What if redemption doesn’t look like a comeback?

"This pandemic will change us, change our economy, our culture, our priorities, our personal lives. That we cannot avoid. But let’s remember: One day we will tell our grandchildren how we lived, how we loved, during the Great Pandemic. Let’s respect human life in such a way that we will not be ashamed to tell them the truth." -Russell Moore

After hearing the president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission interviewed on Typology last week I was very intrigued to check out Russell Moore's recent op-ed in the New York Times entitled "God Doesn't Want Us to Sacrifice the Old." Moore was not what I expected and he really got my brain processing in overdrive--also known as LOTS of questions. So I'd highly recommend reading his piece! If NYT has put it behind a paywall by the time you read this, feel free to reach out to me as I saved a PDF.

Are there gradations on the sanctity of human life? Picking and choosing who’s life has more monetary value is such a sadly American thing to do. I’ve read too many slave records to know what a dangerous game to start putting a price on individual lives for the sake of the economy. It doesn't end well.

Are we ironically willing to sacrifice the lives of the “greatest generation” whose lives were shaped and forever marked by the Great Depression? The very people that have the most to teach us on how to live, survive, and thrive in tough times and how to work in unity to rise together.

To channel some Wendell Berry, what or who is the economy for? What does it say about the younger generations seeking a fast escape, instant fix, wanting to jump out of the pot before the process is finished or lessons learned? There is much to slowness that is shaping. The crucible is painful but it also refines. 

I don't like uncertainty anymore than the next person. I don't have answers for all these questions nor am I in a place of power to make sweeping cultural changes. I just wonder as a society if we are missing an enormous opportunity in this unprecedented moment in history.

What if this is our chance to build a different more equitable economy rather than rushing back to the familiar that enslaves other parts of the world, keeps many people stuck in a poverty cycle in our own neighborhoods, and pollutes the life out of the Earth. Which parts of “normal” are worth keeping? How much of the status quo merits returning? What if all the people who lost jobs were able to start to better ones? What if we were able to keep the skies clear and the water pure in the industrial parts of the world?

Sure, the remedy shouldn’t be worse than the disease. But as people of faith we have the honor of rebuilding, restoring, and renewing (Isaiah 61). What if redemption doesn’t look like a comeback? Whose kingdom are we building anyways?