Thread by @dukekwondc

Appreciate @pmatzko's analysis of the "neo-fundamentalist view of America" re: racial justice. Indeed, the extent to which even avowed "apolitical" evangelical leaders go out of their way to defend the sanctity of America and its history is ... notable. s/1398744012836769793?s=20

But there is no way forward without a sober recognition of the complexity of American history and American church history — their virtues and vices, faithfulness and failures, what Mark Noll calls its mind-boggling "co-mingling of contradictions, antinomies, and paradoxes."

In light of this, I appreciated the perspective shared by @DavidAFrench this morning: "Remembering our nation’s virtues helps give us hope. Remembering our sin gives us humility. Remembering both gives us the motivation and the inspiration necessary to repair our land."

Those words echo ours: "The church's past faithfulness fuels us with hope concerning the possibility of the church in its work of repair. And the church's past failures fuel us with repentance concerning the culpability of the church and demand that we engage the work of repair."

But embracing complexity requires a kind of moral courage, doesn't it? Especially in our present cultural moment.