There has been a conference for church leaders in Oakville, Ontario that (because it was for church leaders) flew under my radar screen, called The Evolving Church Conference.
The theme has my attention.
Justice.
Justice in exile. Why the rich need the poor. Compassion to justice. Justice and refugees in Canada. Justice and The First Nations. Justice of hope…
Dr.Darryl Dash has been blogging about it. Worth your time. The conference site is flash, (way too cute and cool) and doesn’t do the topic justice. (ar arr arrr it’s a no win, no win, either religious internet sites don’t technically stay up to date or go over board:^) Kidding. There are thousands of well designed, easy to navigate religious sites.
I digress.
Dr. John Stackhouse focuses on the family with his post on William Wilberforce; ’every evangelical’s favourite political hero,’ as Amazing Grace opens in theatres across Canada.
Folks on the Religious Right continue to sputter in outrage as evangelicals get involved in HIV/AIDS work in Africa (and at home), as evangelical leaders warn against global climate change as a moral issue, and recently as evangelicals have spoken out against the use of torture.
Whatever happened to proper evangelical social concerns: abortion, promiscuity, euthanasia, homosexuality? You know: beginning of life, end of life, and sex in between?
Well, those concerns haven’t disappeared, of course. And they remain important for evangelicals, as they do for many other Christians and, indeed, for many other people of various outlooks. It’s just that they are not the only concerns, and not even the ones currently getting the most attention.
Published 1 year, 5 months ago
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Dr. Darryl Dash? Still not used to seeing that. Reminds me of when Bob Rae became premier way back. He looked stunned to be called Premier Rae for quite a while.
Technically I don’t become a Dr. until May’s graduation - then I can write prescriptions.
Thanks for the quote from Stackhouse.
It’s hard to live out the Golden Rule when we start to dehumanize our foes; that is in large part the problem with looking the other way at American use of torture methods in the anti-al Qaeda fight. We somehow feel that it’s OK to crap on a jihadi since they wouldn’t be nice to use were the roles reversed.
However, Jesus asks us to love and care for our enimies. What often gets lost to the modern reader in the parable of the Good Samaritan is how much a “good” Jew of that era hated Samaritans; the idea of a good Samaritan would have been an oxymoron to Jesus’ listeners.
There are times where the gospel is conservative, where it’s fighting against negative change; such is the case for many American activists today. However, we’ll also see where the gospel is of a liberal/reform nature, fighting for positive change, as in the case of Wilberforce, the US Civil Rights movement of the mid-20th century and folks questioning the interrogation tactics of the military and CIA today.
Mere technicality Dr. Dash - May isn’t far away.;^)
Your seminary professor has his feet nicely planted on the ground.
I agree Mark, labelling is merely the first step of dehumanizing.
It is hard, I catch myself every day and need to repent daily. I was reading recently about the concept of ‘beyondism’.
David Brooks coined the term beyondist - A beyondist is someone who urges us to get beyond left/right distinctions, beyond partisan politics, beyond the stymied options of the day.
Human nature resists that - since politics is about power, we are called to resist that need in ourselves, that is the radical call of Christianity. There are times partisanship is necessary, using systems to assist change is necessary. Diversity is healthy for a democracy.
I think the golden rule is a good place to start, Jesus answer to what is the greatest commandment has been lifechanging for me in all my relationships whether personal, system or political.