2 Corinthians 4: 3-6 (links validated 1/25/24)

In his outstanding book, The Soul of the American University: From Protestant Establishment to Established Unbelief, the American religious scholar George Marsden reflects on the settled place that the veil of unbelief has in American academia. He writes: “Persons concerned about the place of religion in American life might be particularly concerned that the largely voluntary and commendable disestablishment of religion [on campus] has led to the virtual establishment of nonbelief, or the near exclusion of religious perspectives from dominant academic life. While American universities today allow individuals free exercise of religion in parts of their lives that do not touch the heart of the university they tend to exclude or discriminate against relating explicit religious perspectives to intellectual life. “In other words, the free exercise of religion does not extend to the dominant intellectual centers of our culture. So much are these exclusions taken for granted, as simply part of the definition of academic life, that many people do not even view them as strange. Nor do they think it odd that such exclusion is typically justified in the names of academic freedom and free inquiry.”

John Murray was a 20th century Scottish-born prolific theologian and writer. In The Collected Writings of John Murray, he asks (in admittedly dated gender language): “How is it that [people] who still lie under the wrath and curse of God and are heirs of hell enjoy so many good gifts at the hand of God? How is it that [people] who are not savingly renewed by the Spirit of God nevertheless exhibit so many qualities, gifts and accomplishments that promote the preservation, temporal happiness, cultural progress, social and economic improvement of themselves and of others? “How is it that races and peoples that have been apparently untouched by the redemptive and regenerative influences of the gospel contribute so much to what we call human civilization? To put the question most comprehensively: how is it that this sin-cursed world enjoys so much favour and kindness at the hand of its holy and ever-blessed Creator?”

On the wall in my old office, I had hung a picture of Clarence Jordan, with one of my favorite quotes of his. It said, "The measure of a Christian is not in the height of his grasp but in the depth of his love." I believe Clarence embodied that quote. He's been growing in popularity among some younger folks these days, but in his lifetime Clarence was all but despised, especially in his home state of Georgia, for preaching a gospel of acceptance and inclusion - most especially when it came to matters of race. Clarence, however, didn't just preach that gospel, he lived it. What's more, Clarence didn't just live his life in the quietness with the other folks at Koinonia (the interracial farming community he started in Americus, Georgia), he preached in whatever church would welcome him into the pulpit, even if they only welcomed him once. Clarence didn't just live his life, leaving the rest of the world to draw their own conclusions about his motives, he was unapologetically vocal about his allegiance and obedience to the calling of the gospel of Christ, and as such, I believe Clarence exemplified what's missing from the veiled gospel of some of us on the more progressive and liberal side of Christianity. Clarence was not ashamed to say that he did what he did, he lived the way he lived, because he believed that Jesus Christ was the Son of God and that Jesus meant what he said when he said, "You shall love the Lord your God... [and] your neighbor as yourself."...

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