Justice

Today there is a lot of talk about justice, especially social justice. We care a lot about justice. God actually has a lot to say in the Bible about justice and injustice. The Bible Project has an excellent video (animation) giving a great overview of justice in the Bible. Justice in the Biblical story is pretty radical, and is different from what we naturally do or expect.

We need to start at the beginning. God created us in his image, and gave us dominion over the earth (Genesis 1:27-28). Since we all were made in the image of God, we are all equal and deserve to be treated with dignity and fairness. It doesn’t matter who you are. You should be treated fairly and with respect.

Unfortunately, we take the good and selfishly take advantage of the situation at the expense of another and then injustice appears. This injustice or evil also infects families, communities, and whole civilizations. We create vulnerable people that we take advantage of. We do not treat them with fairness and respect. Out of self-centered selfish motives, we instead take advantage of them. Even if we are oppressed and we gain the advantage, we will take the advantage to become the oppressor. We do not learn, because we are broken and do not have the respect toward others to treat them fairly and with dignity.

All is not lost. God had a plan and called Abraham. Genesis 18:17-19 talks about Abraham. Through him “all the nations of the earth shall be blessed”, and that Abraham would teach his family “to keep the way of the Lord by doing righteousness and justice”. Doing righteousness is about being a “good” person, but it is more about having right relationships with people. We need to treat people with the dignity that comes from being made in the image of God. In the Bible, justice can refer to retributive justice (you pay the consequences), but most of the time in the Bible justice is about restorative justice (helping people, charity). This means to do justice, we seek out vulnerable people and help them. So doing righteousness and justice is about having a radical, selfless way of life.

And as the Bible story clearly shows, we fail at doing righteousness and justice. We may not be actively perpetuating injustice, but we all take part in injustice, whether actively, passively, or even being unintentionally. Injustice is everywhere, and we are all guilty of it.

God’s plan comes to fruition with the coming of Jesus Christ. Jesus lived a life doing righteousness and justice. He paid our debt to God by dying on the cross and he rose again so that we might be declared righteous before God. This is the gift God gives us, guilty people. Empowered by the Holy Spirit, we respond to this gift of life by doing righteousness and justice. It is not always easy or comfortable, but we reach out to those in need with love and compassion. We love our neighbor as ourselves (Mark 12:31).

He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God (Micah 6:8)

Thanksgiving

I have written a lot about being thankful, because it makes life better so for the fifth Thanksgiving I will write again about being thankful. It is important and it puts life in proper perspective. Everything we have comes from a loving gracious God. It is all a gift that we often take for granted.

It is healthy and therapeutic to be thankful. It is good for relationships, mental health, and even sleep. So let us give thanks and express gratitude, because it is not only good for the person receiving the thanks but it is good for us as well. You take the focus off yourself when you are thankful, and I believe it also makes you more resilient.

Back in 1789, George Washington at the urging of Congress set aside a day for thanksgiving and prayer to acknowledge all God had done for them. Our founding fathers recognized the need to give thanks to God and so started the holiday of Thanksgiving. Today it seems to be more about food and family and less about thanking God. This Thanksgiving find a church that has a Thanksgiving service and attend it. (My church, Immanuel, in Loveland, CO, has a Thanksgiving service on Thanksgiving at 9 AM.) I find the service to be important, because it resets my mind on the love and goodness of God because of his provision for us. Our Heavenly Father is gracious and merciful, and he provides for all our needs. That is worthy of thanks and praise.

We are called to give thanks for everything (Ephesians 5:20) and to give thanks in all circumstances (1 Thessalonians 5:18). That seems like a hard thing to do, until you realize that God is working everything out for our good (Romans 8:28). Tough situations can turn into blessings. Let us have that attitude of thanksgiving, recognizing that our Heavenly Father has provided all that is needed in his love.

Heavenly Father, we give you thanks and praise for this beautiful world you created. You provide for every need of ours, food, clothing, shelter, family and friends, and even the air we breathe. It is all from you. You are good, gracious, and merciful to us. We especially thank you for sending your Son, Jesus Christ, to take our place and die on the cross for us. Because of him we have a Spirit empowered life. Thank you for everything! Amen!

Unnatural Act

Forgiveness is an unnatural act. It is unfair, but I believe it is the best way to promote reconciliation and to stop any on-going retribution. Too often both sides want justice and feel they are totally in the right. They do not want reconciliation. They want revenge and justice for themselves. They need and humbly look at their own actions. For in a broken relationship both sides are usually to be at fault in some way.

We find ourselves there many times. Too many times we wait for the person to come to us to apologize and ask for forgiveness, and we find that they have been waiting for us to come to them. There are too many sons who drive past their mom’s house everyday for years and refuse to stop because of some old grudge. Both are too proud to admit they may have a part in the wrong, and are waiting for the other to apologize. We may not be in that bad of a situation, but is there some broken relationship that needs your grace and forgiveness?

It is not just people and their relationships that are missing some grace. Nations and people groups also seek vengeance under the guise of justice. Many centuries have gone by and the Croats, Serbs, and their Muslim neighbors are still fighting. And the same is true for the Israeli and Palestinian conflict. Recently, Israel responded to Iran’s missile attacks, which was a response to Israel’s attack which was a response to …. You get the idea. How many people must die before there can be peace? Can grace and forgiveness play a role?

As Christians, we have been given the ministry of reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5:16-21). Of first importance is the restoration of our relationship with God, but reconciliation with one another and with nations are also a part of the mission to heal our brokenness. God has forgiven us so very much and how can we not out of gratitude forgive others (Matthew 18:21-35)? And how can we not share the good news of God’s love and forgiveness for us?

This unnatural act of grace and forgiveness is also needed after this contentious election. Too many unkind words and outright lies were said. How can we reconcile with each other and unite for the good of the nation? Let us Christians create a gracious atmosphere where the animosities can be put aside in order to allow us to work together.

Note forgiveness is not the same as a pardon. A forgiven person can still pay the consequences of their actions. I think of the relatives of those killed in a Bible Study in Charleston, SC in 2015 who offered forgiveness. Pardon was not offered and the murderer was tried for the 9 deaths. Forgiveness releases the forgiver from the need for vengeance. That is an important and necessary part of healing.

Forgiveness is an unnatural act in our broken world, instead we want justice for ourselves and what we often mean by justice is vengeance. God has called us to think differently. He has empowered us to be about the ministry of reconciliation. Let us step out and graciously work to reconcile people to God and to each other.

Law and Gospel

Jesus Christ Statue Photo - Myriam Zilles

Out of the Protestant Reformation, from Martin Luther, came the concept of Law and Gospel. It is used to read and interpret Bible passages. Confessional Lutherans especially make a big deal out of using it. I find it to be a very helpful concept. The Law tells us what to do. The Gospel tells us what God has done and what he is doing in Christ Jesus. Primarily, the Law shows us our sin, and the Gospel shows us our Savior.

There are three functions or uses of the Law. The Curb function of the Law restrains people from doing wrong. You do not steal because it is wrong and there are consequences to stealing. The Law as a Mirror shows us who we are, sinners. It shows us our sin and how we have failed to keep the law. The third use of the Law is the Guide function. The Law shows us how to live, and how to respond to God’s saving love (the Gospel).

The Gospel shows us what God has done for us. It is Good News. It is usually focused on what Jesus has done, but any saving action by the Triune God can be considered Gospel. The main focus is on Jesus since that is the entire Bible story points to him. He came to Earth to save us and restore that broken relationship with us.

If we look at Exodus 20:1-17, we can easily find Law and Gospel. The Ten Commandments are found there but in verse two before any commandment is given we find the Gospel. God reminds them that he had saved them from Egyptian slavery. So the Gospel appears right before the giving of the Ten Commandments, the Law. Therefore these commandments told them how to respond to God who had saved them (the third use of the Law). The commandments were to restore a covenant relationship with God. The commandments unfortunately also show us how we fail to keep those commandments (the second use of the Law) and our need to be freed from the bondage of sin. And in the Ten Commandments you can also find the first use of the Law (civil laws), for example “You shall not steal”. So the uses of the Law are not mutually exclusive. These commandments are applied today telling us how to respond in gratitude to God’s saving love.

Law and Gospel can be applied to ourselves and our conversations. When a person is suffering and feeling worthless, that is when we need to share the Gospel message of God’s love for them. When a person is feeling that what they are doing is not that bad of a wrong or just not wrong, then we need to share the Law and remind them that sinning is serious and it causes harm. For unbelievers, I would first let them know that we all are not perfect and are broken sinners (Law), and then share the good news that God still loves them, broken as they may be, and desires to be in relationship with them (Gospel).

Manga

Over the last several years, I have been reading manga (Japanese comics), manhwa (Korean comics), and manhua (Chinese comics). I am going to call them all manga. I think I have read more Korean manga (manhwa) than the other types. It is interesting to note the cultural differences between manga and our comics/graphic novels. It is also interesting to see how some translations need to be less word for word and more careful in their translations.

Manga covers a wide variety of subjects. Action comics and Romance comics are the most popular. There are also many manga that make use of video game and role playing game styles with status windows and the concept of leveling up various characteristics. Many manga will use reincarnation to set the stage by having them be reincarnated into a different world with special knowledge, or reincarnated to an early time in their life, so they can use their knowledge to change things. Revenge is a fairly common theme. Grace and forgiveness seems to be missing in these manga, so something like being in debt to another is something that needs to be taken care of. Christianity is missing from these manga though there are crosses used to designate religious oriented sects but it is clear that the Christian Faith was not there. There are also some visits to temples, but almost all the manga are very human focused, even with the crosses or temples.

Being a god does not mean you are perfect or good. It just means you are a very much more powerful human (or a similar creature) than anyone else. Being a demon or an angel does not mean that you are evil or good. It just means you are from a place of demons or of angels. The storylines do have good triumphing over evil, but good and evil are not as clear as they could be. Being a god does not make you good. Being a devil does not mean you are bad. In general, it seems like they are very human-like, no matter what or who you are.

Translations point out to me the differences between meanings of words. A couple of times I have run across the word ‘father-in-law’ translated for the father of the girlfriend whereas in English it is the father of the spouse. In English, the word usage happens after marriage , but in Korean the word must also include before marriage relationships. There are a few words that are left untranslated, so you have to figure out the meaning of the words (e.g. noona, meaning older female, usually an older sister). Most of these are honorifics. (Some English honorifics are Mister, Miss, Madam, Sir, Professor, and Doctor.) When reading manga you will find phrases that make sense but you might have worded the phrase differently. To be fair some of the sites call the translations previews which means the translation has not been polished.

Reading manga brings to mind some cultural differences. The oriental societies are much more private. They do not normally touch one another (and yet they have jam-packed trains). Relationships tend to be more formal. Orientals like to add honorifics to show respect and reverence in even ordinary daily interactions. They have more honorifics than we do. And since touching happens less often, holding hands is not the first step in dating. Patting the head of your romantic interest is the first step. For us in America, you will also read some disturbing things. Slavery in manga is not that uncommon. Also arranged marriages are a part of many storylines.

The most polished English translated mangas I have read are on Webtoon. They are polished but the latest episode comes out later than on other sites. More recent episodes and more manga can be found on MangaDex, but they are less polished. If you want to get to the latest episode now you need to go to the translator’s website if there is one. If you are interested in reading a manga, a good manga to start reading is “Telework Yotabanashi”, a short manga of a romance that happened during COVID. Note you need to read word bubbles from the right to left, unlike English (left to right). A couple of action manga that I like are “Teenage Mercenary (Mercenary Enrollment)” and “Eleceed”. And I like the drama manga, “The Mafia Nanny”, which is being written in English. Check them out.

New Life

You have been set apart and chosen. Photo by Gift Habeshaw.

Our church had a mini-retreat on new life in Christ, and it was led by Jim Found, a former missionary. The content was so good I want to summarize it for you. Jesus came that we might have this abundant full life (John 10:10). As Christians, we are given a new full life. Our old life is still hanging around but we have this new life in Christ. What does it mean to have this new life?

The new life is also called the new self or new nature. We get to “walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:4). We walk in love (Ephesians 5:1-2) as we “put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness” (Ephesians 4:17-24). This is not our doing for God is at work in us to do his will (Philippians 2:13). Unfortunately, the old self is still around and we do not fully realize the new self (Romans 7:7-25). There is conflict between the old self and the new self. We still sin. The Holy Spirit will enable us to recognize our sin, reject it, and then ask for forgiveness (repentance). This is an ongoing lifelong process (sanctification) to conform us to the image of Jesus (Romans 8:29). Note though we sin, we still are saved. Our salvation or justification is not based on anything we do. It is a gift (Ephesians 2:8-10). The good works come from us after being saved. The new life with its good works is a result of being saved. You strengthen your new life by trusting Christ and his promises, and the good works are the result. Walking in newness of life means living a Christ-like life (Colossians 2:6-7; Philippians 2:1-11).

Our old self is selfish. It will by nature disobey God’s will. The mind set on the flesh (the old self) is hostile to God (Romans 8:7-8). The new life is guided by the Holy Spirit and it desires to obey God’s will. We need to daily put off the old self. We put off our old self when we repent, and ask the Holy Spirit to strengthen our new life. The Holy Spirit aids us in our struggle against temptation and sin. The Holy Spirit awakens in us new thoughts and affections so we can begin to love God and refrain from evil actions. Oh, Holy Spirit, control our thoughts and give us the power to reject sin.

By walking in newness of life, we have victory over temptation. We need not be burdened by things like fear, anxiety, loneliness, hopelessness, lack of purpose, peer pressure, sinful addictions, guilt, low self worth, and the many other things that burden us. In our new life we have a new identity in Christ as children of God (1 John 3:1), and with that comes many promises, that is scripture passages that tell of God’s love and support for us and how to respond to that love.

Walking in newness of life means we submit ourselves to God, and we resist the devil so he will then flee from us (James 4:7). A great way to resist the devil and temptations is to follow the example of Jesus (Matthew 4:1-11) and quote scripture when facing temptation. Quote scripture and tell Satan to leave. Do not let Satan bother you, because you are God’s and he saved you.

God is at work in you even if you do not feel it and wonder if you are saved. God is at work in you if you admit you are a sinner. If you repent of your sins and want to change your life, God is at work in you. If you acknowledge that Jesus is God who became man, God is at work in you. God is at work in you, if you recognize that Jesus came to die for you and then rose from the dead. If you trust in Jesus as Lord and Savior God is at work in you. That desire and power to live for Jesus comes from God working in you. You are saved. You are his.

With the help of the Holy Spirit, we can show that Jesus is Lord in concrete ways. You have been given a purpose of sharing God’s love through caring and serving others. One big way to do that is to share the good news of how God has saved you and how he is at work in you. Share the new life he has given you.

Heavenly Father, You have given us everything we need for a full and abundant life. You have set us free from the sinful cravings of the world. Your promises are sure and certain. You are there to deliver us when we call out to you, and yet we fail to live the good life you would want us to live. Let your Holy Spirit strengthen our faith to help us to reject our sinful ways and live that full abundant life for you. We ask this because of all Jesus has done. Amen! (2 Peter 1:3-4; Psalm 50:15; John 10:10)

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another. (Galatians 5:22-26)

PS This was just a taste of the mini-retreat. For the complete text of the retreat, go to Jim Found’s website https://foundbytes.com/new-life/.

300 Months

Gail and I have been married for 25 years (300 months). For 25 years I have been able to delight in Gail and enjoy her company. Time has flown by. I thank God that I did email Gail 26 years ago. I almost did not. Life would have been very different. I have been blessed by having Gail in my life.

For our 25th wedding anniversary we went on an Alaska Cruise. We enjoyed the time together in Alaska and on the boat. The weather was on the cloudy and rainy side, and in fact, it was stormy for the first day on board, but we had sunny weather for Glacier Bay and for Ketchikan. We did see a bunch of wildlife, bears, caribou, moose, deer, otters, bald eagles, and other animals. We learned some Alaska history and saw some beautiful scenery. Aboard the ship, we were overwhelmed with the abundance of food and alcohol. The service was over the top. There was some nice entertainment onboard too. It was a nice way to celebrate.

Back 25 years ago, I was worried that I did not know Gail very well. Today, I can say the same thing, even though I know her much better than any other person. And yet though I do not know her as well as I would like, we are connected. Marriage binds a man and a woman together. There is a mystery involved that binds us and connects us. I am attracted to Gail. I delight in her and I enjoy being with her. We are bound together for life, and it is a good thing. Also being connected means we can help each other grow to be more Christ-like.

Today, marriage is discounted as just a social construct that can get in the way of one’s own identity and plans. That is a very selfish way of looking at marriage. The individual is not the basic unit of society like many think today. Rather, the family is society’s basic unit with marriage being the centerpiece of the family. God gave us marriage, so that families can be raised and society can be well formed.

We mess things up by our selfish self-centered way of thinking. Marriage requires commitment and unconditional selfless sacrificial love. We give ourselves to each other in marriage. We serve each other, looking to the needs of the other out of love. Marriage is both romantic love and commitment. It is one way we can break out of our selfish self-centered way of thinking.

Marriage can be a way to demonstrate God’s love, grace, and mercy. A good marriage is a picture of Christ and the Church (Ephesians 5:29-33). We, Christians, are bound to Jesus like a husband and wife are bound to each other. So let us, married people, work at having a good marriage and so reflect the love God has for us. (I recommend “Marriage in Christ” as a great marriage seminar to take to improve your marriage.)

Liar! Liar!

“Liar! Liar! Pants of fire!” People have always lied, but it seems to me today, lying is reaching epidemic proportions. Lying is not good for the liar, for their friends, and for society. Lying deceives. Lying is destructive. Lying hides the truth. Lying hides reality. Lying is not good for anyone, and yet today lying is commonplace. This is due in part to our Postmodern culture where everything is relative and you need to critically tear apart or deconstruct the truth to point out the perceived bias (while ignoring your own personal bias). Thus the truth gets twisted or discarded and outright falsehoods are promoted as fact. Why do we so easily discard the truth and believe the lies?

In the past five years, I have learned of two new words, misinformation and disinformation. Misinformation is the unintentional sharing of falsehoods, or it also can be sharing a truth that has been taken out of context in order to make it fit a certain narrative. Political opponents will point out statements that their opponents did say, but by taking the statements out of context they make the statements sound bad. With our social media accounts, we will pass on these falsehoods because we want those statements to be true when they are really lies. We need to be aware of the spin that is sometimes put on the facts and also be willing to verify the lies that we come across. Remember every effective lie has a kernel of truth. Now disinformation is an outright lie. The purpose of disinformation is to promote division, mistrust, and hate. Much of the disinformation are stories and pictures that come from foreign sources, like Russia, China, and Iran. Their purpose is to weaken America by sowing division, mistrust, and hatred. We need to be aware of disinformation so we are not misinformed and pass on these lies. We need to promote truth and avoid these lies, even if we do not like what the truth says.

Lying deceives. One can deceive oneself. You may come to believe the falsehood. You use the lie to boost your own self esteem or to boost your own power and fortunes, but reality is lying undermines your own self-worth and your personal integrity. Lying deceives others and lying can put relationships in jeopardy. Can you trust a liar? And lies can deceive entire societies to promote bad behaviors and wrongful actions. We need to be careful and promote only the truth.

God considers lying to be an abomination (Proverbs 12:22). God speaks against lying in the Ten Commandments: “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor” (Exodus 20:16). There are many more scriptures warning about lying. Here are a few more: Psalm 101:7, Proverbs 12:19, Proverbs 19:9, and Colossians 3:9-10.

How do we handle lying? First we need to look at ourselves. Am I a liar? Do I deceive myself? We need to first recognise who we are. We are broken. We are sinners. The Bible says, “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us” (1 John 1:8). We are not perfect (Matthew 5:48). We are not good enough, but there is good news. “If we confess our sins, he [God] is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). God will forgive. We need not deceive ourselves. God knows and still loves us (John 3:16). Do not lie to yourself. Live life with integrity. You need to face reality and truth head on.

God calls us to put away falsehoods and lies and speak the truth in love (Ephesians 4:15,25). It is good for our relationships to speak truthfully to one another. It builds trust in your relationships, and it gives you integrity. It is good for the community too. If we can count on one another, our communities can thrive. Let us speak truth in love, and avoid promoting any lies.

In this political season, lies, falsehoods, and ridicule are everywhere. The purpose of the ridicule, lies, and falsehoods is to destroy their political opponents, but it also undermines our society. There is less trust in our society today because of these lies. Let us rise above the fray, and be kind, gracious, and truthful in all we say and do. Do not promote lies! Stand for the truth! By doing so I believe we can strengthen society.

This was inspired in part by Don Overcash’s editorial “The Power and Value of Truth” (Subscription is needed) and in part by “How to Avoid Misinformation and Disinformation Online”.

Warm Earth?

Hurricane Beryl was the earliest Category 4 Atlantic hurricane (June 30) and the earliest Category 5 (July 1) Atlantic hurricane on record. Major hurricanes (Category 3 and higher) typically happen two months later. In 48 hours, Beryl rapidly developed from a tropical depression (June 28) to a tropical storm (June 29) and into a Category 4 hurricane (June 30). Beryl did not give much warning to the islands of Grenada. This rapid intensification there was due to very warm sea surface temperatures for June.

Hurricane Beryl then went on to pass close to Jamaica”s southern coast before slamming into Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula. It then continued north in a weakened form to the Houston area where it hit as a Category 1 hurricane. Houston was flooded with about 9 inches of rain, and 2.7 million people lost power. With no electricity for air conditioning, people suffered in the humid and hot Houston with temperatures in the 90s and a heat index over 100F. (It is my impression that Houston has been hit by many hurricanes and tropical storms, and the Houston area is prone to flooding every few years. I appear to be right.)

I grew up in the Portland, Oregon area (on the Washington side of the Columbia River). If you look at the decadal count of 90F days and above for Portland you will see that the 2010 decade had the most days with the 2020 decade already strongly trending to beat the 2010 decade. It looks like the big decadal change has been more 95-99F days in the later decades. When I grew up in the 1960’s and early and mid 1970s there were not that many really hot days. Now there are more of those hot days in the Portland area. And here in Colorado, where I have been for the last 37 years, I have seen the temperatures warm. Denver has a 152 year weather record. Since 2000 there have been 20 years with at least 40 90F and above days and four years with less. Before 2000, there have been only 15 years with at least 40 90F and above days, and that is for a 128 year time period.

The Earth is warming. According to the European Copernicus Climate Change Service (connected with the European space program), the last 12 months, from July 2023 through June 2024, were all record breaking and were all at least 1.5C (2.7F) above their monthly pre-industrial baseline with an increase of 1.64C for the 12 month average. Are we ready for a warmer Earth?

A warmer Earth means more energy in the atmosphere. Hurricane Beryl is an example of what could happen on a warmer Earth with its rapid intensification, strong wind, and lots of rain. I showed the increase in temperatures in Portland and Denver. In the NW people are starting to buy air conditioners for their houses, and the same thing has been true in Colorado. When I moved to Colorado, an air conditioner was not needed. A whole house fan was the thing to have instead of an air conditioner. Today I consider an air conditioner a must for both the car and the house. Rising sea levels are another challenge that we will need to face due to a warming earth. How many urban areas are at or just above sea level? Quite a few.

We need to prepare for a warmer Earth. The warm Earth has already arrived, and I believe that the temperatures will continue to rise. I believe much of the warming is human caused, so cutting back on CO2, methane, and other greenhouse gas emissions is a good thing to do. Governments have set goals to cut back on emissions. Even though we are making some progress, I believe we will miss those goals. I am not an alarmist forecasting doom, and I am not a denier who thinks this is all made up, but we need to realize that the Earth is already warmer and it will be even warmer, so we need to prepare for it. There may be places where the temperatures may become so extreme that humans will need to abandon those places. People from warmer climes will likely suffer more and will want to move poleward. In America we will need to be ready for them.

The warm Earth is here for the foreseeable future, and we need to be ready for it.

Critical Expressive Individualism

Culture has changed. In America, we think very differently as a society than we did 50+ years ago. The popular way of thinking today combines Critical Theory and Expressive Individualism. I am going to call it, “Critical Expressive Individualism” or CEI. Critical Theory views the world in terms of oppressive social structures that support the reigning oppressors and allow for continued oppression of various people groups. Expressive Individualism allows individuals to identify themselves in ways that express their inner “authentic self”. We will take a look at Critical Expressive Individualism and compare it to Christianity by asking a few basic but big questions. (Note there is a spectrum of beliefs so this will be a broad overview of CEI and Christianity, and may not match individual beliefs.)

Where did we come from?

The Christian Faith believes that God created the world. He created human beings in his own image. We are valuable to God. We were made to be in a relationship with him. CEI believes that humankind evolved by random chance. There was no intentional design. Humans just exist.

Who has the authority?

In the Christian Faith, God, the Creator, has the authority. Out of love, he has set up good and healthy moral laws for us to live by. We are to trust in him and live the good life by obeying his commands. The CEI worldview has each and every one acting as their own authority. They look inside themselves at their feelings and desires and decide who they are (usually sexually) and how they will behave. They are then free to express their individual authentic selves.

What is our problem?

Just about everyone agrees that there is a problem with life. Things are not as we expect them to be. We seek a utopia where the problem is fixed. The Christian Faith sees the problem existing in each one of us. We are broken, selfish and self-centered. We disobey the good and healthy standards that God has for us and in doing so we hurt ourselves and others. CEI sees humankind as naturally good and the problem is that there are these societal structures that allow oppression to occur and restrict the expressive freedom of each individual.

What is the solution?

CEI believes that each person has total authority and the right to express themselves as they see fit. Even though there is technically no right or wrong, CEI attempts to influence society in order to dismantle oppressive societal structures and bring about positive change. This is a reason for the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) officers in companies and organizations. They are there to move people to help dismantle oppressive structures and to promote those considered to be oppressed. They believe that the people of this world will solve the problem once they have been trained to think correctly.

Christians realize there is no human solution because everyone is corrupt and broken. We are self-centered and selfish. Because of our broken nature, everything we try will be corrupted. Fortunately, God sent Jesus into the world to provide the solution. He went to the cross to pay for the price we could not pay. By trusting in Jesus we are changed. With the Holy Spirit, we can be enabled to overcome our broken nature. The Holy Spirit transforms the inner self and works to change us from the inside out. Christians, out of gratitude for what Jesus did, also work for the good of society and oppose oppression and wrong behaviors.

How will things end for us?

With CEI they believe they can create utopia on earth by training and guiding people. So through proper laws, training, destroying of oppressive structures, and the lifting up of the oppressed peoples, they believe utopia can come. Christians believe that God will at the right time end this world and make everything right for all those who believe in him. Then our brokenness will be fixed, and we will be restored to a harmonious loving relationship with God and each other.

These different ways to view the world have caused conflict in America. Because of the different worldviews, very different solutions end up being promoted, causing conflict and misunderstanding.