Gary Scott Smith on Black Slaves' Perspective on Heaven in America

What follows is an interesting bit of commentary (p. 90) from Gary Scott Smith's Heaven in the American Imagination regarding the perspective of black slaves in the years leading up to the American Civil War.

Largely rejecting whites' account of the gospel, blacks accentuated other aspects of the Christian message that enabled them to survive the dehumanization, heart-ache, and hardships of their bondage.  While many of them looked forward to heavenly bliss and compensation and divine retribution for their suffering and adversity, the Bible's emphasis on liberation, justice, and equality also helped inspire, comfort, and give them hope on earth.  Their life circumstances and the recognition that whites selectively employed scripture to exploit them prompted slaves to critically assess whites' teaching about salvation, morality, and the afterlife.  Resisting efforts to use Christianity to manipulate and control them, slaves devised their own interpretation of the gospel that enhanced their dignity, strength, and courage.  Many slaves disavowed their masters' version of Christianity "as a compensatory and otherworldly religion" that encouraged them to accept their bondage as God's will, epitomized by the Negro spiritual that declared, "Take this world but give me Jesus."  While agreeing that voluminous evidence "illustrates the perennial preoccupation" of both slaves and free blacks "with the promise of everlasting life" during the antebellum years, Timothy Smith repudiated the claim that this hope made slaves content with their condition and stifled their efforts to save them.  The Christianity they crafted helped them cope with the harshness of their everyday life, provided them the psychic space they needed to deal with debasement, and gave them hope of liberation, if not in this life, at least in the life to come.  "Narratives, tales, songs, sermons, aphorisms, prayers, and other slave sources" demonstrate that slaves rejected their masters' conception of a heaven where racism and subordination persisted and of a hell where disobedient, lazy slaves suffered for eternity.  Convinced that this portrait of heaven could not be reconciled with a loving and just God who valued all human beings equally, they recast heaven and hell in light of "their own experiences, values, and traditions" as "an abused and exploited people."

The Dark Knight Rises :: New Trailer

Don't know what to think of the prospects here.  Not excited about Anne Hathaway as Catwoman.  And I'm not excited about Bane as a featured villian.  But, here is the trailer, nonetheless.

Are you excited about the film?

Stephen Proctor: "Why is the visual aspect of our worship experiences important?"

My friend Stephen Proctor is one of the leading lights of the "visual worship" movement, an important theological discussion on the nature and place of technological innovation as it is applied to the gathering of the church for the purpose of corporate worship.  I refer to this first as a theological discussion, rather than as a gathering of practitioners, for it appears to me that Stephen and other worship leaders like himself are more concerned with the underlying ideas than they are with "the show"--they truly want their work to be an expression of worship that is faithful to the God revealed in Jesus Christ.  For this, Stephen and his friends are to be commended, as evangelicalism has long been guilty of being pragmatic before being reflective.  While "visual worship" does not reverse this course of action, it does take them as parallel.  Thinking is required while doing, and doing further stimulates theological thinking, discourse, and conversation.

Stephen recently addressed attendees at the RECONNECT Conference.  Check out what he has to say in the video below.  Follow his blog, if you don't already.

Thoughts on Visual Worship (Reconnect Conference) from worshipVJ on Vimeo.

Speaking This Sunday. You're Invited.

This Sunday I'll be visiting the people of FirstLight United Methodist Faith Community, May 6 at 6:00 p.m.  Your'e invited.

The event will be held at 138 E. Main in downtown Gardner.  You can read more about the event here.

I'll be speaking about my first book: Committed to Christ: 40 Devotions for a Generous Life.

I'm looking foward to seeing some old friends and making some news ones.  My presentation will be followed by a brief question and answer period.

See you there!

Letters :: Conversion Story?

This week's primer:

Do you have a "conversion" story?  How did you come to be a Christian?  Was it a long, gradual process?  Was it a powerful, singular experience?  What biblical stories do you most readily identify with concerning your conversion?  Were you raised in the faith?  If so, did you have a natural, easy progression towards a deep Christian faith?  Or was your road filled with bumps and detours?  At what point did your Christian convictions become firm?

If you have a desire to communicate through an old but still useful medium, drop me a letter:

Benjamin A. Simpson
RE: God-talk
P.O. Box 249
De Soto, KS  66018-0249

I hope to hear from you soon, if not via the post, then perhaps via email.  Blessings.

Related Posts

The Practice of Letter Writing :: Care for Correspondence?
Letters :: What Thinkers Do You Admire?
Letters :: What Do You Think About the Afterlife? 
Letters :: Who was/is the Most Influential Person in your life for/against faith? 

Sign Up for the BAS Monthly eNews

Friends.  Family.  Supporters.  Opponents and enemies.  I have a special invitation.

In an effort to take a step forward as a writing professional, I am launching an eNewsletter.  Exciting, I know.

Once a month, I will be sending a note to subscribers informing them of popular blog content, new print or web publications, speaking engagements, family news, prayer requests, and the like.

I am thankful for all of my readers.  The past several years blogging has been an adventure.  I've managed to connect with a diverse body of people who share a common interest in life, sports, theology, ecclesial matters, academic concerns, and practical wisdom.  It is my desire to continue to produce stimulating and informative content here at the blog.  More broadly, however, it is my hope that through my life and writings I can influence the world for the good of the Kingdom of God, bringing glory to Jesus Christ.

Please submit your name and email address below.  Your information will remain private--I won't be passing along your information to third parties.  And I won't send you more than one email a month.  The first offering of the eNews will be later this month--May 28.

Thank you for your support, your engagement, and your friendship.  Blessings to you and yours.

-BAS

Subscribe to the BAS eNews

* indicates required

Email Address *

First Name *

Last Name *

Email Format

• html
• text
• mobile

J. R. Daniel Kirk: "If you believe in women’s equality, your calling is to act it out."

J. R. Daniel Kirk is a professor at Fuller Theological Seminary.

He recently presented at the Christians for Biblical Equality Conference in Houston.

This link provides access to an unpacking of one of Kirk's "summary takeaways" from the conference.

Dear men, it is not enough to be supportive in your hearts. If your church is excluding women from service, you need to be creating opportunities to overturn that practice.

You need to speak. You need to ask.

I am a graduate of Dallas Theological Seminary, a conservative institution that has a firm commitment to the Bible.  I am very grateful for what I received while a student there, all while disagreeing with the seminary on this facet of the church's doctrinal teaching: I believe that women who are called as ministers of the gospel can be ordained and installed to serve as elders, pastors, deacons, and ministers, not only to women and children, but to the church as a whole.  I do not believe that a woman's role is limited, and that there are reasonable approaches to 1 Timothy 2 and 1 Corinthians 14 (to name two problematic passages for those who hold my position) that do not necessarily lead to the conclusion that the office of pastor, teacher, or elder should exclude women.

It is on us, inasmuch as God has entrusted the church to his people and we are called to be faithful in it and act to conform it to God’s will.

We must create the kind of church that will receive not just our sons but our daughters, not just our brothers but our sisters, in the fullness of who God is making them to be, in Christ, by the Spirit.

I do not believe that these two texts are where the matter is settled, however.  I believe there is much more within the witness of Scripture that should lead us to believe that women, this side of the cross of Jesus Christ, who have the inner witness of the Holy Spirit and the loving approval of the church, can serve faithfully as leaders within the body of Christ.

Jesus' public ministry was supported by women, as we see in Luke 8.

A woman, Mary, sat at Jesus' feet as his disciple, as we see in Luke 10.

A man and a woman, Priscilla and Aquila, served together as co-laborers in the gospel, or so we read in Acts 18.  Priscilla's name, often appearing first, may indicate she was known as preeminent of the two.  Together they instructed Apollos further in the truth of the gospel.

Other examples abound, not to mention occurances in the Old Testament of women in positions of leadership.

I am well aware that problems do remain, and the hermeneutical concerns surrounding these passages and others are tricky.  But I, for one, through the study of both Scripture and church history, believe that my conviction that women are fit to serve in leadership far exceeds sentimentality or a desire to better love my wife, who is a minister of the gospel.  Rather, I believe my conviction rests firmly upon Scripture and the use of reason.

Those who disagree, please know that I love you in Christ, and ask only that your disagreements be shared in a spirit of charity and love, befitting the commands we find in the New Testament to loving seek the truth in love.

To those who agree, I ask that you be loving towards those who disagree.  Convictions of the truth should be held both firmly and humbly, open to reproof and correction.  Our ears should always be prepared to listen.

I agree with Professor Kirk.  Those who believe that women are equally fit to serve as leaders, and find biblical warrant for such a claim, must speak up.  In the process, they must develop their position biblically and theologically, and be open to criticism and challenges.  But in the face of such criticism, if their minds remain fixed, they must teach others why they believe what they believe.

Women in leadership is not a modern concern, carried on the wings of modern ideological movements.  It is a biblical concern, one we would do well to revisit the text in light of.  That, my friends, is the task.

The Parking Spot

Manuevering through the grocery store parking lot, I acquired my target.  

A car had vacated a front row spot.  

I pulled off the thoroughfare that ran past the front of the store.

Taking a right turn, I pulled foward into my golden destination, third row from center.

A quarter of the way in to the spot, I noticed that the car in the adjoining, head-on spot had their headlights on.

I made eye contact with the woman driving the vehicle.

She looked exasperated.

I had taken her spot, or so she thought.

She eased the car in to reverse, backing a full twelve inches, and waved me in.

The second spot in my aisle also stood unoccuppied.

I considered a switch, but then I did not, as I had already been waved in.

I completed my parking job.

The woman slammed her door, turned away from me, and proceeded to walk towards the store after momentarily passing behind her vehicle.

"Sorry", I said.

With disgust, she said, "You could've parked in the second spot.  I was waiting for the car in front of me to leave and was planning to pull forward in to that spot."

"Sorry," I repeated, "I didn't know that you were planning to do that."

"Yes you did," she said.

"Sorry," I repeated again, "I didn't see you until I had already pulled in to the spot."

"OK," she finished.

I entered, made my purchase, and was gone long before this woman was done shopping.  I considered leaving a note on her windshield saying, "Sorry for ruining your day."