It is no surprise that many Western Christians have hopped onto the ‘diversity train’; it is yet another example of Christians being shaped by culture rather than shaping culture.   The morality of tolerance of Postmodernity has morphed into the morality of diversity, multiculturalism, and inclusion in Western Tribalism. The meaning of the terms ‘diversity’ and ‘inclusion’, of course, goes further for the culture than it does for culture-laden, Western Christians.   The culture enshrines the diversity of non-binary identity, homosexuality, and transgenderism.   It celebrates the inclusion of non-Christian religions if they undermine Christianity, and then it celebrates secularism over against any religion.   Intersectionality crowns individuals with the greatest number of minority identities.   Western woke culture opposes borders, loathes its own history, assumes that the ‘other’ is better, and it believes that any love of one’s own way of life is some sort of fascist nationalis

Two goals in missions are often affirmed as non-negotiable.   They sound contradictory and can even work against each other.   But they are, nevertheless, both wrong in their own right.   The first goal is: nationalise ( or indigenise ) the mission .   The second goal is: pursue multicultural identity . The first goal arises out of mission dynamics in the post-colonial era—we might say starting in the 1960s and picking up steam in the   1970s.   In mainline circles, it was strongly supported as a corollary to decolonisation, liberation, and antipatriarchalism.   In other mission circles, it received milder support out of concern to strengthen the local church.   It became popular for missionaries to say that they intended to ‘work ourselves out of the job.’   Even Paul could be called forward as a witness: did he not say that his goal was to preach the Gospel where Christ had not been named before (Rom. 15.20)?   Other reasons might be listed, some from the perspective of the nati

One of the great developments in our post-Christian, Western culture is the absence of forgiveness.   Instead of a process of forgiveness we are left with a process of punishment.   The two religions in the world that have put forgiveness at their centre are Judaism [1] and Christianity; what we have replacing them in the West are an unforgiving, postmodern tribalism and, especially in Europe, a growing Islam. At the centre of the Jewish religion in Biblical times was the tabernacle or Temple.   The activity of the Temple was worship and sacrifice.   Worship was given to the one God who identified Himself—in the very midst of His people’s rebellion and sin—as the God who is ‘merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children, to the thi