A Helpful Response to the “Agents of Grace and Peace” blog written by Jon McNeil

Thanks for this, Micah. It’s very good to hear what you’re struggling through and your approach to living out grace. 

Jesus was very good at naming demonic spirits and casting them out, and he’s given us that same power—I think the Church needs to use it! We need to call out the demon of systemic racism that possesses our country. The demon of police brutality. The demon of the myth of the American dream and Neoliberalism. The demon of greed that allows corporations to thrive while their employees die. The demon of an addiction to consumerism and entertainment. The demon of ‘iDolatry’...

I also think: this moment in history really sucks and I don’t think the white church really knows how to deal with suffering the way the black church does. They have had much more practice at it. We need to pay better attention to the stories they tell and how they respond to these situations, and draft behind them. Our religion is a religion for the poor, subjugated, downtrodden, and forgotten. Every time we feel a bit of pain in situations such as these, it’s a gateway to help us connect with the pain of our neighbor, the pain of our spiritual forefathers, and the pain of our crucified Savior. I think the Church runs from that at our own peril. 

Real talk here. Evangelicals are at the root of this malignant cancer in our country, and we must repent and repent and then repent again for that. I’m not talking about a Christianity Today op-ed on the editor’s last day on the job kind of repentance, where the stakes are incredibly low. I mean a rending of garments on the street corner in a humiliating way. We just witnessed a mini abomination of desolation a few days ago and it’s crickets out there from evangelicals. That has to change soon. It’s becoming a short distance between America 2020 and Bonhoeffer’s Germany.