Posted on 07/15/2013 10:53:42 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
When I heard the words “not guilty” Saturday night, I felt a variety of emotions. Those emotions ranged from initial confusion and disbelief to anger, and were followed by intense sadness and grief. I felt a renewed sense of loss for the Martin family—only this time, that sense of loss was compounded by frustration over the injustices they’re enduring at the hands of our legal system. In my despair, I closed my eyes and wished that I could escape the system—the social system, the class system, the racial system and the legal system—that we’ve built here in America.
While sitting there with my eyes closed, I remembered that the desire for escape—the longing for a place in the world where oppressive forces have been defeated, where the “least of these” have been vindicated and where evil is merely a memory—is a continual theme in scripture. I thought of how the search for some utopian place can be found early in the Hebrew Bible within the story of a people who journeyed for decades with hope of reaching a “promised land” rich with milk and honey. It’s found in the cries of those who desperately sought to escape exile because they were in a land where they were too depressed and oppressed to sing the songs of their home country. It is even found in the cautionary parables of Jesus—words that often paint a picture of a day when God will break into history and right the wrongs of the world.
This desire for escape, vindication and the intervention of God is also central to modern Christian theology. Most of the churches that I know adhere to some form of the Apostles’ Creed, which offers the claim that Jesus will someday “come again to judge the living and the dead.” A common belief spans across denominational identities and philosophical leanings: that at some point, “God’s people” will be removed (or “raptured”) from their existence in the world so that God can judge and ultimately deal with “wicked” people, and that at that time, those who have suffered oppression and/or persecution will finally witness God’s justice. This time of intervention—the “end times,” if you will—is understood as the time in history when God will finally balance the scales…a time for which many Christians wait with anticipation.
My personal theology has changed in recent years. As I wrote in my personal creed, I no longer hold traditional views about the end times. I don’t look for Jesus to return to our stratosphere on a white horse, wielding a sword in his mouth and sporting a tattooed thigh. Despite the shift in my personal beliefs, I do understand the desire for judgment, escape and vindication. I understand it in a deep place within my soul, and I understood it in a very real way Saturday night. I understood it as my friends and family members took to their social media accounts to declare that the American justice system does not have the “final say” and that God will judge Zimmerman “in the end.” I understood the complex nature of that belief in the context of its historical and theological roots, and I knew how this theology could remain sustainable throughout history…a history that has always featured an oppressive force and a victim.
As I sat on the floor in front of the television set with my eyes closed, listening to the jurors’ individual affirmations of their “not guilty” votes, I wished with every fiber of my being for the intervention of some loophole in the legal system, of the judge on television…or even of God. I wished for an intervention that would right the wrongs of my society and the suffering experienced in the rest of the world.
In that moment, I understood the desire to escape. But I reminded myself of my responsibility to remain as present as possible. I understood the desire for God’s intervention but also understood that it is my responsibility to intervene constructively. I reminded myself that the intervention of God requires the cooperation of humans…I remembered that the tools for changing the world have been entrusted to me.
I fought the urge to escape our society and the urge to wait patiently for divine intervention. And then I prayed for clarity on what I might do to help change the world.
Crystal St. Marie Lewis
Fortunately, she seems to have the frame to hold it all in.
Upon hearing the Zimmerman verdict I felt relieved, joyous, and proud that the jurors returned justice to the system. I also hoped it would serve to end the oppression of America by race hustlers, militants, and hate-filled attention seeking, leftist malcontents. Even though George isn’t white, the fact that rabble-rouseing politicians, media and community organizers chose to portray him as white, showed me that racism against whites is institutionalized and infectious, the kind of ignorance that excuses the violence blacks commit against innocent whites daily. The jury decision was like a salve over a wound militant blacks and white-guilt leftists have caused.
When I see white media and entertainment personalities berating Zimmerman, the jurors and unfair America, I hope they are the next victims of violent black gangs. Maybe if they have a healthy black teenager pounding on them, driving their head into pavement, they will quit blaming white America, and start telling black culture they need to clean up their militant act.
Emerging church:
The emerging church seeks a post-Christendom approach to being church and mission through: renouncing imperialistic approaches to language and cultural imposition; making ‘truth claims’ with humility and respect; overcoming the public/private dichotomy; moving church from the center to the margins; moving from a place of privilege in society to one voice amongst many; a transition from control to witness, maintenance to mission and institution to movement.
some in the emerging church believe it is necessary to deconstruct modern Christian dogma. One way this happens is by engaging in dialogue, rather than proclaiming a predigested message, believing that this leads people to Jesus through the Holy Spirit on their own terms. Many in the movement embrace the missiology that drives the movement in an effort to be like Christ and make disciples by being a good example. The emerging church movement contains a great diversity in beliefs and practices, although some have adopted a preoccupation with sacred rituals, good works, and political and social activism. Much of the Emerging Church movement has also adopted the approach to evangelism which stressed peer-to-peer dialogue rather than dogmatic proclamation and proselytizing
The movement favors the sharing of experiences via testimonies, prayer, group recitation, sharing meals and other communal practices, which they believe are more personal and sincere than propositional presentations of the Gospel. Teachers in the Emerging Church tend to view the Bible and its stories through a lens which they believe finds significance and meaning for their community’s social and personal stories rather than for the purpose of finding cross-cultural, propositional absolutes regarding salvation and conduct
The emerging church claims they are creating a safe environment for those with opinions ordinarily rejected within modern conservative evangelicalism and fundamentalism. Non-critical, interfaith dialog is preferred over dogmatically-driven evangelism in the movement. Story and narrative replaces the dogmatic:
While some Evangelicals emphasize eternal salvation, many in the emerging church emphasize the here and now. Participants in this movement assert that the incarnation of Christ informs their theology. They believe that as God entered the world in human form, adherents enter (individually and communally) into the context around them and aim to transform that culture through local involvement. This holistic involvement may take many forms, including social activism, hospitality and acts of kindness. This beneficent involvement in culture is part of what is called missional living. Missional living leads to a focus on temporal and social issues, in contrast with a perceived evangelical overemphasis on salvation
The Christian Century is a progressive, ecumenical magazine based in Chicago. Committed to thinking critically and living faithfully, the Century explores what it means to believe and live out the Christian faith in our time.About Us | The Christian Century
Founded in 1884 as the Christian Oracle, the magazine took its current name at the turn of the 20th century. Notable contributors in the early decades included Jane Addams and Reinhold Niebuhr. In 1963, the Century was the first major periodical to publish the full text of Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail.”
The Century continues to inform and shape mainline Christianity. Along with the magazine’s biweekly print and online editions, the editors maintain a group blog and host a network of outside bloggers. The Century also holds an annual lecture and workshop in Chicago that has featured such figures as Barbara Brown Taylor, Eugene Peterson, Krista Tippett, Anna Carter Florence, Thomas Long, Thomas Lynch, Marcus Borg and Peter Gomes. The magazine remains a voice of generous orthodoxy, both loyal to the church and open to the world.
I believe and pray, that when people are made to hear the facts, (and I intend to correct anyone repeating the lies), and see that a good man was used by democrats to whip up black voters to insure Obama's reelection, there will be an exodus from the democrat party. George's brother, Robert, said they had gotten support from the black community. Maybe when good blacks see how barry, sharpton, jackson... made fools of them, they'll turn their backs on the race baiting thugs.
She could carry her ass to Cuba. They are all equal there.
They don’t need facts because they have Pastor Eric and the Chosen One Obama to tell them what to think.
Move back to Africa.
You'll love it there... for the three minutes you survive.
...”What was on trial in the Zimmerman courtroom wasn’t just Zimmerman. This was a battle between our System of Laws based on the Constitution and one based on Social Justice and Critical Race Theory”...
I really do not care for the term “social justice” because, most of the time, justice is hard to find from those who promote it.
...”Fortunately not all blacks think this way”...
Yes..More and more those blacks who are willing to be educated outside of the NAACP and are willing to assimilate into society with other people are finding their own principles which might be quite different from what they have been told to believe. They become color blind and they do not hate white people. In fact, some of their best friends may be white, Hispanic or Asian. They know the opportunity to have a good life is out there if they take advantage of the wonderful opportunities available to them. They may need to get out of Chicago and Detroit, though, to realize their American dream. I refer you to Dr. Ben Carson as an example of someone who has walked the walk and knows how to talk the talk. He is at the top of the heap. I love that guy!
Ms. St. Marie Lewis, here is a short list of things you can do:
1. Do not have sex before marriage so that your children will not be fatherless
Apparently, icthyosis bullosa of siemens also robs one of the ability to use the “space” bar.
Social Justice is a euphemism for Marxism and/or Liberation Theology and its secular arm Critical Race Theory.
Also, I think she meant “ichthyosis”.
free one-way trips to Liberia?
OMG. Why don't they just suffocate themselves and end it all? Since salvation is so very overemphasized....
Hey, morons, you need air to survive...
Which is pretty much what most of “American” Christians do. They think that America is the new Israel (we are not).
This guy has been trying to tell them for the past ten years (this book published in 2003):
Jesse Lee Peterson
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