“All that it takes for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.” This famous quote by Edmund Burke is probably one the most important quotes I know of that is not in the Bible. Actually, biblically, it’s not quite right because evil triumphs when God allows it to, but that’s God’s business, not ours. From our perspective, this statement is dead on. Do nothing and you are making sure that God can’t do anything through you.
Much of our confusion over Christianity in America comes from a misunderstanding of our citizenship in two kingdoms and our relative responsibility to each. We occupy and serve two kingdoms, but those kingdoms do not serve each other, and should they ever be in conflict, the kingdom of God takes precedence. Recall when the Jewish authorities ordered Peter and John to stop preaching about Jesus, and Peter asked them if he should obey them or God — the rhetorical answer being obvious.
When I asked last night’s BlogTalkRadio guest, Tony Huynh (pronounced “Win”), a millennial seminary student working for a Masters in Theological Studies focusing on race, gender and politics, what he would say to the Boomer generation, he surprised me with a shocking answer. He said that in terms of Christianity, Boomers may be the most unreached people group in America for the gospel.
When your wife and one of your best friends disagree with something you said, and you know you are spiritually, politically, and sociologically usually on the same page as they are, it indicates to me I may have left something open to misinterpretation, or merely not been clear enough in my choice of words.
Which is what happened when I wrote yesterday, “As believers, we need to guard ourselves from joining in these battles.” I didn’t mean we should steer clear of all political causes or involvement; I meant to steer clear of the violent rhetoric that accompanies the far right and the far left. Besides, if you are that far out on either end of the political spectrum, you are not where Jesus is. As Tony Huynh, our BlogTalkRadio guest tonight says, Jesus is too liberal for conservatives and too conservative for liberals. The current debate seems to be playing to the poles, and I believe the truth is never at the poles.
It’s been a long week of confrontation here in this country. Far right groups, sometimes including elements of the KKK or white supremacist neo-Nazi groups have been countered by those on the left supporting anti-racists and anti-hate positions. Last night the confrontation came to our little beach town in the form of over 2,500 demonstrators attending an anti-immigration rally where most of the people were against the anti-immigration group. In fact, in some cases, it appeared that the anti-hate groups out-hated the haters. (Don’t you just hate people who hate?)
Yesterday I attempted to address the racist in all of us and a couple of you commented that I may have confused racism and prejudice — prejudice being something we all do have probably in some form. You were right. I was primarily talking about prejudice. Racists are hate mongers who believe that whole people groups are inferior merely because of their color or ethnicity. None of us are thinking about joining the KKK or driving our cars into a crowd of protesters against racism. However, having said that, the more I think about this, the more I see a reason for sticking with my original intent anyway: “We have met the racist and he/she is us.” Here me out and I think you’ll agree.
I don’t know if there is anyone who can truthfully say beyond a shadow of a doubt that they are not a racist, I just know I can’t. If you have ever participated in the denunciation of any group of people whether it be by color of skin, or ethnic origin, or religion, or sexual identification, you are a racist. I put that in present tense because if there was ever the tiniest shred of thought, reaction, fear, or sense of contamination present in our thinking about others, how do we know for sure it’s gone? I don’t think any of us can be the judge of this.
I slept last night in a good hotel
I went shopping today for jewels
The wind rushed around in the dirty town
And the children let out from the schools
I was standing on a noisy corner
Waiting for the walking green
Across the street he stood
And he played real good
On his clarinet, for free
Now me I play for fortunes
And those velvet curtain calls
I’ve got a black limousine
And two gentlemen
Escorting me to the halls
And I play if you have the money
Or if you’re a friend to me
But the one man band
By the quick lunch stand
He was playing real good, for free
Nobody stopped to hear him
Though he played so sweet and high
They knew he had never
Been on their T.V.
So they passed his music by
I meant to go over and ask for a song
Maybe put on a harmony…
I heard his refrain
As the signal changed
He was playing real good, for free
From the song “For Free” by Joni Mitchell
These are the lyrics to one of my all-time favorite Joni Mitchell songs. It’s about a musician giving his talent to the world for free. It’s wistful — even somewhat painful — the way only Joni can do it. At first you hurt for this guy — unnoticed, unrecognized, unappreciated, and underpaid. But by the time the song is over, you start to look at him in a different light. Mainly because Joni is. She is the one who is looking wistfully at him and realizing he has found something that has evaded her limousines, her fortunes and her velvet curtain calls. He’s found something pure and sweet in his music regardless of whether it satisfies anyone else. You start out feeling sorry for the man on the corner; you end up feeling sorry for Joni.
I overheard someone ask a friend of mine if there were any secrets to her 60-plus years of marriage. She replied with two things: Give your partner the benefit of the doubt, and never say “You always…”
Both of these things are what I would call blame-fighters. Blame will kill a relationship faster than anything. Blame is the way we avoid responsibility for our own errors. It’s as old as Adam and Eve, and it keeps us from learning from our mistakes. To give someone the benefit of the doubt is to not pass the blame. Maybe there are factors you don’t know about or issues you can’t see or understand because you are not in the other person’s shoes.
This week I’ve been trying to capture for everyone the unique experience Marti and I had this last weekend meeting over four days with a very daring couple who flew to southern California for the purpose of healing their relationship through talking with us and taking directives from my wife who is very good at this kind of thing. It may sound like we do this every weekend (we don’t) but after this weekend’s success, I’m not so sure as to whether we might want to consider it.
John Fischer The Catch 