Yeah, that’s the book I’m nearly done.

And that’s the same book that I don’t know what to do with.

Sigh.

Here’s a few pieces…

The first is a quote from a fellow named Duane Clinker:

“As humans, we inherit a certain history. We inherit sin caused by decisions made in previous eras. We inherit a sort of sin ‘frozen’ into the institutions and social arrangements within which we are birthed.”

A discussion of systemic evil could run for months. But I note that it’s a topic seldom addressed within circles where I’ve grown up. However, once the concept is unveiled, there is no denying the reality of such systems and powers within our world.

With that on the table, let’s add this bit from one David Lowes Watson:

“Only a fraction of our sins are personal. By far, the greater part are sins of neglect, sins of default, our social sin, our systemic sin, our economic sin. For these sins Christ died, and continues to die. For these sins Christ atoned, and continues to atone…. As long as evangelism presents a gospel centered on the need for personal salvation, individuals will acquire a faith that focuses on maximum benefits with minimal obligations, and we will change the costly work of Christ’s atonement into the pragmatic transaction of a salvific contract…. The sanctifying grace of God in Jesus Christ is meant not just for the sinner but also for a society beset by structural sin.”

Perhaps that section speaks more loudly to me (working within a church setting) than to the average citizen. It strikes a chord with me, but the tone that resonates doesn’t leave me with a sense of clarity of where to go now, as I often long for.

Let’s add the ever-solid voice of John Stott. These words were written over 25 years ago:

What will posterity see as the chief Christian blind spot of the last quarter of the twentieth century? … I suspect it will have something to do with the economic oppression of the Third World and the readiness with which western Christians tolerate it, and even acquiesce in it. Only slowly is our Christian conscience being aroused to the gross economic inequalities between the countries of the North Atlantic and the southern world of Latin America, Africa, and most parts of Asia. Total egalitarianism may not be a biblical ideal. But must we not roundly declare that luxury and extravagance are indefensible evils, while much of the world is undernourished and underprivileged.”

That’s three little bits. If you’ve read the book yourself, you may understand the “head-spinning-feeling-swamped” kind of feeling I have right now. I’m left with little else but…

What do we do with this, my friends?

I mean, where do we start at being part of the solution? And how do we use our influence (small as it may be) to multiply our efforts?