The Ministry of Reconciliation

http://www.thegracelifepulpit.com

We return once again to our study of Paul’s Second Letter to the Corinthians, so turn with me in your Bibles to 2 Corinthians chapter 5. We live in a time when it seems that just about everybody is offended by just about everything. If not everybody, then certainly this generation’s crop of 18 to 25 year-olds, along with their sympathizers. And if you talk to these people—or follow them on social media—you can barely go a day without hearing declarations of, “I am so offended by that!” or “Oh my goodness, that’s so offensive!” And that tends to be the end of any rational argument or debate. As soon as someone declares that someone else is offensive or that they themselves have been offended by something someone has said, well the discussion’s over. Our society has bought into the lie that the more offended or outraged someone is by something, the more justified and above questioning they are.

For example, in the last few years, the student Senate at UC Santa Barbara passed a resolution that calls for mandatory “trigger warnings.” Trigger warnings are little notes that professors have to put on their syllabus and course notes indicating when lectures or other material will include “readings or films or discussions that might trigger feelings of emotional or physical distress.” Such things include books that discuss—note, not support, but merely discuss—colonialism, racism, religious prejudice, and war and violence. A student at Rutgers, the university I graduated from, recently wrote an article in the school paper suggesting that study of the book, The Great Gatsby should require trigger warnings about violence and gore...