Laying blame

In the face of injustice we are always seeking a scapegoat in order to reap revenge and find resolution. Humanity requires justice, but what if there is no appropriate scapegoat? For example, shall we penalize Christian churches for the myriad failures and harms perpetrated in its midst? Or, will we restructure or devalue the family unit for its failure to nurture? Should we establish new pedagogies or reimagine schools due to their ineffectiveness? What of community violence, poverty, misogyny and the breadth of injustices in each? How can we receive adequate resolution for all these injustices? Post-millennialism has taught us to deconstruct all these things in the hope of finding truth and resolution. It is a hopeless pursuit. Peeling away the layers of our social realities will not yield truth. We may discover the seeds of these harms, but our fixation on morbidity yields greater and greater measures of despair.

Humanity requires a transcendent vision for human potential. We must have a greater good toward which we aim—a vision for the beauty of humanity and its symbiotic connection to the earth. This is the essence of Christian faith that has Jesus at its center.

Recently a friend, and former student, sent me a podcast to listen to, saying “this was close to my own experience.” The podcast describes the journey of a young man towards “being straight.” The author speaks of a humble, submissive pursuit and the ungodly attitudes and treatment he received along the way. All of that man’s young adult life in God was consumed by the pursuit to be heterosexual in order to be acceptable (in his mind) to God and the Church. His commentary is balanced and reflects years of emotional healing. Listening, I felt angered by his treatment and the reproach that had been brought to the name of Jesus. And, above all, sadness that he was unable to discern Christ amidst the pursuit to belong among Christians. This blindness led to paralysis and ultimately harm.

Then, I was working on a booklet called “CHANGED: Childhood” that describes the childhood experiences of some of our CHANGED friends. The first chapter focusses upon the same sex molestation of a boy and its impact on his identity and behavior. He attributes that abuse and its subsequent relational breakdowns among other men to the development of his sexual attraction. As his father had been molested, so had he. The story describes the painful reality of boundaries crossed, the inadequacy of his family, school, church and community to not only protect a boy from abuse, but cultivate wholeness and health in his identity as a man.

I’m working on the next chapter now. It’s focus is on the impact of bullying in one man’s life. Bullying and name calling (cursing, really) by his father and family members, then by teachers and peers in elementary school and eventually all the way through his teenage years. Incessant and brutal name calling and public humiliation within the schools he attended offered no alternative identity. He was the thing he was being called: a faggot. He was never guided into an honest and benevolent vision for his life. Instead, a magnifying glass was placed on his weaknesses. He developed a self-identity that led to prostitution and rejection of his masculinity. He did his best to live out the curses spoken over his life, because there was no other vision. Until he met Jesus.

Is justice in all these cases (the breakdowns of churches, families, schools, …police forces) the chastisement of these institutions? Currently in our culture we are pursuing that. Churches are being scrutinized and apostasy is common, families are being restructured by no-fault divorce and gay marriage, our educational programs are being rewritten according to novel social and ideological agendas. But, is that justice? Will that repay and repair the damage above? No, I don’t think so. For that, I believe only the cross is adequate.

The cross condemns and penalizes the failures of humanity to meet its own needs. In “christianeze” we say, “Jesus bore our sins on the cross.” In effect, all our grotesque failures toward each other have been gathered to the cross and punished so that there may be resolution. Peace. Justice has been served through the most extreme injustice ever committed—the death of an innocent who understood the need and could provide the restitution. Today our cry for revival is a cry for the penetration of God’s justice into our society. We must aim for the forgiveness that accompanies His restorative justice. Our hearts will settle for nothing less. But then, we must rebuild upon love for one another. A love that very, very few of us truly know.