THE TRUTH ABOUT JESUS
The consequences of past deeds of injustice and oppressive actions performed for other than altruistic means can create difficulties for the present adherents of the system who no longer live under the edicts of the past or subscribe to the errors that had been formally embraced that are currently not enforced any longer. When misconstrued hermeneutical principles take scriptural passages out of context with the intent to subjugate behavior or personalities in an arbitrary fashion, regardless of intent, damage is done to the long-term credibility of the Christian community. Matters of governmental structure, cultural expressions of dress, music, amoral entertainment, practices pertaining to the use of alcohol: all can be construed as routines that are non-binding in application from generation to generation. The exigencies are conditional in claim and as such, are not significant in discussions that pertain to standardized expressions.
Appropriations apply outside of rehearsal for a determinative duration and become standardized givens. The troubles that follow this particular expression are numerous. When emotive allegiances are propositionally expounded, those who value the experience and pledged alliance to the conditional expression enshrine that which should have been temporary. Meaningful practices for one era cause the next era to be cast in an unseemly light of vagaries and oddities concerning matters of indulgence or denial.
These causal conditions become even more problematic when the practices are not viewed as necessary incumbents for the closed society’s implementation alone. If the auspicious actions create an aura of enforceable mandates upon culture or sub-groupings of people, injustices can be perpetrated in the exposition of wrong conduct that is viewed as appropriate among either the majority consensus or the imposition of enforceable law. Of such are the modern expressions of abortion and the past blight of the forced enslavement of Black Africans and their descendants by many Anglo-dominant cultures and governments. Some have assumed the position of justifying such acts as being conformable to biblical givens of revelation.
The long-term consequences, particularly when the actions that were viewed as acceptable and appropriate are no longer the norm, can be devastating when communication is undertaken between those who had been subjugated and those who arbitrarily enforced immoral behavioral standards upon the oppressed. This is the dilemma facing the church following the debacle of slavery in America and the subsequent century of oppression that followed emancipation. Rosa Parks, Martin Luther Jr., Caesar Rivera, or any of a vast horde of civil rights communicants may have checkmated Jim Crow, but the consequences continue to unfold. Sadly, many of the strongest advocates for segregation came from the Christian community, and the weakest advocates for equality came from the same expression. The relevant adherence has created a roadblock between the minority communities in America and much of the church that needs to be effectively addressed.
