What would it sound like if Proverbs were preached today? A humorous take from Branthansen:
(AP) — A noted writer has been “disinvited” from a cutting-edge church conference, say conference organizers, after a calmly-delivered, but highly controversial, speech.
“He just doesn’t know how to put things,” one disgruntled listener said. “It’s like ‘Oh, I’ve got truth and here you go, here’s what you need to know’,” he said, adding that Solomon ruffled feathers right off the bat.
“He said wisdom is what matters, more than anything else. We were all like, ‘What about authenticity?’ But he said an authentic fool is still a fool. He said that. He used the word ‘fool’ a lot. I was really disappointed,” another added. “It was offensive.”
But that wasn’t the worst, according to others.
“He used the term ‘evildoers’. That’s just not right to say some people are evildoers. It’s so black-and-white, and lacked nuance. He said it several times, too. That may fly in America, but what about the rest of the world? This guy just doesn’t understand other cultures and contexts like we do,” said one church-planter in a Starbucks cap.
According to a speech text released on the web, Solomon said there are many evil people in the world, they’re fools, and that God will punish them.
“‘Punish’? Not cool,” said an organizer. “He even went off on raising children. He said people who don’t discipline their kids — dude even talked about spanking! — he said they actually don’t love their kids. Very, very offensive. He’s probably from some red state, fundie background.”
One fellow-speaker, an “emergent church” guru, said Solomon’s approach was all wrong. “I don’t think I heard him ask the right questions. He needs to ask questions, not just hand down his western version of ‘wisdom’. He acted like he had this great understanding, and just tried to say, ‘Here’s the way it is.’ But all we should do is ask questions. I declare that fact many times in my book, actually.”
Solomon told the attendees to pursue justice for the poor, but even that theme went foul, many said.
“He said that only people who seek God can understand the concept of ‘justice’, like if you’re not a believer, you can’t really get it!” said an attendee, wearing a smart-looking Amnesty International shirt. “It’s really myopic and simplistic, and it embarrasses me in front of my friends. I’ll bet he’s the type to go and build a fancy worship building, too.”
Moreover, Solomon insisted that God should be “feared”. When pressed on what he meant by that, he said “Well, ‘fear’, as in, say, ‘fear’.”
Observers insisted he must be misinterpreting himself.
Advocates for social justice at the event were shocked further by Solomon’s apparent belief that poverty is sometimes related to laziness.
“It’s blame the victim again,” one group said in a statement. “Talk about heartless. He said it’s good that workers have appetites, because some lazy people wouldn’t do anything until they got hungry. He said lazy people think they’re smarter than the counselors who try to help them. A complete embarrassment for the church. No stars. No thumbs-up.”
Solomon stepped down after being confronted by an angry group who had moved to the front of the stage. Some offered rebukes, serving as “prophetic voices”, while others plaintively asked Solomon to “Just be real and quit the ‘I-know-stuff’ routine,” but Solomon’s response only made matters more tense.
“Zeal and conviction without wisdom really aren’t good things,” he said.
A worker at Solomon’s merchandise table following the speech sat lonely, selling tapes of the speech, called “Proverbs”.
“We’ve got good distribution in some of these stores, but not much online yet. Wisdom isn’t very hot right now. Hate to say it. Just keepin’ it real.”
HT: Pyromaniacs
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