tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3166404490802362685.post8233412934398411269..comments2023-10-28T01:29:14.432-07:00Comments on Kyle Roberts Blog: Is the "Good Life" an American Entitlement?Kyle A. Robertshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10422762583277582744noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3166404490802362685.post-24147156188443581382008-06-24T07:41:00.000-07:002008-06-24T07:41:00.000-07:00With the recent turn to the life and ministry of J...With the recent turn to the life and ministry of Jesus (particularly the eschatological teachings of the Sermon on the Mount) in reflections, Evangelical or not, on ethics and poverty, it become clear that the Christian life of discipleship (ethics) demands a radical re-membering of Christ's way, not simply a reordering of economic choices based on market pressures and finanical straining. Does Jesus' call to radical faithfulness to the Gospel (Matthew 10...) not demand a far more demanding change? IF we take Jesus (and the early Christain tradition, mystical and not) seriously, than the Good life is not simply riding your bike to work, or getting rid of your Pathfinder, all the way reminding yourself that you have it comparitively good. The Good life gets so radically redefinied by the Christological deconstruction of economics, that any reconstruction of the good life for the Christian disciple goes far beyond simply 'applying practices of poverty' or 'having conversations with marginalized people,' <BR/><BR/>Poverty is deeply eschatological. The poor get to experience the Futurity of God. If the Good life for the Christian is the life with God, in the Eternal Now, does that not demand that we abandon the life that is the American way? Does the Gospel call us to such a radical being-with-others that we must not only give up our Pathfinders but also our Paychecks?Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14987327978969508923noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3166404490802362685.post-19086357519423284912008-06-07T12:35:00.000-07:002008-06-07T12:35:00.000-07:00Yeah, I liked that line too :)Your comment is well...Yeah, I liked that line too :)<BR/><BR/>Your comment is well-said. For all the emphasis evangelicals put on "application," it seems we should be well-suited for the job. But, in truth, we don't even know where to start. An earnest conversation--with those serving and living on the "margins"--might be a natural place to begin.Kyle A. Robertshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10422762583277582744noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3166404490802362685.post-58942235684489195082008-06-07T10:22:00.000-07:002008-06-07T10:22:00.000-07:00"generally cut short our habitual prolifigacy." Ni..."generally cut short our habitual prolifigacy." <BR/><BR/>Nice line, boss.<BR/><BR/>A while back I was reading an essay that was a bit dated by an evangelical racial reconciler named Spencer Perkins. The premise of the essay was that the African-American church had a great deal of difficulty standing with mainstream '80s evangelical pro-lifers, because some of the same figures who were prominent in the '80s Moral Majority (Folwell, Dobson, etc.) were the same people who twenty years earlier had referred to Dr. King as a "communist". Perkins also noted that it was hard to stand on the same protest line as people who would start to move to the suburbs when "too many blacks moved into their neighborhood." <BR/><BR/>Like Sobrino, Fuller Seminary professor Mel Robeck and others, I think that there needs to be quite a bit of discussion in evangelical churches about the practices of poverty, simplicity, and reconciliation in everyday life. We need to carefully reflect not only on how we spend our money and how we help the needs of others, but also on how we incarnationally model racial and class reconciliation in our daily lives.Sports Davehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04810334546645513348noreply@blogger.com