1. You have heard it said that restitution is required only if *specific* victims of theft can be identified. But I say to you, this is simply not true according to historical Protestant (and especially Reformed) ethical thought.
2. Baxter, for example, explains that "public oppressors, who injure whole nations, countries or communities" are bound to make restitution (CD). He cites as examples unjust judges, oppressing landlords, and deceitful tradesmen, who repeatedly steal from nameless multitudes.
3. Further, those who are guilty of theft but cannot locate their victims are still required to relinquish the stolen goods by returning them to God. And the best proxy for God in this scenario is THE POOR, says Watson, Ridgley, Beveridge, Baxter, et al, based on Num. 5:8.
4. That is why there's an interpretative tradition that reads Zacchaeus' pledge to give half his possessions to THE POOR (Lk 19:8) not as spontaneous generosity, but rather, as restitution for victims that he, as a public oppressor, could no longer identify (see e.g., Beveridge).
5. One recent example of this in practice: Upon discovering their great-grandfather owned enslaved people, and not finding any record of names, a donor gave out of their inherited wealth to a nonprofit that helps underserved Black communities in KY. npr.org/2021/06/03/100…
6. The point is, don't let people tell you reparations isn't cogent b/c scripture requires restitution ONLY IF specific victims can be personally identified. False. To the contrary, the Bible recognizes that the most heinous thefts often involve masses of unidentifiable people.

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More from @dukekwondc

1 Jun
The response of local White clergymen to the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre:
Rev. C. W. Kerr, First Presbyterian Church: Image
Rev. Harold Cooke, Centenary Methodist Church Image
Read 6 tweets
30 May
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."
Read 5 tweets
24 May
8 lessons about the Unity of the Spirit from Ephesians 4:1-16:

1. Unity is a Christian priority. It is an essential expression of our call to Christ (v. 1). Christ himself prioritized our oneness in his prayers (Jn 17:11). Unity is not optional for followers of Christ.
2. Unity is a human impossibility. It is "of the Spirit" (v. 3)—supernaturally produced and given by the Holy Spirit. As such it is not based on natural affinity—common interests, culture, politics, personality. The church is an assembly of recovering "natural enemies" (Carson).
3. Unity is a mark of maturity. As the body is built up in unity of faith, the church becomes "mature" (v. 13), "no longer children" (v. 14). A splintered and divided church is an immature church. It is also a vulnerable church, subject to false teaching and deception (v. 14).
Read 15 tweets
26 Jan
1/ I agree with @SeanMLucas (albeit as a not-historian) that this is among the most important contributions of @kkdumez's book. ImageImage
2/ One of evangelicalism's most "significant cultural blind-spots" is found in its refusal to see itself as a culture, its stubborn insistence that it just *is* its theological commitments, unmediated and distinct from any institutional, cultural, or political embodiments.
3/ This self-understanding continually allows (and historically has allowed) evangelicals to distance themselves from the social malignancies of the movement. Those are always aberrations—"not us." Alas, there is no "us" except that which identifies with a disembodied confession.
Read 5 tweets
26 Nov 20
Gratitude isn’t easy. If it were, God wouldn’t need to command it, and we wouldn’t need the Holy Spirit to do it. “Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” (1 Thess 5:18) 1/x
But gratitude is especially scarce in trying circumstances. The evidence pushes us in the opposite direction—toward grumbling, toward cynicism, toward despair. Giving thanks in a pandemic is hard. 2/x
Still, God invites us to practice thanksgiving for our own good. Gratitude is good for our hearts. (Our bodies, too.) It’s an invitation to remember the promises of God, to see our circumstances with new eyes, see evidence of a different kind—evidence of God’s love for you. 3/x
Read 6 tweets
18 Nov 20
1/ Some interesting data on race/religion from the 2020 IASC Survey of American Political Culture (iasculture.org/research/publi…) —
2/ “Our founding fathers were part of a racist/sexist culture that gave important roles to White men while harming minorities/women.”

AGREE:

90% African Americans
59% White Non-Evangelicals
23% White Evangelicals
3/ "How serious of a threat do you think [Racism—unequal treatment of Whites and Blacks] poses to America and America’s future?"

VERY/EXTREMELY SERIOUS THREAT:

85% African Americans
68% White Non-Evangelicals
36% White Evangelicals
Read 6 tweets

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