Fred Peatross reviews JiTB at New Wineskins. Thank you, Fred, for an introspective look into this book. Here are a few excerpts:
Every year when Father’s Day and Christmas appear on the
calendar my children complain about the difficulty they have shopping
for me a gift. There’s good reason for that. I live in prosperity. If I
see something I want, no reason to delay my gratification. Why do that
when I can jump in my Honda Accord or browse the ‘net and make the
purchase the same day? I have everything I want and more.
In Justice in the Burbs,
Will and Lisa Samson give the reader close to 200 pages of conversation
on how to live a quiet life that champions justice, whether it be in
the suburb, the city, or at a City Mission Hall in an urban
environment. This is an important book that deftly creates a vision for
living justly.
and
The question I have to ask myself is this: have I fallen
to a lifestyle of opulence and comfort complicated by a whirlwind of
“activity?” Have I been drugged by the “American way?” Have I fallen to
what most of America would call “normal” through the osmosis of
cultural influence? Have I been anesthetized and blinded to the
realities of the injustices I walk past everyday? But the more
important question is this.
Have I suppressed any sense of need for my involvement in the lives of those suffering under oppression and injustice?
This
story could be repeated thousands of times, by thousands of families
across America. We live in a culture of prosperity, which has served as
an anesthetic—paralyzing and blinding us to both poverty and need. In
the ‘busyness-of-our-nothingness’ we focus on “our own heartaches and
needs.”
But how can a Christ follower be as blind to something as important to God as justice?
There's more at the link.
Fred Peatross is a Christian who lives and worships in
Huntington, West Virginia. He has been a deacon, a missionary to the
former Soviet Union, a pulpit minister, and shepherd. Fred has written
three books. He is married to a dietitian, and is the father of three
college children. Fred makes "ordinary attempts" to evangelize through
relational acts of kindness and enjoys praying behind his friends'
backs as he journeys with them as a spiritual explorer and sometimes
guide. He avidly creates safe-places for the pre-Christian. Check out Fred's blog.
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