Howard
Howard Hampton, leader of the NDP party in Ontario, will be in Peterborough tonight. I'm thinking of going and checking out the meeting.
Last night, Michael Frost challenged us, as believers, to converse with the 'empire' in the defense of the poor, for the cause of justice. Christians are pretty vocal when it comes to issues of gay marriage and abortion, but somewhat silent on poverty and social justice and human rights. Why is that? Personally, I suspect that it is because it’s a lot easier to attack someone’s position on marriage or abortion than to actually stand up for the poor. If you stand up for the poor, your own lifestyle is challenged. If you say that we as a society need to look after the poor amongst us better, while living in an oversized home, driving an oversized car to oversized events, taking in oversized paycheques and putting oversized meals in our oversized stomachs, there are some obvious changes and impact in our lifestyles that will have to happen, else we be dubbed hypocrites. I’m becoming more and more aware of the extent to which Jesus preached about caring for the poor, the orphans and widows compared to the extent that he spoke on homosexuality. We (most churches) have done a pretty good job of preaching the self-help gospel, the gospel of being a better person, of living a more balanced and fulfilling life, of being the person God wants us to be. But in this style of self-help psychological preaching, we’ve neglected the stories of Jesus partying it up with the ‘sinners’, the stories of Jesus advocating for the poor and downcast. We’ve become very inward focused, and most of the limited outward focus has been on preaching a gospel of words, a message of salvation (which is true), with word, and not supported with action. I’m a little frustrated by it all, and I see so much evidence of it in my own life that it really bothers me. Beyond ranting and spewing philosophy on this topic (and others), what am I actually doing about it? Well, not much, but not nothing either. Steps are being taken.
I guess one of my beefs with Christians who focus almost entirely on issues of abortion and same-sex marriage is that they often argue that these, especially the latter, will destroy the fabric of our society. To that I say this: I agree that same-sex marriage isn’t the ideal for society, but neither is so many kids growing up in single parent homes because of failed marriages (both in the church and out of the church, the numbers are pretty much the same), or growing up in poverty, or situations of abuse, or malnourished, or undereducated. I also say this: If you are in fact concerned about ‘the fabric of society’, than realize that poverty and unemployment (and underemployment) and corporate greed have a much larger impact on society than same-sex marriage. So, if you’re truly concerned about the society we live in, post-Christian, as it is, do something to affect change. Give money and time to food banks. Eat less. Pollute less. Love more.
... in other news...
Last night, Michael Frost challenged us, as believers, to converse with the 'empire' in the defense of the poor, for the cause of justice. Christians are pretty vocal when it comes to issues of gay marriage and abortion, but somewhat silent on poverty and social justice and human rights. Why is that? Personally, I suspect that it is because it’s a lot easier to attack someone’s position on marriage or abortion than to actually stand up for the poor. If you stand up for the poor, your own lifestyle is challenged. If you say that we as a society need to look after the poor amongst us better, while living in an oversized home, driving an oversized car to oversized events, taking in oversized paycheques and putting oversized meals in our oversized stomachs, there are some obvious changes and impact in our lifestyles that will have to happen, else we be dubbed hypocrites. I’m becoming more and more aware of the extent to which Jesus preached about caring for the poor, the orphans and widows compared to the extent that he spoke on homosexuality. We (most churches) have done a pretty good job of preaching the self-help gospel, the gospel of being a better person, of living a more balanced and fulfilling life, of being the person God wants us to be. But in this style of self-help psychological preaching, we’ve neglected the stories of Jesus partying it up with the ‘sinners’, the stories of Jesus advocating for the poor and downcast. We’ve become very inward focused, and most of the limited outward focus has been on preaching a gospel of words, a message of salvation (which is true), with word, and not supported with action. I’m a little frustrated by it all, and I see so much evidence of it in my own life that it really bothers me. Beyond ranting and spewing philosophy on this topic (and others), what am I actually doing about it? Well, not much, but not nothing either. Steps are being taken.
I guess one of my beefs with Christians who focus almost entirely on issues of abortion and same-sex marriage is that they often argue that these, especially the latter, will destroy the fabric of our society. To that I say this: I agree that same-sex marriage isn’t the ideal for society, but neither is so many kids growing up in single parent homes because of failed marriages (both in the church and out of the church, the numbers are pretty much the same), or growing up in poverty, or situations of abuse, or malnourished, or undereducated. I also say this: If you are in fact concerned about ‘the fabric of society’, than realize that poverty and unemployment (and underemployment) and corporate greed have a much larger impact on society than same-sex marriage. So, if you’re truly concerned about the society we live in, post-Christian, as it is, do something to affect change. Give money and time to food banks. Eat less. Pollute less. Love more.
... in other news...
- Eric Staal is on top of his game this year.
- Watch for hurricane debris.
- Some thoughts on Gomery. (Nov 1)
- Architectural Eyesore of the month.
- Follow the missing keg.
- Something else.
- Another link to somwhere I don't remember (I keep a running list of websites with interesting articles and stuff like that to post on here, and then put one of these lists up once in a while. However, I can't remember what a few of them are...)
- Another one.
- Last one.
posted by Fungineer at 10:32 a.m.
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