Comments on: do we care about morality or just welfare?

By: Nathan Pederson

Nathan Pederson — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

I agree with you. Well said.

By: George

George — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

Don’t really understand what you said.
Should we stand for Truth or is that too imposing on people?

By: Leighton Tebay

Leighton Tebay — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

George:
Show me an example of where Jesus took a stand for Truth as you say against the Roman empire. Is it to imposing to tell people to follow another path which forsakes political power for the power of the gospel?

By: Homer Paxton

Homer Paxton — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

the two go together.
That is why Methodists founded the British Labor Party and why BIll Temple co-wrote the Full Employment agenda with Beveridge for the Uk Government before they appointed Archbishop of Cantebury.

It is why the Solidly sound Sydney Anglicans opposed the Iraq war and the Government policies on Refugeees.

Sometimes we Capital C conservatives become decidely pinkish!

By: George

George — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

Leighton, not really sure I understand your question. Jesus of course stood for Truth because He was Truth.
He should be our standard in everything we do and say. That’s the challenge, that’s the goal. To give Him all the glory.
How do we do that in 2004?
You said:”Is it to imposing to tell people to follow another path which forsakes political power for the power of the gospel?”
Isn’t that exactly what we should be doing as Christians?

By: Chera

Chera — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

Well said; we need to know what we stand for and be able to explain why, not just because we think it’s wrong. And “why” moreso in how the issue affects society than because “the Bible says so”, since the Bible is not a figure of authority for everyone. The Bible and our beliefs may be our motivation, but we need to be able to explain our point intelligently to our audience. What comes to mind is how Jesus reacted when he was questioned about paying taxes to Caesar. We should follow his example

By: Jon

Jon — Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000

I can think of a pragmatic and a principled reason why more liberal churches don’t speak out on traditional “morality” issues. The pragmatic reason is that their members tend to have diverse views on these issues and a public proclaimation pro or con would likely alienate a large chunk of the members, and likely lead to a split.

The principled reason is that, at a practical level, Christian morality is really only relevant to Christians, who (hopefully) don’t need the government to keep them on the straight and narrow. Non-Christians aren’t any closer to knowing Christ simply because their government discourages them from gambling or being gay. Notice that the Bible doesn’t command Christians to go forth and make everyone obey the Law. What it does command is for Christians to go forth and care for the poor. Christians can do just that by offering political support for government programs that will make the poor less poor.

Thus, I would actually say that Christians can advocate support for programs aimed at alieviating poverty simply because it is what they are supposed to do as good Christians. However, they ought not advocate policies aimed at imposing Christian morality on society at-large unless they can justify it in secular, pragmatic terms.