Hello my friends!

I hope you had a wonderful week. So many of you responded with such thoughtful questions to last week's newsletter. I am still reading through them all and hoping to respond to as many as I can.

A lot of your questions centered around why we are seeing this kind of fear and hostility from many who claim to follow Jesus. While this is a deeply complex situation with many theological, societal, and historical factors, I thought I would share a short reflection on 1 Peter 3:8-18, then briefly share why I personally saw the world with the same fear and hostility and how I changed.

My hope is that this will help shed light on our particular moment within American Christianity and perhaps help you to navigate conversations with friends and family more effectively.

But first, here are some things that got me thinking this week:

RESOURCES TO CONSIDER

-Justice • This Is the Bible's Radical View from the Bible Project. I have continued to go back to this short explanation of the theme of justice throughout the Bible as a helpful place to start for those trying to navigate how we Christians are to navigate issues of justice in our world today. It is very accessible and profoundly describes the communal and individual dimensions of justice throughout the Bible.

-Unpacking The Immigration Crisis from Fresh Air. A New Yorker staff writer named Jonathan Blitzer is interviewed on this episode of Fresh Air and gives some really insightful perspectives on the the history of immigration policies that he argues is contributing to on going crisis at our boarder, including what is happening today.

-Days of Darkness: How one woman escaped the conspiracy theory trap that has ensnared millions from the Associated Press. As I read this article I thought of so many in my ministry and even close relationships who fell into the numerous conspiracy theories of our times. Reading these stories and the real people involved really helps to humanize the reasons why people fall into conspiracy theories and how harmful they can be for them.

-The Right to Bear Arms from Throughline. This episode was very illuminating on the history of the 2nd Amendment and why it is interpreted the way it is today. There were several points in the episode where I found myself saying, "I didn't know that..." They interview a professor of constitutional law from Duke University who has built his career around the history and interpretation of the 2nd Amendment. I found it very insightful.

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Okay, onto today's content.

Compassion or Conspiracy?

Let's begin with 1 Peter 3:8-18

“Finally, all of you, be like-minded, be sympathetic, love one another, be compassionate and humble. Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult. On the contrary, repay evil with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing.

For, “Whoever would love life and see good days must keep their tongue from evil and their lips from deceitful speech. They must turn from evil and do good; they must seek peace and pursue it. For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are attentive to their prayer, but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.”

Who is going to harm you if you are eager to do good? But even if you should suffer for what is right, you are blessed. “Do not fear their threats; do not be frightened.” But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord.

Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander. For it is better, if it is God’s will, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil. For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive in the Spirit.”​
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Such a beautiful passage, isn't it? This letter is deeply pastoral, encouraging followers of Jesus to conduct themselves in the way of Jesus. So timely for our world today.

The first chapter tells us it is written to “resident aliens,” who are scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, which are Roman provinces in Asia Minor. Throughout the letter, the author describes those he is writing to as exiles, strangers, and recipients of persecution (1–2:10). The author is encouraging them to remain steadfast in their faith and to continue to act like Jesus, even in spite of their circumstances and the opposition they face.

Psalm 34:12-16 & Isaiah 8:12

The author also uses other parts of scripture to accentuate his encouragement, which paints a relevant picture for our own circumstances today.

The author first quotes Psalm 34:12-16, which beautifully describes people who "love life" as those who pursue peace, speak with honest sincerity, and are attentive in prayer. I couldn't help but think to myself as I read those words that unfortunately, I don’t think many in our culture would describe us Christians as having a reputation for “loving life” in this way in our present moment. That is the reputation I want us to have.

The second passage the author quotes is a powerful verse from Isaiah 8:12, which I feel loses its punch in this particular English translation of 1 Peter. This translation says, “Do not fear their threats; do not be frightened,” which is still very important advice. Yet, if you look up Isaiah 8:12 right now, you will read, “Do not call conspiracy everything this people calls a conspiracy; do not fear what they fear, and do not dread it.” This not only lets us know that conspiracy theories are nothing new. They even had them back then. But it also invites us to reflect on how in our time, we’ve seen fellow Christians get swept away by conspiracy theories from Qanon to even the newest ones about Taylor Swift. We've seen how important it is to take these words of warning from Isaiah and Peter.

Resident Aliens

I think many of us who follow Jesus can feel like “resident aliens” right now. Yet, unlike Peter’s audience, we are in a time where people are using Christianity to pursue worldly power in order to impose their own beliefs on others. Christians are in charge of many "provinces of Rome" rather than non Christians.

So while we are followers of Jesus, we are often not considered true followers of Jesus by those who are seeking to “take the nation back for God.” The political and religious shifts in our own families, friendships, churches, and workplaces have made us feel like exiles in a foreign land, because we aren’t the right kind of “Christian.” We might often hear our fellow Christians speak so callously about those who do not believe the way they think they should and we might even hear them bring up a conspiracy theory or two as justification. What is more, they may even mistreat us socially and online for not thinking the same way as they do.

How needed are these words from Peter today, “all of you, be like-minded, be sympathetic, love one another, be compassionate and humble. Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult. On the contrary, repay evil with blessing, because to this you were called.”

I was just like this too.

This still leaves us with the question of why many Christians we know are so fearful and hostile towards our world.

As many of you know, I was as far right theologically and politically as you can imagine for the majority of my life.

What I then discovered through theological education, travel, ministry, and relationships with those different from me was how little I actually understood about the issues I claimed to care about.

During my time in Fundamentalist and Evangelical Christianity, not only was anything outside our church culture deeply feared, but empathy, compassion, and gentleness was framed as weaknesses and even a compromise by my church leaders. Especially towards those with whom we disagreed.

Everything was framed in absolute, “either/or” categories. We were the only ones who believed the truth and anyone else who believed otherwise was evil.

This resulted in deeply superficial and flawed understanding about major issues like poverty, immigration, abortion, and human sexuality, etc.

No debate or doubt could be had about deeply complex issues like these. Anything other than ardent unquestioned support would be seen as a compromise.

Then we were taught to live that way, preach that way, and vote that way.

What I later discovered broke me.

These issues I claimed to have such strong convictions about involved actual human beings. Yet I loved my beliefs about these issues more than I ever loved the actual people within the issues themselves.

I discovered that I believed so many demonizing things about the people within these issues. I saw them as my enemy and I didn’t even know them.

I then lived that way, preached that way, and voted that way.

I was so angry and fearful, operating from a dogmatic legalism absent of compassion.

This mentality naturally turned my religion into a war against the world. The world was filled with enemies to be defeated rather than neighbors to be loved.

This made me so suspicious of all the evil being conjured up by those I believed opposed me and my faith. My mind was fertile ground for conspiracy theories about the evil forces at work in the world, who were just as evil as God is good. Reading books like the “Left Behind” series and a steady diet of far right talk radio only confirmed this worldview for me.

I saw myself and those who believed like me as the only hope to bring the world back to God and we were being challenged and “persecuted” every day.

This mentality prevented me from even seeing other human beings I disagreed with as created in God’s image.

I was pursuing the control and conformity of others to my beliefs rather than seeking for my beliefs to make me more capable of loving others myself.

This is why I preach and write the way I do today. I know firsthand how our deepest convictions can also be the area of our deepest blindspots and our deepest misunderstanding. They can cause us to lose sight of our shared humanity. Having convictions doesn’t always mean having understanding. Sometimes it just means having strong feelings about something.

In our passage today, Peter is speaking to persecuted Christian communities. So what this says to me is that even if we Christians feel persecuted, as some Christians in America claim, we are still called to like-minded, be sympathetic, love one another, be compassionate and humble. We are called to not repay evil with evil or insult with insult, but to repay evil with blessing. We are called to be ready to have an answer for the hope that is within us from Jesus, but as Peter says, we are called to do this with “gentleness and respect.”

This was a big factor in having my mind changed as well. Other Christians who saw the world in a more nuanced and loving way didn't mock me or belittle me because of my beliefs. They didn't treat me like their enemy and demonize me.

No, they treated me with sympathy, love, compassion, and humility. They saw I was scared and comforted me. They saw how my beliefs were causing such fear, anger, and anxiety for me and expressed genuine concern for what my perspectives were doing to me mentally and physically. They asked thoughtful questions and gave challenging insights in love. They provided a sense of belonging, which was a big part of what I was looking for. I was forever changed by love. This is why I still believe that love is what will bring the change we need.

All this to say, no matter where we fall on the political and theological spectrum, if we Christians somehow arrive at the conclusion that we have nothing left to learn about the things we claim to believe in so deeply, that’s the moment we know we’ve turned our beliefs into an idol.

An idol that can’t be questioned.

At the heart of religious idolatry for us Christians is when we love our beliefs about people more than we ever actually love people.

We will then live that way, preach that way, and vote that way.

We must let love lead the way rather than religious idolatry.

We must be known for our compassion rather than by conspiracy.

Now I'd like to hear from you.

What reflections would you like to share about Peter's words we read today? What did this cause you to think about in regards to where we are as followers of Jesus in the United States today? Send me a note and let me know.

Also, is there a topic you'd like me to write on in the future? Please drop me a note and let me know.

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As always, thank you all for reading and for all the ways you support me and this project every week.

I truly appreciate you all,

Ben

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