The Forgotten Victims: An Exciting Theological Conversation
February 17, 2012
Anyone who has studied the path which theology has followed over the last century will know that the concept of victimhood is absolutely central. Indeed, it has generated some of the most creative theology of the last hundred years. Auschwitz and the victims of the Holocaust inspired The Crucified God by Jurgen Moltmann. Poverty and the victims of economic oppression inspired Leonardo Boff's Jesus Christ Liberator. Sexism and the victimization of women inspired Elizabeth Schussler Fiorenza's In Memory of Her. Segregation and the victims of racism inspired James Cone's God of the Oppressed. Ethnic cleansing and the victims of civil war inspired Miroslav Volf's Exclusion and Embrace.
Holocaust victims, economic victims, gender victims, race victims and war victims. That is an impressive list. But there is one important category of victims missing. Missing until now, that is.
Thanks to Pastor Ed Young, these forgotten victims now have a voice. Yes, Ed is speaking up on behalf of the silent ones, the forgotten ones - the fashion victims.
Over at pastorfashion.com, Ed has reached out to those who have suffered marginalization and prejudice for years because of the bigotry of a society that cannot understand why one would ever wear brown shoes and a light grey suit with a plaid shirt and knitted tie.
I am sure that the cynical and the haters will find it easy to satirise Ed's new venture (actually, I don't think they'll find it that easy - DelBoy) but how many of us have not been stumped while witnessing to non-Christian friends when they ask the tough theodicy questions such as `If reformed theology is true, why do your womenfolk all wear those denim pinafore things?' and the simple but devastating 'How can a God of love allow librarians?' -- a question as challenging today as it was at the moment Bertrand Russell first posed it to Frederick Copleston in their famous radio debate.
Now, thanks to Ed, the forgotten victims have a voice and the rest of us have an exciting apologetic resource. And don't forget -- as Ed himself says, 'We're not trying to be like the world.... We just want to be fashionable while we change.'
Holocaust victims, economic victims, gender victims, race victims and war victims. That is an impressive list. But there is one important category of victims missing. Missing until now, that is.
Thanks to Pastor Ed Young, these forgotten victims now have a voice. Yes, Ed is speaking up on behalf of the silent ones, the forgotten ones - the fashion victims.
Over at pastorfashion.com, Ed has reached out to those who have suffered marginalization and prejudice for years because of the bigotry of a society that cannot understand why one would ever wear brown shoes and a light grey suit with a plaid shirt and knitted tie.
I am sure that the cynical and the haters will find it easy to satirise Ed's new venture (actually, I don't think they'll find it that easy - DelBoy) but how many of us have not been stumped while witnessing to non-Christian friends when they ask the tough theodicy questions such as `If reformed theology is true, why do your womenfolk all wear those denim pinafore things?' and the simple but devastating 'How can a God of love allow librarians?' -- a question as challenging today as it was at the moment Bertrand Russell first posed it to Frederick Copleston in their famous radio debate.
Now, thanks to Ed, the forgotten victims have a voice and the rest of us have an exciting apologetic resource. And don't forget -- as Ed himself says, 'We're not trying to be like the world.... We just want to be fashionable while we change.'
