none of the basic scaffolding of redemption on which such Christianity is built. And morality without forgiveness or redemption is a frightening, persecutory business.’
The statues are a neat distraction from our own hearts
I don’t like many of the statues that are up but I’m not convinced we should tear them all down. I suspect the author and I would disagree on the question of what should happen to various statues and why. But I entirely agree that discussion about statues is taking our focus away from what really matter – the ongoing reality of racism and the issues that lurk within our own hearts.
From the archive: Blame culture and the church
‘Blame culture has infiltrated the church. The grounding assumption is that I cannot possibly be at fault. Where problems exist, someone or something else must be to blame. For many, the Devil is a helpful means of distancing myself from my sin. It wasn’t my sin that led to those terrible consequences, it was the Devil (probably attacking me). Otherwise, we look to the minister or elders. It’s not my fault, the pastor neglected his duties and that’s why this happened. Otherwise, we may look to other members. If they weren’t so insistent upon their preferences (for which read, if they indulged my preferences) we wouldn’t have all this in-fighting. In essence, the argument boils down to blame – someone must wear it and I know it shouldn’t be me. So often when we are discontent we look anywhere but inwardly to find the cause.’