This blog serves as an outreach for Pastor Randy Powell of the First Baptist Church of Franklin, PA. Feel free to ask questions or send me an e-mail at pastorpowell@hotmail.com
What is the proper Christian response to God's mercy? After we have received so much of it, and continue to depend upon it, how should we react?
The Apostle Paul offers a simple solution: Offer your life as a living sacrifice. In other words, reject the false gods of this world (materialism, hedonism, narcissism, etc.) and instead embrace the pursuit of Christ-likeness. God gave you his Son to save you from damnation, is letting God direct your life too much to ask in return? (Hint: It isn't)
Much has been said about country music singer Jason Aldean's recent song and accompanying music video, "Try That In A Small Town." In addition to those who have pointed out that the courthouse in the video was the scene of a horrific lynching in 1927, and suggestions by some that the music video encourages racism and/or vigilante justice, there have also been voices on the other side of the cultural/political divide in America quick to say, "I stand with Jason Aldean." Lost in the not-unexpected yelling back and forth by politicians and pundits, and the chiming in of regular folk on social media to proclaim which side they are on, is a technique used in the music video, and to a lesser extent in the song lyrics, that is as troubling as it is common in our cultural/political discourse: conflation.
conflation: The merging of two or more sets of information, texts, ideas, etc. into one.
Which two ideas are being merged into one in this example: protesting and criminal behavior.
[Note: To a segment of the American population, an example of which being the stereotype of it portrayed for laughs by Carroll O'Conner as Archie Bunker on All In the Family, protest of any kind will always be considered un-American. To those individuals, no conflation is necessary, protesting already is criminal behavior in their eyes.]
In America, each of us has a constitutionally guaranteed right to protest, both for and against, any issue. We have the right to assemble to make that protest known, including with marches, speeches, sit-ins, and the like. The same right that should have kept Civil Rights marchers from being set upon by firehoses, batons, and police dogs when they exercised their rights, protected the mass marches of the KKK a generation earlier (most of which were met, to our ancestors shame, not with governmental oppression, but with cheering crowds). The right to protest is available to liberals and conservatives, and has helped advance causes dear to the hearts of both groups in American history. While this is not a right enshrined in the Bible, it is certainly one that Christians should cherish, utilize when their conscience compels them to do so, and Christians should also be willing to protect that right when others seek to exercise it, even if we strongly disagree with their motives/goals. {FYI, Christians should likewise be willing to fight for Freedom of Religion, when it affects fellow Christians, AND when it affects those who follow other religions}
In the song and video, however, images of protests (mostly after the murder of George Floyd, especially images of flag burning that have a very emotionally impact on many Americans) are combined with those of theft, looting, and street violence. When these two ideas are put together like this, casually, the impression (desired or not by the creator of the content) is that they are in the same legal/moral category, that in effect, to be a protester is just as immoral and undesirable as to be a criminal, and as the song says, people in small towns know how to respond if you try it there. Intentional or not, and I know nothing of Jason Aldean motives and heart, nor of the songwriter's, the conflation of the two ideas is very dangerous in a society that should value the right to protest, even of those with whom we disagree.
Let's be honest, politicians and pundits pull this trick all the time. It is such a common staple, that if you spend an hour watching cable news you will see it over and over: two ideas/people linked together so that the one the audience doesn't like already has its stink smeared onto the one the politician/pundit wants them to dislike moving forward. It is manipulation plain and simple, and it is sadly very effective.
One of the most dangerous examples I have seen of this in recent years is the near constant use by a number of pundits of George Soros as the boogeyman rich Jew whose efforts to support causes he believes in (as is his right) are tied to many a cause that the politician/pundit doesn't like (truthfully or not), allowing the despicable age old "rich Jews are secretly running the world" trope to do its work. The audience is left angry at the idea/cause in question and wanting to oppose it because the pundit has left the impression that it is the puppet of a "rich Jew." Conflation is a staple of antisemitism (and racism in general).
What am I hoping for? Perhaps a more honest discourse, a bit more integrity from advocates, less anger from the people who are being manipulated in this way. A pipe dream? Perhaps, but if we don't at least try to be better, how can we expect better results in the future? In the end, as Americans, and as Christians, we need to do better than this, we need to be willing to judge people and ideas on their own merits and not simply find a convenient way to smear and dismiss them through conflating them with something else we already dislike.
At the end of a three chapter journey wading through the causes and costs of the rejection of Jesus by the majority of his fellow countrymen, the Apostle Paul reflects upon the wisdom of God's redemptive plan which was able to not only overcome that rejection, but ultimately bring all Israel to redemption after the salvation of the fullness of the Gentiles, by composing a short hymn of praise to God.
There is a simple and excellent reason why the creation of the Church and the instituting of the New Covenant, both at the direction of Jesus Christ, is not a replacement of Israel: God's promises are irrevocable. What God has promised cannot be undone. God promised Abraham that he would bless his descendants, always, and so that promise will remain in effect until the end of time.
That doesn't mean God can't change the way in which his blesses Israel, hence the culmination of the Mosaic Law which Jesus fulfilled, and the bringing of God's new covenant people, Jew and Gentile alike, into one family by faith through grace.
First Fruits of Zion and their Torah Clubs 