Blessed Are the Peacemakers (#624)

If we could only find some... Jesus blessed the peacemakers and now more than ever we need some to help bridge the widening rips in our social fabric. The amount of vitriol in our culture, even between Christians, has reached epidemic proportions. Spawned by our so-called leaders and fanned into flames by an advocacy media that can no longer present a unified narrative about news events, we are becoming a nation of angry citizens each demanding our own way. When did it become ok to detest people who view the world differently than we do? How can we recover mutual respect across our deepest differences and treat others with the dignity their humanity deserves?

Podcast Notes:
Wayne's former work with BridgeBuilders
Wayne's TEDx event in Abilene, TX
Sorry Christians, We Can’t Blame the Media Any More by Karl Vaters
Order Wayne's newest book: Beyond Sundays
Wayne's Travel Schedule in early 2018
The latest news from our project in Kenya
Add your voice to our question/comment line via Skype at "TheGodJourney"

10 Comments

  1. This is so good and inspiring. About half way through my thought was “I want to be a bridgebuilder, I want to do what Wayne gets to do.” And then Brad basically says the same thing but puts it at the drinking fountain and then the bells went off , I am a bridge builder. Living Loved is how. I really really really wish this kind’ve engagement could happen on our national stage. You guys have lifted my cynicism and hopelessness. Thanks.
    p.s. When Reagan won I thought it was the end of our country. See and Wayne likes me and I like Wayne. LOL

    • Hi Joni. Thanks for this comment; it has absolutely touched me today and changed some perspective for me. I have been dreading this whole re-invitation into the BridgeBuilder space. I let it go about 8 years ago in all the busyness of THE SHACK and it’s aftermath. I don’t know what this upcoming TEDx talk has in mind or what doors it might re-open, but I have not been excited to go back there. But when I read this paragraph this morning my dread turned to excitement that God might be inviting me back to it. Your wanting to be a bridgebuiler was pretty infectious to your little brother and now I have a newfound excitement. So, thank you for that. I had to record my presentation and send it in to be evaluated by the team putting on the conference. I didn’t think they would love it and would want me to change a lot of it. Instead they wrote how transforming that point of view would be to our current political environment. Wow! I want to be a bridge builder too! 🙂

  2. Social Media has allowed us to connect and fellowship with people that we agree with from all over the world instead of learning to live with and love our neighbors many of whom we probably do not.

  3. Really enjoyed listening to this podcast as even though I’m in Australia, we have exactly the same thing going on here. Politics are a joke, money rules over all to gain power, people attack one another for a belief they hold rather than trying to accept each other’s diferences and work together to build the greater good for our nation. Polititions, the media and large corporations are taking sides on minority groups even though real moral issues are at stake all in the name of money and power. I am a peace maker at my vary core and it’s a daily challenge to keep upholding the strength to keep going on – there’s so much anger out there and the one simple answer to it which Jesus and many other great spiritual teachers throughout time have come to teach us “Love” is still a struggle for humans to grasp.

  4. I see a similarity between the politics of Washington and the Church. Two bureaucracies that operate along the rules of the system. Thus, you can have someone go to Washington or become a pastor with hopes and promises of great change, only to get sucked into the system–either willingly or unwillingly.

  5. I would love something to read/view re bridge building. People spend a lot of time in online discussions such as Reddit discussing important and deep issues, but in ways too often that show little respect or grace to those of an opposing position. The more vitriolic and abusive their argument the more up votes they get. Youngish UTube personalities like Milo Yiannopoulos are big influencers of teens and young adults. They are very intelligent and well informed but model a form of communication based on decimating/humiliating those that oppose their view rather than exploring all sides of an issue and understanding their opponent. Sometimes this even comes from pulpits. And this is how we learn to interact. I think we need bridge building skills in families, politics, social media, activist groups, school playgrounds and workplaces. I would love to have been a fly on the wall to see how you facilitated policy decisions in schools to reflect a group consensus.

    Despite these problems, I find some cause for hope. I have become involved with activist groups protesting the proposed building of one of the worlds largest open cut coal mines in my state, close to the Great Barrier Reef and against the wishes of the indigenous owners of the land, with forced appropriation of their land and the land of many nearby farmers and unlimited access to the worlds largest artesian water basin by a company with a very poor environmental history. A very emotive issue as people are pretty desperate for jobs in nearby towns and yet activist groups are being trained to be non violent and polite in their demonstrations and protest letters to the politicians and companies involved.

  6. Bravo! This is such an important and timely conversation.

    Sadly, social media (ref previous Scrivy comment), partisan news, etc., can be an endless source of information to feed confirmation bias.

  7. I have a friend who was asking me about propitiation. I am going to write the following as a response:

    In the kingdoms of this world free will trumps justice. In the kingdom of God, free will and justice walk hand in hand. God requires justice in His kingdom. Where His kingdom exists so does His justice. His kingdom cannot exist where His justice does not. That is why Jesus had to come to Earth in order for His kingdom to come on Earth as it is in Heaven. Man cannot create justice, it comes from God. When man attempts to bring justice in his knowing, it falls short of what God’s justice would be in the situation. Jesus came to Earth to live and die to bring God’s justice through His free will. We just need receive His justice through our free will. When man is one in spirit with God by uniting with the Lord ( I Cor 6:17), then God gives us the ability to provide justice to others through free will.

    The human condition has the perceived need to be satisfied. God does not need to be appeased nor can He be appeased. At least in the way humans reason that a deity should be satisfied. Jesus did not appease God. Jesus provided perfect justice through His own free will. Jesus provides us a way into God’s kingdom. Through Jesus we can be united in spirit with God and by it provide justice to the world through our own free will.

    I was hoping that some of you thoughtful people here would provide comment for me.

    Thanks
    Scrivy

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