i was going to write about free speech, but lawsuits came to mind; e-harmony, a popular dating site set up by an evangelical, is being sued by homosexuals; click here. do your parents own a dry cleaner? click here to read about what a US judge sued for. something unrelated but just as controversial, a creationist museum. my question is, where’s the justice in all this? for e-harmony, since when is a company obliged to provide ALL services to ALL people? can we men sue a women’s club for excluding us? of course, it’s not about free speech, but i’ll write about that later; general freedom is what interests me today…
free speech my butt! america is known for freedom; they’re on thailand’s case for the coup last year; they want a democratic iraq in the Middle East. but, perhaps, they first need a lecture on democracy from Muammar Gaddafi. we americans are proud of our freedom; but using “freedom” blown out of context, or ignoring the context of nations in the rest of the world, we implement tyrannical strategies to coerce our political concept of freedom on others. “No, but this is for your own good!” pastors, be careful what you preach! if you just preach the bible you might soon get sued or arrested; make sure you preach absolute freedom so that no one will know the truth. or first get confirmation with the aclu! (i actually like the idea of separation of church and state, as long as xns aren’t singled out.)
even in missions, or the modern global christian society, we have clashing contexts. westerners who hold to the ideology of individualism say you can have a good church service, but you must have your own personal (meaning, individual) quiet time first! asians who hold to the ideology of collectivism (or, corporate identity) say that you have to go to the large group meetings, since what you do alone doesn’t really count; in the middle are the modern asians (now aging) who think they have to do both, or that the western method is the truly biblical method that asian churches had not known of until now. so i’m growing wary of tyrannical approaches missionaries from different cultures employ to get the locals the “true” biblical teaching, be it worship order, dress code, or whatever.
Reyes-Chow said,
June 1, 2007 at 9:31 pm
Great post. Be worried when you stop asking those questions. When we do not give credence to the importance of context, we run the risk of an trying to share a relevant Gospel in irrelevant ways. And who does that help? Be well!