I have read two posts this morning that I think are well worth your time to read. I will link to them and encourage you to go there.
Alan Cross
First, Alan Cross, who has been one of my favorite bloggers for some time, has a powerful article called “The Failings of Christendom.” He says,
“Christendom is the establishment of Christianity (or a version of it) as the state or accepted religion in the larger culture. It is the syncretism of Biblical Christianity with the goals and purposes of the prevailing world system, creating a mixed civil religion that looks Christian in its forms, but lacks the power to truly transform people and human systems to reflect Christ.”
He then goes on to show how Christendom corrupts the offense of the gospel and how is downplays the real demands of the faith.
“The problem with this version of Christendom is that it provides a harbor of comfort for those who want God’s blessing on their lives and endeavors without the demands of discipleship to Christ.”
Worth your time. I’m a little mad, though. I wish I’d written that!
http://www.downshoredrift.com/downshoredrift/2010/10/the-failings-of-christendom.html
Micah Fries
The second article is one by Micah Fries, called, “The Tie that Binds?”
You can find it here. http://micahfries.com/the-tie-that-binds/
Micah, a strong CP supporter, questions whether the CP ought to be the “tie that binds” Southern Baptists, and suggests that we should be bound by
“a purpose, a theology, a Gospel, and to serve that Gospel with any and every appropriate means possible until we have achieved said purpose.”
Great discussion starter.
“Christendom is the establishment of Christianity (or a version of it) as the state or accepted religion in the larger culture. It is the syncretism of Biblical Christianity with the goals and purposes of the prevailing world system, creating a mixed civil religion that looks Christian in its forms, but lacks the power to truly transform people and human systems to reflect Christ.”
Wow. A ‘mixed civil religion’ that ‘looks Christian’ ‘but ‘lacks the power to truly transform people and human systems to reflect Christ.’
So we get a picture of what can happen when a political system merges with a new type of ‘morality’ taught by the Church,
and is then passed off as ‘doing what is right and just’:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_upshot/20101005/pl_yblog_upshot/rural-tennessee-fire-sparks-conservative-ideological-debate
The truth is, the incident in Tennessee doesn’t much look like the America I grew up in . . . but I guess this incident reflects the ‘new’ America:
a blend of politics and religion in the public square.
Glenn Beck, one of the ‘new leaders’, explained it this way:
“BECK: Here’s the thing. Those that are just on raw feeling are not going to understand. ”
BECK: “This is the sort of argument that Americans are going to have.”
BECK: And it goes nowhere if you go onto “compassion, compassion, compassion, compassion” or well, “they should’ve put it out, what is the fire department for?”
” If you don’t pay the 75 dollars then that hurts the fire department. They can’t use those resources, and you’d be spongeing off your neighbor’s resources. ”
“It’s important for America to have this debate. This is the kind of stuff that’s going to have to happen, we are going to have to have these kinds of things.”
Yes, Glenn Beck, it is important that we ‘get it’, isn’t it?
But I will miss the old ways of my American childhood, when compassion wasn’t ‘privatized’, and people stood with one another in times of crisis.
Somehow it was more ‘Christ-like’ then, when firemen didn’t have to stand and watch and weep, as they followed ‘orders’ to let a fellow American’s home burn down and his animals die.
Dave,
I read Micah’s post earlier today. I’m glad that you linked to it. It probably will not surprise you that I have a different take on his post which I will elaborate on for a new SBC Voices post. By taking one quote by Dr. Crosby, Pastor of FBC New Orleans, Micah was able to build a nice strawman to then knock down with his argument. What those of us on both sides of the GCR (the Task Force document, not the Biblical command) are beginning to realize is that conservative, Bible-believing inerrantists are speaking at least two different languages born out of two very different and competing philosophies of what it means to be a cooperating Southern Baptist.
I no more think that Dr. Crosby was suggesting that CP was more important than the Gospel (as Micah seems to think) than I do that the Convention has “brain-washed” people to think that CP is in the Bible (as one of Micah’s commenters wrote). But what I and others, including Dr. Hankins, Dr. Crosby, and the Louisiana Convention know is that CP is the most visible means of testing the health of our cooperative spirit as Southern Baptists. If you take away or severely weaken CP, you weaken the entire body known as the Southern Baptist Convention. To illustrate my point, there well be some folks that understand the language I and others are speaking and some that will understand the language that Micah and others ar speaking. Whether the language (philosophy) divide grows or comes together remains to be seen. When the new IMB President is named, I think we may have a clearer answer of which way the Convention will go. Thanks and God bless,
Howell
Yeah, I thought the post was thought-provoking. That’s my definition of a good post. Looking forward to seeing your “counterpoint.”