Empires are impersonal. Trading in statistics, quotas, and mis-information, they entice us into embracing a falsification of the real and authentic. We tremble at the call to resist and fear the prospect of an exile from the facts, figures, and calculations. Threatened by the radical turn to a personal relationality and a potential loss of an assumed sense of equilibrium, we are then comfortably recycled back into the flow of the Empires. To leave Empire ways behind is a continual challenge, but the stakes are high, as a fear of failure to engage with people, to be personal and relational towards the other, will silence our ability to speak, to hear, and to love.
Monday, April 11, 2011
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2 comments:
Greg,
I think that one deceptive scheme of empire is that they rarely make themselves visible. Yes, they are present and active, we often live under their "reign," but rarely do we recognize this. We need the illumination of Christ and Scripture to expose their existence and influence in our lives.
Rhett
Rhett,
Thanks. That's true. The sometimes subtle deception of empire can have us in its grip when we aren't even aware of it.
While we do need Christ and Scripture to uncover the covert, we still face the problem that these two exposers can tend, in some cases, to be aligned with and connected to the empire itself. And then what?
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