Culture wars (I) The plank in our eye (A resting place .. VIII)

I was recently involved in an intense conversation on issues to do with the cultural wars. You know the war between traditional values and radical social justice. Far too often in these situations, nobody is listening, and everybody is talking. It's easy to see the faults on the other side, and the virtue on mine, but not vice versa. And when that happens we get reactive and tend to lump everyone together who is “not us” vilifying them, and identifying them, in this case with either left or right extremes. We tend forget that there are whose,  for want of a better way to say it, who are both good and not so good on the all sides of the divide (it's not as though there are only two positions!). And what I want to do in the next few days is to try and figure out the how, what, when and if, of these things. So please journey with me as I allow the Lord to test and refine my thinking where necessary, seeking to make my stand as loving and correct and Biblically balanced as possible. 


 We need to start by applying the principle “A soft answer turns away wrath (Proverbs 15:1), and realizing that no matter what “side” we are on, there is likely a “plank in our eye,” and in particular that  we are not all that perfect ourselves. In the aftermath of the conversation, which was very distressing to me, I have taken almost to week to respond,  making sure I was  not still being reactive, discussing possible responses with people I respect, and doing my very best to not first and foremost “look at the speck in my brother's eye,” but to consider “the plank” in my own, and in those with whom, for better or worse, I am identified (Matthew 7:3).


It is important to acknowledge the history of the way that the church has treated the outcasts of society in a less than Christian way (and worse). Jesus never did that, and in accordance with the principle of identification repentance, we need to repent on our own, and the church’s, behalf. "Identification Repentance" is the type of prayer which identifies with, and confesses before God the corporate sins of one's nation, people, church, or family (see for example 2 Kings 22:19; Daniel 9:1-19). We want to do this  as the fulfillment of our part in the promise “If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land” (2 Chronicles 7:14). But please note, Jesus does go on in the rest of the Matthew reference, to tell us to live and let live, rather when we have removed the plank from in our own eye, we will see clearly to remove the speck from our brother’s eye” (verse 5). In the coming days we will be looking at the how and when and the what of how this applies to us in the midst of the cultural wars 


Father, I come before you today, and I repent on behalf of myself and your Church for the self righteous, judgmental attitudes and actions of Your Church, and for our lack of compassion. Cleanse us Lord and change us, and please come and heal our land in Jesus Name Amen