I am on record here as disagreeing with Jim Wallis in strong terms, about his treading dangerously into confusing his political assumptions with his Christian assumptions, including just this Thursday and Saturday, before I, at any rate, had heard anything about the current controversy.
On The Other Hand, Jim Wallis has been enormously generous to a young friend of mine - the one I asked you to pray for this year when he was near death. Tim is in fact the frequently-quoted spokesman for Sojourners coming forth with the information that the organization did, in fact, receive money from Soros. (Accounts describe Tim as doing this quite nicely, BTW, which gratified me, who would tend to see all references to him from something close to his parents' POV.) Jim took my friend into his home when there was no one else to care for him, and later opened his home to Tim's mother as well, when she went down to care for her son.
Tim is speaking at our church - the church he grew up in - this coming Sunday.
Yes the eternal question about what to do with Christian friends & relatives whom we love but are veering ever further into the heterodox. Something I deal with very often myself. At what point do you stop considering them Christians, has been my question throughout. Not to go into too much detail here.
ReplyDeleteMy grandmother had a brother who became a Mormon. Although he has been dead for years, there is still a lot of frustration in her voice when she talks about him.
Although I should qualify - my relatives aren't veering into the lefty social-justice emergent etc camp. So it might be a bit of a different situation.
ReplyDeleteI don't think "veering into the heterodox" is exactly the point of the post, Anna. When someone with whom you have profound differences - moral ones, not just differences of opinion - does something that displays generosity or nobility of character, it's good to take special notice of it. It prevents disagreement from starting to curdle into hate. At least it has been so for me.
ReplyDeleteI hadn't heard about this kerfuffle before now, and I'm afraid Wallis's words don't make me think better of him than I did. But I'm glad to hear that he is good to your friend Tim, AVI. People are complicated.
jaed, my relatives are veering into the heterodox, not AVI's friends. Maybe we see different shades of meaning in the post due to different life circumstances.
ReplyDeleteI was referring to the ambivalence that happens when someone that we have deep disagreements with is still our friend, it is a muddy situation. I don't think the author would disagree with that.
Not to beat a dead horse too much but this is where I am coming from: relationships between Christians are arguably biblically mandated to be somehow different from regular friendships, there is the essence of fellowship among other things. If you have friends/relatives with whom you have fundamental theological disagreements with, the muddiness comes from, when am I no longer able to have that deeper relationship. I don't know what AVI's situation is (and don't know much about Jim Wallis) but I am certainly at or past that point with my relatives.
ReplyDeleteThanks AVI, here is the testimonial I wrote that my mom sent you the draft of. I think I clarified that sentence in paragraph 9 that you mentioned. http://blog.sojo.net/2010/08/30/why-i%E2%80%99m-at-sojourners/
ReplyDeleteI'm glad that you can simultaneously critique and still appreciate Sojourners/Jim's sincerity and Christian commitment.
See, that's why I have confidence in Tim. Nicely said.
ReplyDelete(I can't seem to see that post. If I go to the URL direct, or click "Continue Reading" on the main page, I get a blank page. Source window is also blank.)
ReplyDeletehmmm... it looks like a few of the posts on the blog aren't working right now. we've been having some problems with our servers.
ReplyDelete