A Peaceful, Christian Way

Frankfort, Kentucky's progressive Baptist pastor, Chuck Queen, has written a book on the Christian life that is based on the peaceful message and life of Jesus. The 168 page paperback is called, A Faith Worth Living: The Dynamics of an Inclusive Gospel. Saying that Jesus proclaimed the kingdom of God, Queen says that that kingdom "pertains mostly to a transformed earth, a world healed and at peace, sustained by distributive, restorative justice, not another-world reality."

Queen even has a chapter called, "God's Dream for the World," that encompasses the peaceful kingdom. There he writes:

The prophets envisaged a new world of restorative justice and peace. It was against this backdrop that Jesus announced the good news of God's reign. Jesus infused the concept with a more expansive, flexible, and dynamic meaning (in some passages "kingdom of God" simply functions as a intensive symbol for the healing, transforming power of God), yet his vision was firmly grounded in the eschatalogical hope of Israel's classic prophets and their portrayal of a new society freed from poverty, oppression, and violence.

Obviously, there are deep inner, spiritual and personal dimensions to the good news of God reigning in the world. In order to have transformed systems, institutions, and communities, the individuals who constitute and lead them must be transformed. This is why Jesus talked about dying to the ego, about being born anew, about being pure in heart, and about hungering and thirsting after righteousness/justice. The call to repent, in light of the present/coming of God, was a call to stop living for self-glory, self-honor, and self-fulfillment, and to live for the good of all humankind and all creation.

Queen writes about  the unpopular notion of forgiveness:

The only thing that can possibly break the cycle of hate, violence, and retaliation in our world is forgiveness. There can be no reconstruction, no reconciliation, no coming together and healing of persons and nations, without forgiveness. But forgiveness is a hard sell. It defies all reason, logic and worldly standards of worthiness. But without forgiveness there can be no future. We have hurt each other in too many ways. 

...

Albert Einstein said that the world's problems cannot be solved at the same level of thinking that caused them. Forgiveness reflects a new level of thinking. It enables us to let go of all our grievances, to transcend all our differences, and to see the other as our sister and brother in the family of God. 

Queen also writes about those of other faiths, "It's good for us who are Christians, in our little part of the world, to realize that God has many daughters and sons besides us."

This little book packs a lot. It encompasses some of my previous reading in one place in a very succinct and enjoyable manner. (See my Beautiful Books tab above.) Queen even includes anecdotes and movies in his writing.