Man up and be faithful!

I recently watched a movie (Up in the Air) and TV show (The Office) that show a married woman cheating with a single man. In these scenarios the married woman seemed more conflicted about her cheating than when married men cheat with single women. Her commitment to her husband/family seemed more serious than the standard portrayal of cheating men.

Why is this so? My diagnosis: while mothers feel a deep commitment to family (especially kids) many men in our culture (inside and outside the church) have lost sight of what it means to be faithful. God is the ultimate faithful father and yet we Christians have left our culture to display their weak, worldly version of faithfulness. This Mother’s Day (and every day) it’s time to man up and be faithful!

Why I think John Piper was wrong

On Thursday, @JohnPiper tweeted a Jesse Jackson quote: “You can’t vote against healthcare and call yourself a black man,” adding his commentary “This not helpful to anybody.” He then tweeted another quote, arguing to: “…decline an argument that begins and ends with race.”

I think he was wrong to Tweet the quotes because:

1. They were out of context. Jackson was speaking to the Congressional Black Caucus. His comment was aimed at people who claim to represent the interests of black people, who suffer disproportionately from a lack of health care.
2. They affirmed people’s misconceptions. From the retweets, it seems some of Piper’s predominantly white, conservative followers think: people of color talk about race too much, it’s not such a big deal anymore.

I don’t think Piper believes that but his tweets could well affirm those who do.

Christian culture: If I had more time on Sunday…

I preached about cultural differences and the gospel on Sunday. @PastorBern made the fair point that we must prioritize church for cultural reform. Some quick related thoughts that I didn’t have time to express:

• Unity is the key issue in relation to race/culture and Christian community. We all come from Adam, just as we are all saved by Christ. 
• If we ignore the reality of racism and fail to seek reconciliation, we miss a chance to reflect the unifying work of God in our community. 
• There’s a strong analogy between what it means to be a citizen: whenever I meet another Australian, we have things to talk about. As believers, we should AT LEAST connect with one another on that level. If certain issues drive us apart, that is a problem that urgently needs to be addressed

Christians, Healthcare and Fairness

The Tweet that provoked:

Healthcare reform is all about fairness, it is fundamentally unfair for people to die early (even in the womb) because they lack coverage

My argument was not explicit: it’s unfair…that more than 50 million people experience this suffering when America spends so much on my homeownership tax deduction, on roads, on two wars…etc.

People responded with several “Christian” arguments – it’s a fallen world, grace is unfair etc. This raised a significant issue: just because the world is broken doesn’t mean Christians should accept injustice. In the Bible, the prophets – and Jesus himself – consistently call out injustice. They even argued that rulers (read: governments) needed to address them. Many great Christians (activist theologians) did not accept injustice, some at great personal cost (eg Dietrich Bonhoeffer).

We cannot be calloused to the urgency and injustice of this issue.