To Randy Pope – who is a devout Christian currently serving as attorney for the City of Hattiesburg – it’s no secret that the culture of the world is a polarizing one, and people of faith may be particularly unaware of how to deal with that situation.
To help address that issue, Pope – along with co-author Albert E. Erisman – are set to release the book Living with Purpose in a Polarizing World: Guidance from Biblical Narratives. The book, which is scheduled for release on June 4, uses biblical scriptures and individuals to help Christians in Western culture respond to a way of life that the authors feel is increasingly “post-Christian.”
“In the book, we talk about a number of different responses to that,” Pope said. “We take the position in the book that for Christians, there is a better way of dealing with that feeling and that experience of polarization, and that is engaging with the culture, rather than just going along with it or fighting it or whatever.
“What we did – which I don’t think has been done before – was to look at 12 characters from scripture, to look at how they lived and navigated the cultures they lived in, which were quite often hostile, and at best indifferent. So (we looked at) how they did that, and what we can learn from them about how to navigate the culture we live in, in the 21st century.”
Erisman is the executive in residence and the past director for the Center of Integrity
By poring through the scriptures, Pope and Erisman observed five basic responses to the feeling of “exile,” as follows:
- Assimilation and acceptance of the new cultural norms;
- Withdrawal from cultural engagement;
- Anger directed toward society and toward other Christians who may feel differently than others regarding certain issues;
- Fear; or
- Seeking power to “take back the culture.”
“I don’t think we’re the ‘end-all’ and the ‘be-all’ of the discussion, but hopefully (the book) will make a contribution to helping people sort of figure out how we do it in a respectful and genuine way,” Pope said.
One verse in particular the authors focused on for their book is Jeremiah 25:7, which reads “Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.” In that book, Jeremiah is writing to a group of exiles in Babylon who have been taken captive.
“(Jeremiah) gives them a sort of not a recommendation, but a word from God, and that is to seek the welfare of the city,” Pope said. “So that’s kind of one of the ideas that we put out, is how do we do that – how do we go about seeking the welfare of the city.
“That’s not just the literal city, but the community, wherever it is that we live in. And we give modern examples – contemporary examples – of people that my co-author and I have seen, that we believe exhibited that. That includes some of the folks that I work with at (Hattiesburg) City Hall. So it’s personal, and a little bit autobiographical – not so much what I’ve done, but what I’ve seen people doing to seek the welfare of the city as Christians.”
Living with Purpose in a Polarizing World: Guidance from Biblical Narrative can be found online at www.amazon.com or www.barnesandnoble.com.
In addition, a book signing will be held from 1:30-3 p.m. June 15 at The Author Shoppe, 140 East Front Street in downtown Hattiesburg.
“Frankly, my co-author and I, our interest is not promoting us; it really is promoting the ideas in the book,” Pope said. “We’d like to see people engage with these ideas.
“So our hope is not just to sell books, but to encourage people to think about and talk about these ideas that we put forward in the book.”
