The most moving part of #FormedForJustice was the dance to "Strange Fruit"—beautifully devastating (can't remember the artist, help!).
Reminded me of this: a piano, entangled in a lynching tree, plays "Strange Fruit." By the strength of the Af-Am spirit, beauty arises from evil.
Southern trees bear strange fruit
Blood on the leaves and blood at the root
Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze
Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees
Pastoral scene of the gallant south
The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth
Scent of magnolias, sweet and fresh
Then the sudden smell of burning flesh
Here is fruit for the crows to pluck
For the rain to gather, for the wind to suck
For the sun to rot, for the trees to drop
Here is a strange and bitter crop
Trying to pull together some thoughts that have been rattling around in my head. In particular, trying to highlight the crucial formative role that a genuinely upside-down, power-inverting, margin-centering community (i.e. the church) has for our vision of the gospel. Thoughts?
American evangelicalism has tended to be very good at calling out the errors of the "social gospel" and in some places has called out the errors of a "separatist gospel" but struggles to even recognize that there are errors inherent to a "triumphalist gospel."
I wonder if this bc we tend to reduce the gospel to only what it does in the individual heart, so to leave that out is an obvious error.
Whereas the upside down community where the poor are blessed and the weak shame the strong is often neglected and even seen with suspicion.
Random thoughts on parenting from a slightly above avg parent who feels like he has no idea what he's doing, in no particular order:
1. Parents, we have legitimate but derived authority for which we must give account. We must learn to exercise it well in the manner of Christ.
2. Your kid doesn't need you to be their friend. They have lots of those. They need you to be their parent.
3. Your main job is not to give them an elite education, an idyllic childhood or to shield them from hardship. It's to show them the purpose of life is to follow Jesus.
4. That means they have to see you make decisions and do things in your life that you would only do because you are following Jesus.
5. Live life close to the poor.
6. Read the Bible & pray with them daily. Then stop doing it for them; set them up to do it on their own.
1/4 Last night's convo still got me thinking. @esglaude in Democracy in Black talks about racial *habits.* That was a new layer for me:
1. Racial prejudice in hearts 2. Racial animosity in relationships 3. Racial habits that frame lives 4. Racial systems that order society
2/4 What are some of our racial habits in America? Claude mentions a few, I add some too:
1. Denial/minimization of race (Glaude calls this "masking") 2. Disremembering/distorting our history of race 3. Racial separation/isolation 4. Making assumptions through stereotypes
3/4 What if Christians started replacing these racial habits with Xn *spiritual* habits?
1. Confessing instead of denying 2. Remembering & truth-telling instead of disremembering 3. Breaking bread across difference instead of isolation 4. Asking & listening instead of assuming
This was outstanding. My feeble attempt at a summary:
Human ideologies take a *good* thing in God's creation and deifies it to replace God as sovereign. This is the fatal mistake that ends up dehumanizing. The problem of ideology is at its core idolatry.
Liberalism lifts up the individual (a good!). But when the individual is made the savior and sovereign over ALL of life, it results in the loss of social cohesion and self-serving isolation.
Nationalism lifts up the ethnic group or nation-state (a good!). But when one ethnic group is made the Savior and Sovereign over ALL of life, it results in racial oppression and the violence of empire.