Dr Paul Allen

In conversations about race, too often we treat disagreement as evil, and we attribute the worst motives to those who disagree with us on complex issues. This is the way the world responds to disagreement, but Christians should be different. What follows are some balancing principles to remember in the wake of George Floyd’s tragic death, and the current turmoil that has come as a result of it: To grieve and lament over the tragic death of George Floyd is not an affirmation of the cultural narrative .  Jesus wept over Lazarus but for different reasons, which were unbeknownst to the on-looking professional mourners (Jn 11:35).  The issue is how and why we grieve.  Satan has always attempted to infiltrate the Church and lure her away at points where the world seems to share a common cause (2 Cor 11:14-15).  He is both a liar and a murderer from the beginning (Jn 8:44).  He is behind George Floyd’s death, and he is also behind the cunning cultural narrativ...

There are a lot of enemies to community out there, but maybe none greater than the consumer mentality .  Consumerism is a supremely narcissistic worldview in which everything’s value is determined by it’s usefulness to me.  I stand at the center while everything and everyone orbits around me. Sound familiar to you at all?  While the consumer mentality may fuel our economy it doesn’t do anything positive for the community God wants to form in our life. Consumerism in our relationship can look like this: When my husband no longer meets my needs I discard him and get a new relationship. When my friends no longer stroke my ego I discard them and get a new group of friends. When my church doesn’t meet my needs I’ll leave it and find a new church to attend. When my wife isn’t meeting my immediate needs for intimacy I will just engage is disposable intimacy called pornography. When someone get’s in the way of my agenda, I’ll run over them with no regard to their...

Image via Wikipedia Only two groups of people seem to be getting a kick out of the rioting in England. Firstly the rioters themselves, the nihilistic urban youth who are getting cheap thrills from looting shops, bashing bus stops, and burning down houses. And secondly middle-class radicals, trustafarians who live off daddy's cash, who get a rush of political adrenalin whenever they see blacks burning stuff because it shows that "the oppressed are fighting back!" These two sections of British society might look and sound very different from each other, with the former more likely to wear tracksuits and trainers and to speak in urban cockney slang, while the latter is usually decked out in skinny jeans and tortoise-shell glasses and speaks with an easy-to-spot "mockney" twang. But they share some important traits, helping to explain their weird meeting of minds over recent riotous behaviour. Firstly, neither side contributes a great deal to everyday society, t...