Gospel Focus Part III: A Case in Point
Ta-Nehisi Coates is an author that I respect greatly. He is intelligent (a genius in fact) and a journalist with the investigative spirit of an old-school Newsman. On top of that his prose is magnificent. Much of his writing captivates my mind. Not that many of his ideas are previously undiscovered but they are stated in a contemporary yet timeless fashion. When I hand his books to a fifteen year-old Finnegan (my five year-old son) I have the sense that they will read both as a narrative of a particular place in history but also be very transferable to the racial future that he will inevitably be living in.
Thabiti Anyabwile is a Pastor based in Washington D.C. He was saved by the Spirit out of a life of practicing Islam. He is a Baptist preacher whose books I have read and when he speaks about Islam or Race I listen. Not that his is the only voice but his is a good one.
After reading Between the World and Me and several long pieces by Ta-Nehisi in the Atlantic Magazine I saw this piece by Pastor Anyabwile. It was a great in roads to speaking to some of Mr. Coates’ work. I had heard other critique Between the World and Me in particular due to what was perceived as negativity. Yet all of those individuals were approaching the conversation without any real reason for Hope in the context of the Mass Incarceration of African Americans, persistent areas of national prejudice, or “isolated” incidents of death by way of Governmentally empowered guns within recent years. For the most part the rational was that of “it’s just not very pleasant to not be hopeful.”
What we see in the video I posted in the last blog and here again is not some weak sauce chin stroking moments of deep apologetic thought where we can all sit around in our smoking jackets trying to outsmart one another. No, what Pastor Anyabwile gave us was Bold-Hard Gospel truth. Gospel Hope. I am in full agreement with Ta-Nehisi that there is only the faintest of flittering candlelight at the end of the tunnel. And I am in full agreement with Thabiti that Christ’s perfect forever reign is the only hope that remains.
This conversation is a prime example of the Christ’s work speaking into daily life and how Christians are to be missionaries and purveyors of the Gospel to the World that they enter into.
That is Gospel Instigating at it’s best.
