懸賞：拒絕被歸類的基督徒WANTED: CHRISTIANS WHO DEFY CATEGORIES
作者：Trevin Wax 譯者：駱鴻銘
https://yibaniba.blogspot.com/2017/03/wanted-christians-who-defy-categories.html
https://blogs.thegospelcoalition.org/trevinwax/2017/03/07/wanted-christians-who-defy-categories/
http://www.crtsbooks.net/blog/post/2017/03/11/WANTED_CHRISTIANS_WHO_DEFY_CATEGORIES.aspx#comment

https://plus.google.com/u/0/105106813742373627205/posts/CEg2Q42CzE1

當唐納·川普贏得了總統選舉時，我請我的編者暫停編輯的工作，以防萬一我需要對《就是現在》（This is Our Time；暫譯）一書作最後的修改。When Donald Trump won the presidency, I asked my editor to hold the presses in case I needed to make some last-minute changes to This Is Our Time.

在其中的一章，「在人的城裏總是如坐針氈」，我提出忠告，說明基督徒在政治領域裏如何能對耶穌保持忠心。選舉過後，我重讀了這章的每一個字，思索著在川普得勝的情況下，有什麼需要修正的地方。兩天後，我告訴我的編者：「我一字未改。」在那章裏的真理仍然適用，比起在歐巴馬的時代，甚至有過之而無不及。In one of the chapters, “Never ‘at Home’ in the City of Man,” I offer counsel on how Christians can be faithful to Jesus in the political sphere. After the election, I reread every word of that chapter, considering what should be revised in light of Trump’s victory. Two days later, I let my editor know: “I didn’t change a thing.” The truths in that chapter were just as applicable, if not more so, than they had been in the Obama era.

落入政治的窠臼Falling Into Political Ruts

五個月後，我越來越渴望見到一種拒絕被歸類的基督徒見證。Five months later, I long more and more for a Christian witness that defies political categories.

很不幸，我們對政黨的依戀會讓我們很難發出真正的先知之聲。我們經常會落入到一些政治化的窠臼裏。一直以來，我們的想像力是被黨派的羈絆所塑造的，到一個程度，很難聽見聖經用活潑的話語，如醍醐灌頂般地對我們說話。Unfortunately, our attachments to political parties make it challenging to be truly prophetic. We fall back into politicized ruts. Our imaginations have been shaped by our partisan affiliations, to the point it becomes difficult to hear the Bible break in with a fresh word.

例如：有些基督徒對近日的難民限制感到憤恨不平，因為這明顯是不公不義的，但是碰到墮胎的議題時，卻會拐彎說「這件事很複雜」。其他基督徒的立場則完全相反。很感恩的是，有些基督徒拒絕黨派的界線，在他們自己本地的教會和社區裡，同時向那些遭難的母親和正在被重新安置的難民展現憐憫。但是更常見的是那些只會跟著政黨路線起舞的立場，即使在這兩件事上會危害到人的尊嚴。即便所有的人都不以為意，我們也應該對這種以「複雜性」為藉口，把它當作問「誰是我的鄰舍」的方法的傾向，有高度的警覺。For example, some Christians are outraged about what they see as clear injustice in recent refugee restrictions, but will appeal to “complexity” when it comes to abortion. Other Christians do the opposite. Thankfully, some Christians defy party lines and in their local churches and communities demonstrate mercy and compassion to mothers in distress and refugees being resettled. But more frequently, these positions fall along party lines, even if human dignity is at stake in both. And even if we, of all people, should be intensely aware of the tendency to fall back into “complexity” as a way of asking “Who is my neighbor?”

紐約大學社會心理學家海特（Jonathan Haidt）解釋這是如何運作的：「人們把自己和有著同樣道德故事的政治團體綁在一起。一旦他們接受了某種特定的故事，他們對其他的道德世界就會變得盲目。」Jonathan Haidt explains how it works: “People bind themselves into political teams that share moral narratives. Once they accept a particular narrative, they become blind to alternative moral worlds.”

接下來會怎樣呢？若我們的「道德世界」（moral world）更多是由我們所屬的政黨、而不是由聖經來塑造的，我們就會發現，當那些屬於我們的政治聯盟的人採取一種和我們不同的立場時，我們很容易就會忽略、或是把基督徒信念推得一干二淨。我們會成為由共和黨或民主黨所塑造的幻想的俘虜。我們需要耶穌基督的國度眼光來打破黨派政治，撼動我們黨派的藩籬。What happens next? If our “moral world” is formed more by our political party than by Scripture, we will find it easier to overlook or explain away aspects of Christian conviction when people who are part of our political coalition take a different stance. We will be captive to imaginations shaped by the Republican or Democrat parties. We need the kingdom vision of Jesus Christ to break through and rattle the walls of our party politics.

拒絕被歸類的君王A King Who Defied Categories

我們所代表的是一位拒絕被歸類的君王。祂始終如一地提高祂如何應用舊約律法的標準，祂所要求的公義，遠超過假冒為善的法利賽人和宗教領袖所要求的。然而祂對罪人卻展現出最深的同情。We represent a King who defied categories. He consistently raised the bar in how he applied the Old Testament laws, demanding righteousness that far exceeded the hypocritical Pharisees and religious leaders. And yet he demonstrated the utmost compassion for the sinner.

一方面，耶穌對離婚採取一種連門徒都感到震驚的強硬立場，以至於連門徒都想知道是否最好不要結婚。另一方面，祂公開地、且滿有恩典地和一位結婚多次的撒瑪利亞婦人說話，或是充滿同情地與一位被人逮到正在通姦的婦人互動。這是一位一邊在聖殿裏翻倒桌子，拿著鞭子把人趕出聖殿，一邊卻迎接瞎眼的和瘸腿的人進入全能上帝院宇的人。On the one hand, Jesus could take such a hard-line stance against divorce that even the disciples were shocked and wondered if it were better not to marry. On the other, he could speak openly and graciously with a many-times-married Samaritan woman, or act with compassion to the woman caught in adultery. Here is Someone who in one moment was turning over tables in the temple and driving people out with a whip, and in the next was welcoming the blind and the lame into the courts of God Almighty.

拒絕被歸類的教會A Church That Defies Categories

和耶穌一樣，我們也應當拒絕被分門別類。透過我們的教會和在我們社區中的見證，我們應該拒絕一些刻板印象，並斬除一切的偏見。Like Jesus, we should defy categories. Our witness through our churches and in our communities should defy stereotypes and shut down prejudices.

基督徒在一個獎勵侮辱的世界裏，應當以追求榮譽而著稱。我們在一個只知道捏造事實的世界裏，應該以喜愛真理而著稱。我們在一個拜倒在魅力之下的世界中，應當以追求信念而著稱。Christians are to be known for honor in a world that rewards insults. We are to be known for truth in a world that knows only spin. We are to be known for conviction in a world that falls for charisma.

犧牲信念而追求政治權勢就是投降To sacrifice conviction for political power is capitulation.

或許你會以為我是在呼籲基督徒「不要加入政黨」或「遠離政治」。我不是。ou may think I am calling for Christians to be “non-partisan” or “apolitical.” I am not.

我是呼籲基督徒要以不同的方式從事政治，在眾多的領域作鹽作光，而不是只在那些能幫助我們在我們所屬政黨裏升到高位的領域作鹽作光。譬如說，當寇爾森（Chuck Colson）為監獄改革而發聲時，他並不擔心會被那些宗教右派人士標籤為「對犯罪行為手軟」。他堅定地站穩他的立場，因為他的良心是由基督徒的倫理觀所塑造的。I am calling for Christians to engage in politics differently, as salt and light in multiple areas, not just in the ones that help us rise in the ranks of the party we belong to. For example, when Chuck Colson advocated for prison reform, he wasn’t worried about being labeled “soft on crime” by those on the right. He took the position he did because his conscience was formed by Christian ethics.

既勇敢又謙卑Bold and Humble

今年我要把魯益士（C. S. Lewis）的信件讀完一遍，我已經讀到1939年和二戰的開始。魯益士拒絕對英國教會的崇拜禮儀進行更改，因為這個更改要求信徒把聯軍視為正義之師，而為聯軍禱告。魯益士對這種假定感到不安，即使他的兄弟才剛剛被召去服役。I’m reading through C. S. Lewis’s letters this year, and I’ve arrived at 1939 and the start of World War II. Lewis opposed a change to the Church of England’s liturgy that would have asked for prayer for the Allies’ cause as righteous. Lewis felt uncomfortable in presuming such a thing, even as his brother had just been called up for duty.

如果是師出有名，必然是為了抵抗納粹這個戰爭機器，不是嗎？但是即便真是如此，魯益士也感到這是踏入到一個危險的領域，是在假定我們通曉全能者對這個衝突的想法。他的疑慮提醒我，林肯曾經說過，「我關心的不是上帝是否站在我們這邊，而是我是否站在上帝那邊，因為上帝永遠是對的。」If there was ever a righteous cause, surely it was defending against the Nazi war machine, right? But even if that was the case, Lewis felt it was stepping into dangerous territory to assume to know the mind of the Almighty on the conflict. His hesitation reminds me of Abraham Lincoln, who once said, “My concern is not whether God is on our side, but whether I am on God’s side, for God is always right.”

在這種疑慮中，有真正的謙卑。在這種忠心而不自以為是的渴望裏，即使知道我們有可能有所誤解卻仍然大膽行動，有真正的智慧。There’s humility in that hesitation. There’s wisdom in that desire to be faithful without presumption, to act boldly even though we know we may get things wrong.

若我們想要在下個世代中拒絕被分門別類，我們就應該時刻感到自己乃是身在這個世界，卻不屬於這個世界；我們身在美國，卻不屬於美國；身在一個政黨，卻不屬於一個政黨。擁抱這種張力不是軟弱，而是忠心。If we are going to defy the categories in the next generation, then we should always feel in the world but not of the world, in America but not of America, in a political party but not of a political party. Embracing that tension is not weakness, but faithfulness.