Conformers Not Conformed

Us being pro.

Hello. 

I think this post applies to both our Kenya blog and this one so i posted it on both. I hope that's alright. 

This week we’ve been conferencing. Pro’s. We’re at a conference called ‘Building Just Communities’, which is all about how justice can be brought to urban slum areas in Nairobi such as Kibera. Its been good, mainly! 

Yesterday a Bishop of somewhere spoke about how the church is influenced by the world rather than the world being influenced by the church. This is something i’ve been thinking about for a little while so i found it quite interesting. 

He gave a number of examples such as abortion and homosexuality. However, there are many, many more than this. I think that we are so influenced by the media in the west in a way that Kenya isn’t, although Kenya’s are influenced by other things in different ways. We accept the things we are told without even questioning them. We accept them because we doubt God’s power. 

I’m not deliberately trying to write something really controversial but i just think we ignore and accept these things so often. One of the issues the bishop talked about was homosexuality. The media, the law, our human rights all teach us that homosexuality is okay and simply an unchangeable way for people are. Many Christians accept this or simply never think to question it. The Bible says something very different from our society and i believe that as the bishop was saying - the church has been influenced by the world rather than the world being influenced by the church.

We hear about gay rights groups taking people to court in the news constantly. This in itself is not wrong, all people should be treated equally. However, i think that many of us have been influenced by our societies message that homosexuality for example is okay. This is not a biblical perspective. If you look in the Old Testament you find Leviticus 18:22 which says ‘Do not have sexual relations with a man as one does with a woman; that is detestable.’ This verse is the first verse we often think of in relation to this issue. However, it only tells half of the story. There is one verse in 1 Corinthians which i think is so so vital concerning this issue.

1 Corinthians 6:9-11...

‘Don’t fool yourselves. Those who indulge in sexual sin, or who worship idols, or commit adultery, or are male prostitutes, or practice homosexuality, or are thieves, or greedy people, or drunkards, or are abusive, or cheat people—none of these will inherit the Kingdom of God. Some of you were once like that. But you were cleansed; you were made holy; you were made right with God by calling on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.’

As in all areas of our lives Jesus makes the difference. We can be renewed. Change is possible. Homosexuality is an easy example to give but this teaching can be applied to so many other areas.

Finally, Romans 12:2 is hugly important and relevant to changing from the church being influnced by the world to the Church influencing the world. 

‘Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.’

To not hope for change in areas where we are influenced by the world is to doubt and degrade God’s limitless power.

Matthew 5:43-48

Everything’s changed. Most pertinently the gap year is formally over and Hannah and Stew have left to Kenya, and though there are lots of things that should probably be written down right about now- individual plans, what God’s been doing, the purpose of this blog from now on, what’s still being learnt and a bit of a rant about the royal wedding- I unfortunately feel the need to vocalise (even if it is cyber) some feelings towards the news of Osama Bin Laden’s death.

I suppose the main thing I was interested in (as I so often am) was people’s reactions, though I’m slightly shocked that I’m shocked by them. The facebook statuses alone are enough to make anyone cynical about our so called civilised age: the euphoric, jingoistic nature from a few American friends and the downright ignorance and bellicose slur from those closer to home interspersed with a few bestial, Sikipedia style jokes I thought we’d all grown out of. Someone died today. A child of God was murdered.

Now, I don’t claim to be an expert on the politics, on al-Qaeda, on the details of his death, the argument of necessity or the speculations on what this might now cause (though I can say with certainty that terrorism has not been beaten today as it seems some of those rejoicing in Bin Laden’s death believe) so I will not assume any authority in talking about the politics and won’t even bother putting down my half-formed opinion, and y’know, fair play to anyone simply breathing a sigh of relief but what I will say is that some (not all, I do realise) responses do not represent a society that is correct in its pride in being civilised, being ‘morally superior’. Was this justice? An eye for an eye? Applauding ourselves because we murdered the murderer and delighted in it and that's okay because he's 'evil', is less than human, is the figurehead of everything wrong with the world? We took to the streets to celebrate what exactly? Not the end of a war on terror, so simply national pride in- after excruciating amounts of time, money, violence- there being one more death? A death by innocent hands?

And now I find myself praying that members of al-Qaeda don’t respond in exactly the way we did and seek revenge, seems odd.

Of course, I do not dispute that Bin Laden is responsible for many deaths and the exploitation of religion for the purposes of hatred and I’ll pray for families of victims of terrorist attacks but I’ll also pray for the persecutors because like I say, I’m a kid that doesn’t know much about any of it, but I do know a small bit about love, about what Jesus taught and that He was speaking the truth, I know that fighting hate with hate doesn’t achieve much more than bloodshed.

I’ll end, I’m winding myself up. It just all seems ludicrous from where I’m standing, there’s no moral high-ground and no love. I’ll leave you with what, in my opinion, have been more appropriate reactions I’ve seen and heard in conversation:

Martin Luther King Jr - "I mourn the loss of thousands of precious lives, but I will not rejoice in the death of one, not even an enemy. Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that."

 

A frustrated American- “Every inbred yokel from 50 miles is breaking out their rusty toolboxes full of fireworks labelled ‘Usama’-  Only took a trillion dollars, nearly a million dead citizens, almost 10000 of our own military. It’s like if we went after the ex-president of Tesco, and after killing him celebrated the end of Walmart.”

Some lefty American- “This is bin Laden’s lamentable victory: He has changed America’s psyche from one that saw violence as a regrettable-if-sometimes-necessary act into one that finds orgasmic euphoria in news of bloodshed. In other words, he’s helped drag us down into his sick nihilism by making us like too many other bellicose societies in history -- the ones that aggressively cheer on killing, as long as it is the Bad Guy that is being killed.”

Sophie-“I don't care, I just wish everyone on facebook would shut up about it.”