Self-Abandonment to Divine Providence

German sociologist Hartmut Rosa has recently written The Uncontrollability of the World, in which he critiques our cultural attempt to eliminate risk, and reduce everything to a predictable set of results. While some areas of life need control, like me being in hospital(!), the ultimate attempt to control experience is, of course, impossible, and leads inevitably to a profound sense of depression and disappointment. 

Wages of (Social) Sin

With the recent verdict in the George Floyd case, and the British government report on race, it seems appropriate to share some thoughts on the different levels of sin, and and their social aspects. In evangelicalism especially, we concentrate on the individual and neglect the collective effects of sin. Since this is a blog, my account will necessarily be sketchy and brief. 

Critiquing Black Lives Matter

I’ve heard Christians criticise BLM for several reasons:

 

 

 

 

1. It’s political.

2. Not only ‘black’ lives matter: white lives, and those of other minorities, also matter.

3. It supports other ideas, besides racial justice, which Christians shouldn’t support.

4. It is a Marxist, or terrorist, organisation.

5. It is violent. 

White Consciousness and Black Lives Matter

(My friend Nathan McGuire asked me to write this for his blog. You can see the article there - https://www.nathanlmcguire.com/blog/white-consciousness-and-black-lives-matter)

It could have been expected that the worldwide Covid pandemic would produce worldwide socio-political convulsions. The health crisis has brought to the surface deep underlying inequalities and injustices. In particular, of course, we see this in the unrest and uprisings sparked by the killing of a black man in Minneapolis. In one sense, nothing unusual; we’ve seen many of these. But coming during the tensions caused by inefficient and unjust responses to Coronavirus, it exploded into a global reaction.