David Runcorn, ordained minister in the Church of England, explains the surprising role that Evangelical Christianity played in reinforcing apartheid in South Africa, noting that Evangelical and Reformed Churches have expressed remorse and guilt over their role in racial discrimination.
Citing Richard Burridge, author of “Imitating Jesus”, Runcorn takes this a step farther, and asks how these churches–after being so wrong–can trust that they’re correctly interpreting scripture now that they take increasingly vocal stands against LGBT rights and inclusion.
From the article:
I want to turn the discussion round and ask: How would we know when we have got it wrong?
It seems to me vital that we have some way of approaching this question. After all, the most sustained opposition to Jesus in the gospels was from a religious group steeped in text and verse but of whom Jesus had to say – ‘You are in error because you know neither the scripture nor the power of God’ (Mk 12.24), and ‘you search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life … Yet you refuse to come to me to have life’ (Jn 5.39). Then and now there are ways of being scrupulously ‘biblical’ that lead away from Christ.
Runcorn turns away quickly from this line of thought, in order to avoid making a simple dualistic statement about right and wrong, and outlines a multi-step approach to discerning our interpretations, involving faith, scripture, and thorough self-examination. The entire process is outlined in the article.
What do you think about his process? Is it similar to your own? How do you determine the right or wrong thing to do in your own daily life?
Posted by David Streever