Daniel Hudgins

Friday, October 31, 2003

Lipscomb Seminar

Culture and Discipleship

        Sometimes a particular culture influenced its members’ Christian discipleship.  In the case of Clarence Jordan it was the Southern Bible-Belt religion that skewed the view of discipleship.  The whites shunned individuals that were of another race, namely black people, and so, the blacks of the community made their own churches.  Sadly, those instances of separation in the church still exist today.

        Clarence Jordan mentioned several instances in which people in his church were influenced by their culture and not by their beliefs.  On page 91 of Biography as theology, the author tells a story of a man in Clarence’s church named Warden McDonald.   One night, Clarence heard Warden torturing a black convict named Ed Russell.  Ironically, Warden had been singing the esteemed hymn “Love Lifted Me” just hours earlier (1).  Apparently McDonald’s “Church switch” was set to “off” at the time he tortured that man because he had just finished praising the Lord with song and prayer, and then he committed that heinous act of torture.  

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Of course, Warden McDonald is not representative of every church member today, but there are still a select few just like him.  Research shows that most hate crimes are committed by good, law-abiding individuals who somehow find a way to justify their actions (2).   A member of the church might be seen as a good, law-abiding person.  So, then the question is, can one infer that most hate crimes are caused by members of the church?  The answer appears to be “yes”.  That is not to say that all church members are guilty of committing a hate crime, but ...

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