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TGIF: Roundup for November 6, 2020



TGIF: Roundup for November 6, 2020


Aaron Lee

Our aim this week was to give you a Biblical way to process the 2020 Presidential Election. You can find all of our content on our website. Witness: SOLA Conference 2021 will be held on April 21 at Living Hope Community Church in Brea, California. Registration opens this December. It will be a one-day, outdoor conference with various safety…




Words for the Church in these Post-Election Days



Words for the Church in these Post-Election Days


P.J. Tibayan

I was asked, “What will you say to your church after the election?” That’s a great question, and I have a short answer and an expanded answer. My short answer in one word: Jesus. To expand as briefly as possible, my message to my church family is Jesus Christ: over all, in us, through us, and to us. Let me explain these four phrases. Jesus is…




Five Brief Thoughts on the Church and The (Ongoing) Presidential Elections



Five Brief Thoughts on the Church and The (Ongoing) Presidential Elections


Thomas Hwang

On what has now become two Election Days, we’ve seen all kinds of initial reactions. Social media raged. Family members stayed up all night confused. But I still think things will likely go back to normal – and that’s what I’m kind of afraid of. While I disagree with pundits who say 2020 is the most important election in U.S. history…


 

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Consider the cultural impact that 350 years of systemic racism made upon Black culture. Think of the results of the “Doll Test” used in the Brown v. Board of Education case: When Black children were asked which dolls (black or white) were smarter and better, they pointed to the white dolls. When asked which doll was most like them, they pointed to the black doll saying, with one even saying, “That’s the n-gger. I’m a n-gger.” ⁠ ⁠ Few things more powerfully influence who we become in life than our expectations of ourselves, and our expectations often come from our culture. Why did the Israelites make an idolatrous golden calf when they were at Mount Sinai? The Israelites made a golden calf because after being in Egypt for 400 years, God’s people had culturally become pagan sinners who made idols of their gods.⁠ ⁠ Read more at SOLA.NETWORK. Link in bio.


From its inception, our nation has been traveling down a long, troubled road in need of racial reconciliation. With profound ramifications, we embraced a race-based, human-trafficking form of slavery that all Christians should have thoroughly condemned. It took 250 years and a bloody civil war, which President Abraham Lincoln viewed as God’s judgement against America, to end slavery.⁠ ⁠ However, although God humbled America over its sin of slavery, our country did not repent. Instead, we instituted Black Codes or Jim Crow Laws that continued to segregate our nation by color, White over Black. Even worse, we employed our judicial and police departments to enforce those unjust laws with inequitable cruel brutality. Furthermore, our citizenry formed White supremacist groups like the Ku Klux Klan to keep Blacks from seeking their civil rights by terrorizing them with practices like lynching. So for the first 350 years of our nation’s journey, our need for racial reconciliation continued to grow.⁠ ⁠ This article will consider the impact of the next pivotal moment in America’s race-journey —the battle for African American Civil Rights.⁠ ⁠ Read more at SOLA.NETWORK. Link in bio.


In summary, ending slavery was a huge step forward towards racial reconciliation. However, much was lost after the assassination of President Lincoln: the promised 40 acres and a mule would have done much in the form of economic justice. ⁠ ⁠ Instead, America instituted another 100 years of racist “Black Codes” and the brutal enforcement of them. Through the Civil War, we took only one step towards becoming a nation where all people are free, and all people are treated with the dignity of being image-bearers of God.⁠ ⁠ Read more at SOLA.NETWORK. Link in bio.


Some of our nation’s founders really did want America to be a land of the free for all, including African slaves. They just didn’t have the moral will to provide the leadership to do it. In fear they wondered, what would the millions of freed slaves do? As a result of slave laws, Black people had no money, no education, no property, and no homes. If freed, would they revolt against their out-numbered masters and start a race-war?⁠ ⁠ Rather than address this problem, America allowed slavery to continue, hoping that it would somehow simply end with time. But that didn’t work. Moral indifference in leadership never does.⁠ ⁠ Now war was upon the nation and its outcome would determine if slavery would continue or if it would end. The question this article will pursue is did the Civil War move us closer to becoming a nation where all people are free and all people are treated with the dignity of being image-bearers of God?⁠ ⁠ Read more at SOLA.NETWORK. Link in bio.


“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Right, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”⁠ ⁠ We are now 244 years into our democratic experiment of building this land of the free. The question we should all ask is: “How are we doing?” Trying to find the true answer to that question will take the questioner well beyond the recent events surrounding George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and Jacob Blake. This debate regarding the answer to this question began before our nation did.⁠ ⁠ In this series of articles, I will analyze three key junctures in our nation’s history in an attempt to biblically answer the question, “How successful have we been at creating a nation where all people are free and all people are treated with the dignity of being image-bearers of God?⁠ ⁠ Read more at SOLA.NETWORK. Link in bio.


“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Right, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”⁠ ⁠ We are now 244 years into our democratic experiment of building this land of the free. The question we should all ask is: “How are we doing?” Trying to find the true answer to that question will take the questioner well beyond the recent events surrounding George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and Jacob Blake. This debate regarding the answer to this question began before our nation did.⁠ ⁠ In this series of articles, I will analyze three key junctures in our nation’s history in an attempt to biblically answer the question, “How successful have we been at creating a nation where all people are free and all people are treated with the dignity of being image-bearers of God?⁠ ⁠ Read more at SOLA.NETWORK. Link in bio.


I misunderstood the situation for African Americans prior to 2014 and failed to love well. God graciously opened my eyes and granted me repentance through my local church and other moments.⁠ ⁠ We all need to pray and strive for what the Apostle Paul calls “love abounding more and more in all discernment” (Phil 1:9). We have the blessed responsibility of looking at the ethnic tension today and then to discerningly love our neighbors as we love ourselves.⁠ ⁠ Are you discerning how to love in the midst of these debated issues? Have you listened to the stories of those who are bearing the burden of being oppressed? Do you understand America’s history and how it presently shapes our current moment?⁠ ⁠ Read more at SOLA.NETWORK. Link in bio.⁠ @pjtibayan @bbcbellflower


As a pastor, I’ve often been asked the question: Do I really have to care about structural racism?⁠ ⁠ I’ll hear people say: ⁠ ⁠ “I’m Asian American, and the problem seems to be between African Americans and Anglo Americans.” ⁠ ⁠ “I don’t see people hating other races and saying they are inherently inferior and sub-human.” ⁠ ⁠ “I don’t hear many people saying, ‘I hate Black people.’” ⁠ ⁠ “I know there’s pain, but I don’t know why we can’t all just get along.”⁠ ⁠ Perhaps you’ve run into people who seem uninterested in the conversation on ethnic tension in the country and churches today. Others might seem unsure how to actually honor Jesus regarding this controversial topic. There are those who are afraid of overreacting. Maybe you’re in one or more of these categories. I myself thought like this prior to 2014.⁠ ⁠ Read more at SOLA.NETWORK. Link in bio.⁠ @pjtibayan @bbcbellflower


Here at the SOLA Network, we believe that only the Gospel can transform hearts and remove the sin of racism, whatever form it takes. We also believe that as Christ-followers, we need to live out the command to love God and to love our neighbors. As part of loving our neighbors, we need to listen to the stories of our Black neighbors and lament when they tell their stories of grief. It is only after we have learned from them that we can begin to have compassion and understand their experiences so that we can continue to walk together in the light of the Gospel. So for the next two weeks, beginning on Tuesday, the SOLA Network will be sharing the thoughts and experiences of two of our Black brothers in Christ. Pastor Bobby Scott of Community of Faith Bible Church will share the devastating history of slavery and racism in America through a Biblical lens in his series, “America’s Long, Troubled Journey Towards Racial Reconciliation,” Then, we will be sharing a conversation SOLA Council member Michael Lee had with Pastor Thabiti Anyabwile of Anacostia Bible Church, which will run in two parts. Read more at SOLA.NETWORK. Link in bio. @loudhannah @allnationsla

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