{"id":4637,"date":"2017-08-14T10:00:51","date_gmt":"2017-08-14T18:00:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/?p=4637"},"modified":"2017-08-11T18:39:06","modified_gmt":"2017-08-12T02:39:06","slug":"to-change-the-world-week-eight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/archives\/2017\/08\/14\/to-change-the-world-week-eight","title":{"rendered":"To Change The World, Week Eight"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"To
To Change The World<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

This week\u2019s chap\u00adter focus\u00ades on the neo-Anabap\u00adtist strand in Amer\u00adi\u00adcan Chris\u00adtian\u00adi\u00adty.<\/p>\n

When peo\u00adple are speak\u00ading about neo-Anabap\u00adtists, they gen\u00ader\u00adal\u00adly have in mind peo\u00adple strong\u00adly influ\u00adenced by the\u00adolo\u00adgians like John Howard Yoder and Stan\u00adley Hau\u00ader\u00adwaus. They are best known for their com\u00admit\u00adment to paci\u00adfism, their focus on the prob\u00adlem of pover\u00adty and the need for jus\u00adtice, and their skep\u00adti\u00adcism of non-church enti\u00adties such as the state and the mar\u00adket \u2014 sort of a bap\u00adtized blend of social\u00adist and lib\u00ader\u00adtar\u00adi\u00adan thought.<\/p>\n

Hunter sum\u00adma\u00adrizes their basic cri\u00adtique of the church\u2019s rela\u00adtion to cul\u00adture like so:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe prob\u00adlem today is that the Amer\u00adi\u00adcan church is caught up in a dual alle\u00adgiance to both Christ and the polit\u00adi\u00adcal econ\u00ado\u00admy of lib\u00ader\u00adal democ\u00adra\u00adcy and con\u00adsumer cap\u00adi\u00adtal\u00adism. Loy\u00adal\u00adty to this polit\u00adi\u00adcal econ\u00ado\u00admy is noth\u00ading less than idol\u00ada\u00adtry.\u201d (page 155)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And their paci\u00adfism is not just about non-war\u00adfare. It is usu\u00adal\u00adly much broad\u00ader than that.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor neo-Anabap\u00adtists, paci\u00adfism is the fun\u00adda\u00admen\u00adtal mark of Chris\u00adt\u00adian dis\u00adci\u00adple\u00adship and the cen\u00adtral eth\u00adi\u00adcal teach\u00ading of the gospel.\u2026 Anabap\u00adtists, of course, are per\u00adhaps best known his\u00adtor\u00adi\u00adcal\u00adly for their paci\u00adfism in wartime. Yet war is not the cen\u00adtral prob\u00adlem\u00adat\u00adic but vio\u00adlence itself\u2014broadly defined. This is why the state fig\u00adures so promi\u00adnent\u00adly with\u00adin the Anabap\u00adtist imag\u00adi\u00adna\u00adtion. The state is the locus of self-legit\u00adi\u00admat\u00ading vio\u00adlence and its very exis\u00adtence is defined by the exer\u00adcise (or the threat of exer\u00adcise) of coer\u00adcion. Its pow\u00ader is always man\u00adi\u00adfest\u00adly or latent\u00adly coer\u00adcive.\u201d (pages 158, 159)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

If that sounds awe\u00adsome to you, you\u2019re prob\u00ada\u00adbly won\u00adder\u00ading why you\u2019ve nev\u00ader heard of this per\u00adspec\u00adtive before. There\u2019s a good rea\u00adson:<\/p>\n

[Neo-Anabap\u00adtism] is main\u00adly known through its intel\u00adlec\u00adtu\u00adal apolo\u00adgias; it plays out more in the\u00adol\u00ado\u00adgy than in prac\u00adtice, more in polit\u00adi\u00adcal sen\u00adsi\u00adbil\u00adi\u00adties than in insti\u00adtu\u00adtion\u00adal struc\u00adtures.\u201d (page 150)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This seems almost inevitable giv\u00aden the instincts of neo-Anabap\u00adtist Chris\u00adtians. In Neo-Anabap\u00adtists and the Bene\u00addict Option<\/a>, Jake Meador sum\u00adma\u00adrizes the predica\u00adment well:<\/p>\n

To begin, the obvi\u00adous prob\u00adlem for any reli\u00adgious tra\u00addi\u00adtion that defines itself in such essen\u00adtial<\/em> oppo\u00adsi\u00adtion to the gov\u00adern\u00adment but also, increas\u00ading\u00adly out of neces\u00adsi\u00adty, the mod\u00adern mar\u00adket, is that if you preach repen\u00adtance to Cae\u00adsar (or the Wolf of Wall Street) and they say \u201cOK, I repent,\u201d you don\u2019t know what to tell them.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I once read an essay which claimed you could under\u00adstand most of the prob\u00adlems in the mod\u00adern world if you sim\u00adply grasped that Mus\u00adlims do not know how to exist as a minor\u00adi\u00adty and Chris\u00adtians do not know how to exist as a major\u00adi\u00adty. This lat\u00adter point is what Meador is dri\u00adving at. The neo-Anabap\u00adtists are good at cri\u00adtiquing exist\u00ading struc\u00adtures but less skilled at craft\u00ading supe\u00adri\u00ador struc\u00adtures.<\/p>\n

The neo-Anabap\u00adtists claim their mes\u00adsage is prophet\u00adic but in its net effect (that is, in what peo\u00adple both inside and out\u00adside of the tra\u00addi\u00adtion hear), it is over\u00adwhelm\u00ading\u00adly a mes\u00adsage of anger, dis\u00adpar\u00adage\u00adment, and nega\u00adtion. (page 165)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As a Pen\u00adte\u00adcostal, I found this bit inter\u00adest\u00ading:<\/p>\n

The con\u00adcept of \u201cprin\u00adci\u00adpal\u00adi\u00adties and pow\u00aders\u201d bears some fur\u00adther reflec\u00adtion because of its impor\u00adtance to the neo-Anabap\u00adtist tra\u00addi\u00adtion. The con\u00adcept refers to the insti\u00adtu\u00adtion\u00adal or sys\u00adtemic pat\u00adterns of thought, behav\u00adior, and rela\u00adtion\u00adship that gov\u00adern our lives and the spir\u00adi\u00adtu\u00adal realm that ani\u00admates them. They were orig\u00adi\u00adnal\u00adly part of the cre\u00adat\u00aded order and as such, were good. They were intend\u00aded to medi\u00adate the cre\u00adative pur\u00adpos\u00ades of God in the world, but like us they are now fall\u00aden. Rather than reflect\u00ading truth, they became adver\u00adsaries of the truth. Rather than serv\u00ading the aim of human flour\u00adish\u00ading, they came to dom\u00adi\u00adnate, coerce, and enslave humankind by claim\u00ading for them\u00adselves absolute pow\u00ader. They are \u201cthe rulers of this age\u201d (1 Cor. 2:6). The pow\u00ader they wield is, at its source and in its con\u00adse\u00adquences, demon\u00adic in char\u00adac\u00adter. (page 157)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Whether you con\u00adsid\u00ader your\u00adself con\u00adser\u00adv\u00ada\u00adtive or lib\u00ader\u00adal, I encour\u00adage you to care\u00adful\u00adly reflect on these last three chap\u00adters (on the reli\u00adgious right, the reli\u00adgious left, and the neo-Anabap\u00adtists), seek\u00ading to gain sym\u00adpa\u00adthy for the posi\u00adtions you shy away from.<\/p>\n

Which reminds me: I for\u00adgot to send the Chris\u00adt\u00adian cri\u00adtique of lib\u00ader\u00adal\u00adism with last week\u2019s read\u00adings. Sor\u00adry! Read the linked essay \u201cThe Prob\u00adlem With Lib\u00ader\u00adal\u00adism<\/a>\u201d by J. Budziszews\u00adki, a Chris\u00adt\u00adian polit\u00adi\u00adcal philoso\u00adpher at the Uni\u00adver\u00adsi\u00adty of Texas. In case you missed it, I sent his com\u00adpan\u00adion essay on con\u00adser\u00advatism with the chap\u00adter notes two weeks ago<\/a>. My hope is that these cri\u00adtiques by Budziszews\u00adki will com\u00adple\u00adment the read\u00adings from Hunter so that whether you lean left or right you\u2019ll both find a chap\u00adter that describes your views fair\u00adly while also encoun\u00adter\u00ading a thought\u00adful cri\u00adtique of your tribe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  This week\u2019s chap\u00adter focus\u00ades on the neo-Anabap\u00adtist strand in Amer\u00adi\u00adcan Chris\u00adtian\u00adi\u00adty. When peo\u00adple are speak\u00ading about neo-Anabap\u00adtists, they gen\u00ader\u00adal\u00adly have in mind peo\u00adple strong\u00adly influ\u00adenced by the\u00adolo\u00adgians like John Howard Yoder and Stan\u00adley Hau\u00ader\u00adwaus. They are best known for their com\u00admit\u00adment to paci\u00adfism, their focus on the prob\u00adlem of pover\u00adty and the need for \u2026 Con\u00adtin\u00adue read\u00ading \u201cTo Change The World, Week Eight\u201d<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[8],"tags":[209,210],"class_list":["post-4637","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-resources-reviews","tag-summer-reading-project-2017","tag-to-change-the-world"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Ded-1cN","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4637","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4637"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4637\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4644,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4637\/revisions\/4644"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4637"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4637"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4637"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}