Philip Yancey wrote about an apology Bob Jones University issued in 2008. He sighted that it took the Southern Baptists 150 years to admit their stubborn error in their support of slavery.
Yancey's call is to the Christian community to make sober effort to align with our scriptures and not our culture. I could not help wondering, as I viewed the exhibits at the museum in Memphis, how much of the average Christian's politics gets formed by surrounding culture rather than by the gospel of Jesus.
Great care as to what lens we use to read our Bibles is surely Mr. Yancey's clarion call. Shall we read our Bibles black or dare we cloud them with cream of culture and sugar of bias? We are not immune to misreading or misinterpreting. It says what is say and means what is means often comes from the lips that sip from cream and sugar persuasion.
President Stephen Jones apologetically expressed, For almost two centuries American Christianity, including BJU in its early stages, was characterized by the segregationist ethos of American culture. Consequently, for far too long, we allowed institutional policies regarding race to be shaped more directly by that ethos than by the principles and precepts of the Scriptures. We conformed to the culture rather than provide clear Christian counterpoint to it.
Yancey remarked following this quote, One question lingered as I left the museum: for what will the church be apologizing for 150 years from now?
No one serious about the Life shared between God and His creation dare fail to research the Word day by day for direction, re-direction, and then re-re-direction.
Apologies are needed in abundance. Masses no longer enter our doors because (when they were much younger) we were expressing our Christian toots. Simultaneously, these young souls withered for lack of godly air among us. Beneath our brainless assaults called sermons and articles, we shot our relatives and our neighbors in their feet so they could no longer have the ability to walk beside us to help us grow...up.
May we find diligence in our continued pursuit of the Word of God in both accuracy and honesty. Souls are counting on it.
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