Wednesday, November 23, 2016
John Newton on the contradiction of an angry Calvinist.
"They who avow the doctrines distinguished by the name of Calvinistic, ought, if consistent with their own principles, to be most gentle and forbearing of all men, in meekness instructing them that oppose. With us, it is a fundamental maxim, that a man can receive nothing but what is given him from heaven (John 3:27). If, therefore, it has pleased God to give us the knowledge of some truths, which are hidden from others, who have the same outward means of information; it is a just reason for thankfulness to Him, but will not justify our being angry with them; for we are no better or wiser than they in ourselves, and might have opposed the truths which we now prize, with the same eagerness and obstinacy, if His grace had not made us to differ. If the man, mentioned in John 9, who was born blind, on whom our Lord graciously bestowed the blessing of sight, had taken a cudgel and beat all the blind men he met, because they would not see, his conduct would have greatly resembled that of an angry Calvinist."
Monday, November 14, 2016
Empathy and the Election of Donald Trump
Good writers know
the difference between “sympathy” and “empathy.” I sympathize for another person when I have
compassion for their fear or their sorrow. But I empathize with that person when I allow myself to feel what they feel. I choose
to enter into their suffering as though their nerve endings were connected to my
own brain. And this is a choice. Sympathy only goes as far as what I myself feel.
Empathy actively enters into another’s suffering until I feel it myself.
I’ve been
surprised and baffled to hear that blacks, women, Jews, Muslims and others are
reacting to Donald Trump’s election with tears and fears. Because of my
personal demographic – male, white, middle-class, living in a rural, very
non-diverse area – I don’t feel threatened. Personally, I would have been more
afraid if Hillary Clinton had won. It’s really hard for me to grasp statements
like these from a respected, Reformed, black pastor—
“Congratulations
white evangelicalism on your candidate’s win. I don’t understand you and I
think you just sealed some awful fate . . . evangelicals expressed
solidarity (again) with some of the worst aspects of American history and
culture while abandoning brothers and sisters of like precious faith.”
Huh? But I have precious
brothers and sisters in Christ representing very different demographics than
mine, who share this pastor’s grief and fear. I might think they are
over-reacting and exaggerating. But this is where empathy is required. I have
to admit that I’m not living in their skin or in their cities. They might be
right or wrong, but their feelings are still real and painful. Brotherly love
compels me to empathize with their fears even if I can’t understand their logic.
Anthony Bushnell,
writing on John Piper’s Desiring God
site said this—
“One of the
central teachings of Christianity is to love your neighbor as yourself. The
Bible exhorts us to ‘weep with those who weep;’ it doesn’t tell us to ‘judge whether
they should be weeping’. . . The same is true for those in fear. We don’t have
to agree with the intensity of their fear in order to empathize with them.
Compassion doesn’t require us to be convinced another person is entirely
correct. It requires us to care about
how he is feeling. Even if you think the danger won’t come to pass, the fear is
certainly real.”
I’ve said before
that I am no Donald Trump fan, but my “side” won in this election: the stats show
that a majority of white, male, older (don’t laugh), evangelical Christians
voted for Trump. I don’t require any empathy. But my friends who love Jesus as
much as me but look nothing like my demographic, deserve my empathy even if we
don’t see this election the same way. I need to listen to them until I feel, in
some measure, what they feel. I owe it to them to do my best to get in their
skin. It’s what I would want from them if the situation was different.
And it’s what God
did for His children in the Incarnation. God is
spirit, and cannot suffer, and did
not need to suffer. He was immune to
suffering, but in the Incarnation, He laid aside His immunity to pain to feel
ours. God the Son literally got inside our skin, not just to suffer for us, but to suffer with us. He didn’t need to, but He chose to.
His empathy for us took on flesh and blood. So we know He cares for us. And I think that’s all our brothers and
sisters, frightened by this election, want to know from us.
“For we do not have a
high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses. . .” Hebrews
4:15
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)