Hemmed in by Ungodly Forces

The following is an excerpt of a 7 December 2014 email exchange between Art and Will. It should be noted that, since 1 November 2014, all Art's emails have originated from Farthington's account.



I like your statement that the challenge of human dignity being that so little of it is dignified.

Isn't that the same question we have for God: Why did you give us freedom if this is what we were going to do with it? And yet, our Creator didn't see it that way...apparently, he saw our potential, a mirror of his own character. But what we do with that freedom does not diminish God's rightness about us. And I think in postmodern times we've set out to find out just how right God was. Not with foregone or inherited conclusions, but by suspending all that temporarily in order to find out for ourselves. Is God who he says he is? Are we who God says we are?

There are, as you say, benefits of being oppressed. For example, the Cubans are apparently in excellent health because they undereat and need to walk everywhere, which is due to their poverty, which is due to the regime. But just because oppression has some side benefits for the oppressed does not mean we would wish oppression on ourselves or others. On the contrary, full human maturity and dignity can only be considered in the context of the radical freedom God has so gratuitously given us.

I agree that some nobility can be seen in situations of oppression, but that is against the backdrop of oppression, not stemming from it. But too often we allow ourselves to be hemmed in by ungodly forces because we doubt our willingness to respond to the Gospel and the radical freedom it proclaims.

And examples of its misuse abound. Still God continues to call us to live according to his image of us.