As the country is rocked by protests following the murder of George Floyd, the podcast crew discusses the meaning of it all. Phil explains how being a part of a multiethnic church has opened his eyes to the challenges people of color still face.
Christian reflects on her southern, segregated upbringing. And Skye shares about the racism he’s experienced in the church and the suburbs. Also this week, theologian Matthew Bates explains the ongoing, sometimes bitter debate over the definition of the Gospel. Is it really about personal salvation or something much, much bigger?
@Michael Pantell
“Skye made a point about how liberals and conservatives are responding to this: One side (Democrats/liberals) saying stop messing with my body and the other side (conservatives/republicans) stop messing with my stuff. I think that dichotomy is fundamentally flawed…. “
I really see it as an unnecessarily nice parley. The reality is most conservatives come off as if the lives of the poor aren’t even worth the cost of their stuff. Listen again to how Trump stated it in his famous Facebook post “When the looting starts the shooting starts.” that’s an address that places the lives of the people below that of wealth, and he does it unconsciously. And really the same sort of commentary com…
bfgaylord, I think that the big issue is what should the framework be that we build everything else around. In "the gospel is about salvation" framework, everything is built around salvation and how what Jesus did affects me. In "the gospel is Jesus is king" framework, everything is based on Jesus being lord and how what Jesus did affects the whole world.
Both sides agree on these things (they both agree that Jesus is your personal savior and they also agree that Jesus is king) but they differ on what is primary and what is secondary. I think that the thing is that when you have the wrong framework, you tend to place things in weird places and make things…
The interview with Matthew Bates was very helpful. I've been reading some of NT Wright's material and taken some of his video classes. I've been told he is a false teacher and have been sent the video by John MacArthur several times. (I've never listened to him much, but he needs to learn some manners). I've heard about the King Jesus Gospel vs the regular one and that there was some kind of major controversy. Being just an ordinary guy in the pew, I didn't have the background to totally understand why everybody was so upset, and your discussion helped a lot.
I appreciate the clarification of the controversy. I liked Skye's comment near the end about everyone agreeing tha…
Thank you so much for your podcast today. I live in the Twin Cities and work with Arrive Ministries (an affiliate of World Relief). I work with church mobilization, helping connect local churches relationally with immigrant (specifically Somali) families. The African American experience and immigrant experience is different but there is a lot of overlap, and our staff has been having serious conversations about systemic racism. I've been really overwhelmed--we want change but how do you change a system, especially as a white relatively privileged individual? I really appreciated what Skye said about change happening only as fast as relationships and about how we can fall into danger of supporting causes without knowing the people it represents. I realize tha…
Joshua—
Thanks for the question. A few responses come to mind:
Rev 7:9 does NOT say cultures will be separated around the throne of God. That is an assumption some read into the text.
John’s vision of people from “every nation, tribe, people, & language” around the throne is meant to emphasize both the universality (size) and inclusion (diversity) of Jesus’ kingdom. It transcends culture. Jesus is not merely the ‘King of the Jews,’ he’s the King of the world.
One of the most significant themes of the NT is desegregation—the effort to integrate Jews and gentiles into one people. In fact, efforts to separate Christians based on their ethnic heritage often brings the harshest condemnation and judgment from the…