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RECONCILIATION OUR GREATEST CHALLENGE- OUR ONLY HOPE Jimmy St. Peter The book Reconciliation: Our Greatest Challenge-Our Only Hope, by Curtiss Paul DeYoung, is an insider’s look at the challenges, realizations, and process toward reconciliation. In chapter one, the reader is informed about the “dividing walls” that limit our reconciliation attempts, both in and outside the church. The five “dividing walls” DeYoung identifies include: isolation, injustice, exhaustion, betrayal, and denial. The author also warns against the challenges of superiority, more precisely tokenism and assimilation. Following these “two pillars,” DeYoung explores three feelings (inferiority, rage, and fear) that “produce the hostility that is elicited by attempts to impose superiority” (p.18). DeYoung asks the reader to consider “Which Jesus is the Real Jesus?” in order to discover the barriers that hinder reconciliation. DeYoung touches on the dichotomies within the Church’s portrayal of Jesus. The reader is faced with many opposites: for example, “the rich Jesus or the poor Jesus,” and “the Protestant Jesus or the Catholic Jesus?” According to the author, these questions about Jesus “get to the heart of the issue: our lack of reconciliation” or our inability to see both sides which limits the path toward reconciliation (p. 38). In chapter four, we again focus on Jesus, his thoughts as well as his teaching on reconciliation. Throughout chapters five and six, the author proposes a path toward reconciliation. DeYoung helps the reader understand the mindset needed to make reconciliation a reality. Following these two chapters, the remaining chapters provide insights to the processes of reconciliation. In the epilogue we read that the time for reconciliation is now; however, we should be prepared for a “life-long journey.” Throughout the book I was impressed with the stories DeYoung used to help the reader understand his message for a particular situation or chapter. My favorite story, in chapter three, describes Sojourner Truth’s dispute “with some clergymen,” concerning the equality of women (p. 31). The clergymen were saying that God didn’t show the equality of women through the birth and death of Jesus. Truth responded with the question, “Where did your Christ come from?” The clergymen had no response so she said, “From God and a women! Man had nothing to do with it.” This was humorous, but at the same time very true! The book helped open my eyes to the fact that problems in society cannot be resolved by just addressing them then avoiding them. The book did not deal only with racism. It dealt with many social problems including sexism, classism, and other barriers including hatred, prejudice, etc. I found the “holistic mind-set” for reconciliation most intriguing; one must realize that each of these areas are vital to a ministry of reconciliation. Without including all voices in the dialogue as part of the process of reconciliation, we undermine viable resolutions to the problem. The fact that both sides of an issue are needed for resolution is central to the true path of reconciliation. Any movement toward a resolution would be impossible without both sides working together to produce a solution to the problem. DeYoung is right! The time for reconciliation has come, and as Christians, we should live a life that embodies this process. Jesus is a model for reconciliation, as he is for love. I believe that without love, reconciliation is impossible, and vice versa. As followers of Jesus Christ, we are called to live a life of reconciliation and love. Reconciliation may be a “life-long journey,” but now is the time to start! |
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