Responding to Comments on "A Couple Thoughts" Part 2

AD Robles

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Responding to Comments on "A Couple Thoughts" Part 3

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Here's some more comments regarding my appearance on a couple thoughts podcast this person did not respond to my

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Requests to talk on on video essentially, so maybe he will one day, but it's been about a week or so So I'm just gonna respond to these comments, and we'll go from there

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But anyway these comments are a little bit shorter. We'll move. They're not shorter, but they're a little more focused

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So I'll just go into them and we'll go from there. He starts. He says hey I just listened to the podcast and I would like to push back at a few things that were said about justice

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I will also answer some of the questions asked and statements made about MLK 50 since I was fortunate

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Enough to attend the conference in person. I don't know if I would call that fortunate Anyway biblical here's his first point biblical

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Justice is not defined solely by the Ten Commandments and a few passages on punishment in Leviticus and Deuteronomy See Tim Keller's generous justice for a thorough treatment of the idea of justice through the entire

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OT and NT Dozens and dozens of scriptures are exposited biblical justice includes not only

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Retributive justice and for law -breaking for the Ten Commandments But restorative justice for those who were sinned against see the prophets the

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Gospels and James exclamation point Interestingly Leviticus and Deuteronomy speak to both well.

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I agree, and I think it's kind of ironic that you would Want to talk to a theonomist about the kind of overarching

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Narrative of justice in the Old and New Testaments and it is true. I actually am a theonomist.

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I Know that that's you know, not fashionable these days But yeah, absolutely. He's correct that biblical justice is actually a very well fleshed out thing now

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I want the reason I mentioned the Ten Commandments is because the Ten Commandments are a summary of the law of God essentially

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So if you look at the ten you memorize the Ten Commandments, you'll have a really good foundation for every application of justice

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Every application of justice that you find Leviticus Deuteronomy the book of Proverbs the

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New Testament every single one of them has its root in one of the Ten Commandments And that's why I mentioned the

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Ten Commandments. It's a much more easy summary of the law of God In fact, there's actually an even easier summary

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There's there's actually two commandments that cover the whole ten and also every other law and the two commandments are what

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Jesus said love the Lord your God With all your heart with all your mind with all your strength all that And then the second is like it love your neighbor as yourself.

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If you remember those two, you'll know You'll have the foundations of the Ten Commandments and also every piece of Application of the

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Ten Commandments of God, so he's very right that there's multiple aspects to the law of God.

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It's very It's very thorough and you can see lots of examples of how to apply the

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Ten Commandments and the and God's morality God's justice God's righteousness to everyday situations.

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And so he's actually right about this I think it's kind of funny that he wants to talk to a theonomist about the fully fleshed exhaustive detail of God's justice

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I would agree with him it goes beyond the Ten Commandments and it's much more specific than a lot of people think and so I Agree with you, but I think you're probably challenging the wrong guy on that one.

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Anyway Question one. He says what was being asked of white Christians at the

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MLK 50 conference? I can speak to this because I attended Well, I didn't attend but I did watch a majority of the presentations and I really can't speak to it too much

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But let's see what you have to say He says it is a it is hard to condense a two -day conference into a few sentences

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But reconciliation starts with telling the truth we have to know our history as a nation and the church's complicity in preserving slavery preserving

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Jim Crow laws and preserving segregation even after the Civil Rights era that burden of truth -telling and truth -telling of Truth learning and truth -telling unfortunately falls disproportionately on white people

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Are we willing to rise to the challenge learning that ugly history is helpful to understanding how unjust systems could persist even today?

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Well, I don't see any reason why that falls disproportionately to white people unless you're unless you're saying that white people are more ignorant about history

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This particular history than black people I'd like to see the data on that.

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I'd like to see the receipts on that I'm not the kind of person that would just make a claim like that without evidence or I'm not the kind of person to accept

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A claim like that without evidence So in order for this to be true and for the burden to fall disproportionately on whites

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You'd have to really just assume that whites are just completely ignorant about this kind of history And I don't

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I don't assume that and so maybe there is evidence of this. Maybe there is maybe there isn't I'm not sure But I wouldn't just assume that and he kind of almost challenges white people

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Are we willing to rise to the challenge of truth learning and truth -telling? Well, I hope so I mean if if someone doesn't know about some of this historical stuff

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I think it is helpful to know about the history of things and to see because history, you know Can help us understand where we're at But here's the mistake that this person makes and pretty much everyone at the

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MLK conference made What they do is they want to go from history and then transport you to today and see and it's the same and they say

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It's the same thing going on today. There were segregation in the past and there's still segregation going on today And you know, that's not how it works

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I mean it could be because obviously history has a flow to it and all of that, but it doesn't prove it

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So just because you know about the Jim Crow era just because you know about the evil divert Discrimination of the past does not mean that you have to then accept the future

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He says here that it's helpful to understand how unjust systems could persist even today

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Well, they could persist even today. That's that's very possible. But you have to demonstrate it

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You can't just look at the history learn the history, which we all agree was evil And then say well, therefore it's the same today or similar today

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It doesn't work like that and unfortunately every almost everyone at the MLK 50 conference did that in fact

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Russell Moore's presentation That's all it was. It was this this strategy of talking about the evils of the past and we all agree

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It was evil, but taking that taking the evils from the past does not necessarily mean it's the same way today

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It's just that simple and then he says also to be clear reparations were never Mentioned at the

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MLK 50 conference in the main sessions or any of the breakout sessions that I attended. Okay, that's fine

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Alright question 2 he says What racial sin can we white

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Christians repent of for me? It was repenting of the apathy I had towards racial economic social and educational disparities in the u .s

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This apathy arose from my assumption that economically poor blacks were poor principally due to their own bad decisions

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I had never before considered the possibility that economic and political structures built over centuries could still perpetuate the sins of their creators

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Disadvantaging blacks today. Well, if if you're apathetic towards the plight of poor people whether they're black or white

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Well, that's that is something to repent of I would agree. I would agree with that So I'm glad that you've repented of your apathy.

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However, what he says here is he's Apathetic towards racial economic social and educational disparities.

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Well, what's what's the problem with that? What I mean? Is a disparity of sin

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It could be but it's I mean you need to show me the the receipts on that I mean you mentioned your your knowledge of biblical law

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Well, where in biblical law does it say that a disparity of sin an economic disparity? So if if white people have you know, wealth and income up here, but Native Americans have income down here

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Where in the Bible does it say that that is a sin that needs to be repented of your apathy towards that?

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I Don't think that it is. I think that if you're purposely keeping that Native Americans down Yeah you would have to repent of that if you if you if you're in a hiring position for example this this commenter and and you

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Only hire whites because I don't know. I mean whatever reason you would you would do that Yeah maybe you have something to repent of but but just because you know

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Let's say you're a business owner and and everyone who applies to the job all the best candidates are of one

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Particular particular race. Is that a sin if you hire all the best candidates and they just happen to be all of one race?

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No, it isn't so, you know, yeah I'm glad that you're repenting of your apathy towards the plight of the poor or the downtrodden or whatever

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That's a good thing to you know, repent of but let's not pretend like everyone has is in the same boat

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Yeah, I think a lot of times white people that join this movement will say well I've repented of my apathy.

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So you need to too Not all white people are apathetic At least in my experience.

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They aren't so why would everyone have be in the same boat? There's a lot of projection going on in this movement as well. Everyone everyone seems to think well

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You're in this must be in the same boat as me. I don't think that's necessarily true He says you and your speaker express frustration about non -white people telling you how to feel about racial

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Reconciliation but at several points in the podcast you or your speaker can't seem to understand that feelings the feelings expressed by non -white

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Christians And should suggest that they are wrong to feel that way. Do you see the contradiction here? No No, I don't because I don't first of all,

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I don't remember ever saying that I was mad about non -white people telling whites how to feel

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Because you know, I don't think that that was ever done. I mean it maybe it was I'm not

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I'm not really sure So I don't really even know what he's talking about there But then he says you and your speaker

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Can't seem to understand the feelings expressed by non -white Christians Lean in here for a second

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I'm not white Oops yeah, people do this all the time they assume that I'm white and because I have these opinions and so I Can understand the feelings of non -white

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Christians because I am one now what I can't understand our feelings that don't comport with reality and so that's what

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I was kind of distressed about because because here's the thing a lot of Christians not just you know black or Hispanic Christians But lots of Christians in general white

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Christians as well will say that cops are Shooting up black people like hotcakes and that's how they really feel and so I can understand you feeling that way but I don't understand it when it doesn't comport with reality because all of the numbers that we have say that it's exceedingly rare for for for cops to shoot black people and Not only that but when when they do oftentimes there was a you know legitimate reason not every time obviously

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But sometimes there is legitimate reasons and so So no, I don't see the contradiction there because I'm not lamenting their feelings and people feel how they feel

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But what I'm saying is they shouldn't feel a way that doesn't comport with reality So if you're out there scared of police officers and you're scared

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Oh, I wonder if today's my day to be shot by a cop if that's you Walking through life and you're worried about that I would say well you shouldn't feel that way because it doesn't comport with reality because you're more likely to be struck by lightning and killed than to Be killed by a police officer

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And so we don't we don't walk around outside every day wondering I wonder if today's my day where I'm gonna be struck by lightning if somebody were to do that You would easily recognize that as on you know

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Unrealistic or unreasonable and so if you're walking around scared of cops all day, that's unrealistic.

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That's unreasonable You shouldn't feel that way. And so I don't see any contradiction there and again, not white anyway

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The defense is wrong Are you sure

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I'm positive Last two points we have it says The New Testament not only declares our essential unity in Christ, but also commands us to work for that unity to be realized

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So what Christ accomplishes on the cross still has to be appropriated into our communities even the church brother

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I'm not so sure you want to use that word and that the a word that's that's a bad word in this movement You might want to repent just kidding anyway

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But yeah, but this is this is so true. Like he's he's right I mean because our unity is in Christ all Christians unity is in Christ We recognize that and sometimes that needs to be worked out, you know in our communities here on earth

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And so in the past we had black Christians and we had white Christians and churches were forcefully segregated so white black people couldn't go to white churches in the south or something like that and that was evil and that was wrong that Needed to be addressed.

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But my problem is where is that happening today? Show me the church where they don't allow black members at the communion table

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Show me that church and I'll condemn it with you. But to act like that's a rampant problem today

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I think is just simply dishonest. I Look again show me the church that's doing this that's practicing partiality as part of their theology as part of their

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Communion they don't allow a person like me at the communion table because I'm not white show me that and I will tell you

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I will be with you. I'll work. I'll stand against that with you, but it's just not happening It's just not happening in general.

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So Yeah, he's right. But I just that kind of proves my point. It was where it's like We've already made so much progress here.

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Why are you acting like we haven't and I think I know why it's because of these disparities But disparities don't prove any wrongdoing it could but it isn't necessarily just because you have a church that's mostly white doesn't mean that you're practicing

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Partiality, it's just that simple Anyway, last last comment. He says finally, so we are clear

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Are you and your speaker suggesting that Tim Keller the gospel coalition and the Southern Baptist Convention are all wrong about the issue of racial?

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Reconciliation, I'm sorry racial justice and social justice. Of course, they are not infallible, but this is a big charge to level

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Well, let me make sure I'm looking straight in the camera Yes, that's exactly what

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I'm contending And you said it yourself. These aren't the Pope's, you know, this is not like the Pope of evangelicalism

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And I respect these brothers I think that they're right on a lot of things but they are dead wrong about this and I think obviously so And so yes to make to no uncertain terms

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I think the gospel coalition the Southern Baptist Convention and Tim Keller are wrong about this issue absolutely unequivocally

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Dead wrong unbiblical about this issue. They are perverting the scriptures in this issue

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This is something that's hurting the church. These people are actually hurting the church while they're attempting to heal it

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And so yes that I hope that's clear enough for you. I absolutely think they're wrong I don't think

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I'm smarter than these guys. I don't think I'm better than these guys or anything like that I think that in that in this issue

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I have more foundationally biblical assumptions than they than than they do Anyway, I hope this was helpful.