After finishing the first chapter of John Howard Yoder's Body Politics, I think it is safe to say that I like Yoder's writing more than Thurman's or Wilson-Hartgrove's so far. I'm not really sure why, except that this chapter was shorter and possibly more concise than the other two. There were a couple of things that stood out to me in this chapter:
1) Yoder calls people out. Most of the time when people disagree with others, they pussyfoot around the issue. "Well, that's not what I believe, but if you want to belive it, then that's up to you." I do that all the time, and in a world where tolerance is emphasized, it's hard to actively disagree with someone else without being called a bigot. Yoder, on the other hand, makes no bones about disagreeing with various Christian denominations. "The high Catholic view is wrong...the high liberal Protestant view is wrong...the high Protestant scholastic view is wrong..." It's refreshing to read someone who's actually willing to make some enemies, or at least shake people up a little.
2) I really enjoyed Yoder's continual reference to the proper way of addressing sin within a community. The biblical process of bringing a person's sin to that person first, in private, and then continuing on from there is one I have wished was more widely used. As a camp counselor for middle school girls, I have had to promote this idea more than once. If you stick eight 14-year old girls in the same cabin for a week, there is likely to be some friction. Since the usual reaction in the case of a conflict with one person is to talk about it with anyone except the offender first, the process Jesus describes in Matthew 16 can seem unnatural at first. However, it is ultimately much more useful in resolving problems than gossip.
I remember one situation when two high school aged girls were both interested in the same male camper. Camp romances aren't something I encourage anyway, but all day I had been hearing from one girl (let's call her Tina) how another girl (let's call her Sally) had been flirting with the boy she was interested in, and seemed to think she had some claim to. Now, with all judgments of the appropriateness of Sally's behavior aside, the issue I had to deal with was two girls in my cabin, fighting. Finally it came to a head when Sally was out of the cabin and Tina was once again railing against what she perceived as a wrong against herself, in full hearing of the rest of the cabin. The following conversation then took place:
Me: Tina, have you talked to Sally about this?
Tina: No, but she's hanging out with him and I...
Me: Then you have to talk to Sally about it before you talk about it to anyone else.
The whole idea of "she wronged me, let me tell you about it" is pretty common, but deadly to both the one hurt and the one doing the hurting. If we are going to reconcile with others, we have to be able to approach them personally.
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It is so much easier to sit around and complain to others about what someone else has done against you. I notice it in myself sometimes, usually complaining about something a roommate did or how some teacher is unjust, when as a Christian what I should be doing is just talking to the person I think has wronged me. Yoder does a good job of convicting his readers on this subject, making me realize how incredibly important forgiveness and confrontation is.
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