who has influenced you?

I have been posting on influencing your friends towards Jesus and I want to pause and ask the question, who influences you in your faith? The answer to that question is going to vary during your lifetime of discipleship. You may have many influencers; you may have a few. They may be living; they may be dead. They may be prominent; they may be a grandma, an uncle, a youth worker. Probably a combination of many.

It is a good idea to know who influences whom when you are considering another’s thinking. For disciples of Jesus, it is going to be the scriptures first. But then your thinking is shaped by others. For me, Martin Luther and Dallas Willard (if you have been reading this blog you already know him) would make my key short list. Then another Christian thinker you might not be familiar with. Reinhold Niebuhr.

Niebuhr was an important Christian thinker during the 20th century, arguably the most prominent American theologian. He was a behind the scenes advisor to our government both before, during, and after WW II. It was Niebuhr, identified as a “liberal socialist,” who broke with colleagues on pacifism, and championed the necessity of going to war to stop the greater evil brought about by Nazi Germany. I learned much from his writings. Let me give two examples that have helped me over the years.

Niebuhr said that whenever you have disagreement with someone, whether between individuals, groups or nations, it is always good to remember this. You are always more wrong than you think, and your opponent is always more right than you think.

Niebuhr also was very realistic about human sin. It has always been deemed reasonable for some who deal in “peace and justice” issues to consider sinful behavior only coming from the dominant group. In other words, the oppressed cannot be considered sinful in their dealings with others. We witness this today when we hear comments like “African-Americans can not be racist.”

I commend reading Niebuhr, today, more than ever his message has great validity.

Oh, by the way. As we celebrated Martin Luther King Jr. Day yesterday, Reinhold Niebuhr was one of the greatest influences on his life. Niebuhr and Ghandi, an interesting combination.