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Christ in Crisis

Why We Need to Reclaim Jesus
Dec 08, 2019sandraperkins rated this title 5 out of 5 stars
Mr. Wallis is concerned that the Christian churches in the US have become disconnected from the actual teachings of Jesus. He wrote this book to demonstrate how the words and actions of Jesus should be applied to what is happening in our nation today. Christ in Crisis will be of interest to readers who are Christians, but this book is not just for Christians, and it is not just for people who are religious. This book will appeal to all people who are interested in social justice. I also think this book will speak to those who were raised in a church, but who have been turned off by the behavior and words of those who call themselves Christians in today’s America. Mr. Wallis analyzes and applies the teachings of Jesus to a variety of topics that are in the news regularly today. This is not a political book. Mr. Wallis finds fault with both the right and the left. He is proposing that we look carefully at how Jesus handled certain questions, and apply those lessons to the issues of today. The chapters of this book are well-crafted, well-reasoned discussions of very important issues. Here is one example: The Neighbor Question. Jesus tells us to love our neighbor. When asked “Who is my neighbor?”, Jesus tells the parable of the Good Samaritan. His example of a good neighbor is a Samaritan, a member of an “outsider” group that was despised by the majority in that day. The Good Samaritan went out of his way on a dangerous road to help a person unlike himself, who needed help. After a discussion of the parable, Mr. Wallis notes that in the US today, we rarely even encounter people who are different from us in our daily pathways. We have residential, racial, economic, and religious segregation; how do we get outside of those boundaries and meet our neighbors who are different from us? In this chapter, Mr. Wallis describes the “talk” that African-American parents have with their children about how to behave in the presence of the police; avoid the police at all costs, and do everything possible to avoid provoking them. Too many African-American people (usually unarmed) have died during police encounters. In contrast, as a white child, he was taught that the police were his friends; if he was lost, he should seek out a policeman, who would help him get home safely. That is a huge difference in perspective; we have to know our neighbors with different perspectives to understand why and how they see things differently. Mr. Wallis then applies this principle to immigration. The US is well on its way to changing from being a white majority nation to being a nation made up of minorities. How would Jesus tell us to treat these new neighbors? Mr. Wallis discusses the separation of children from their parents at our southern border and the Muslim ban. He addresses white privilege, saying, “When you are used to white privilege, racial equality feels like a threat. Or as one young black man at a forum put it, ‘If you can’t see white privilege, then you have it.’” We need deeper conversations across lines of difference such as race, religion, immigration status, and others. We need to listen more deeply to those to whom we have been indifferent.