Is this what Americans think of when they think of institutions? Certainly not all Americans about all institutions. And not in precisely those terms. But deep down, on a level below consciousness, something not too far from this scene has seeped into our cultural imagination—a sense of institutions as things that stifle, oppress, depersonalize, and trap.
But that’s hardly the only story or the truest one we can tell about institutions. Families, schools, churches, governments, markets, and other associations are essential structures of human society. Like all God’s gifts, they can be warped by sin in a fallen world. Like all God’s gifts, they can be reclaimed for the kingdom of Christ. So let’s not settle for the myopic standards of the present day. To view institutions as exclusively instruments of oppression and captivity would be like thinking of all apples as merely occasions of sin, all wives as nothing more than human shields to take the blame, and God as a fearsome avenger whom it’s best to hide from should he ever walk past you in the cool of night. In other words, it would be to give the devil far more than his due.
Read Full Article »