An emergency room physician in the Chicago area has
tested positive for COVID-19. Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker issued a stay at
home order effective March 21st through April 7th. We are
not on lockdown. Nor are we under martial law. We are to “shelter in place” in
order to curb the spread of the coronavirus. Our homes provide physical
barriers against infection. Walls protect us.
There is another disease that is just as pandemic as
COVID-19. It is the disease of anger and resentment fueled by privilege and
exclusion. Walls cannot protect against this disease. Walls exacerbate it.
Today’s social justice movement teaches that our identity
is found in a group, either an oppressed group or an oppressor group; that individual
identity is on lockdown, inseparable from group identity. People “shelter in
place” according to identity markers such as race, economic class, sex, sexual
orientation, gender identity, physical ability, age, weight, etc., feeling
“safe” in their group and “threatened” when the norms, values, and expectations
of society exclude them. By resisting dominant power today’s social justice movement seeks to liberate groups
that are oppressed. Today’s social justice movement
sees Christianity with its exclusive truth claims as oppressive.
Group identities separate people. The lockdown fuels
anger and resentment. Today’s social justice movement cannot end the war
between privilege and exclusion. But a new identity can! The wall separating
people groups crumbles when people share the same identity. That’s what Jesus
accomplished when he died for us.
For
he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the
barrier, the dividing wall of hostility.[1]
Jesus won the war between privilege and exclusion. He won
it on the cross. His death ended our anger and resentment. It ended at the
cross. Jesus tore down the wall of separation. He is our peace. He made us one.
From the album
“This and That” this video is scrolling playback of a song based on Ephesians Chapter
2.
Kathy
Click here to
read Ephesians 2.
Click here for
an overview of Critical Theory, the social justice movement making inroads in
our culture and church.
You can get
sheet music for The Wall at the MusicStories Shop on Etsy.com.
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| Click here for sheet music. |
