Wednesday, August 08, 2012

Faith and Justice

Last week Globe and Mail columnist Margaret Wente pronounced the United Church of Canada dead, if not buried, and scoffed at a report to be addressed at our General Council on Palestinian/Israeli relations. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/commentary/the-collapse-of-the-liberal-church/article4443228/As you may recall, I encouraged you to read the report available at the GC41 website and form your own conclusions.

Wente seems to feel that addressing social justice issues is a sign of our irrelevance. Perhaps Wente could read her bible as part of her research. She would discover that the prophets and Jesus himself have a lot to say about justice and that God gets testy when the faithful are unfaithful when it comes to the poor and marginalized.

We're at it again.  A coalition of Canadian churches is speaking out about the Northern Gateway pipeline in British Columbia, a project which will carry Alberta oil sands bitumen across wilderness areas to a port on environmentally sensitive waters. http://www.kairoscanada.org/ The Kairos denominations figure that care of the planet is Godly work. Go figure.  I'm "guilty as charged" having addressed both these issues in blogs and as co-chair of the Mission Outreach and Advocacy committee of our presbytery. I do feel that the United Church has been remiss in encouraging a mature personal faith in Christ to inform our action in the world.

What do you think?  Are we misguided in speaking out on these justice issues? Should we stick to the personal salvation approach of more conservative denominations?
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3 comments:

  1. IanD8:37 AM

    I read that piece when it was published in the Globe, what - one, two weeks ago?

    I immediately thought, "David may be on holiday, but I know we'll be hearing about THIS before too long!"

    We're obligated as Christians to consider the kinds of issues you continuously draw attention to. How that relates to "irrelevance," I don't know.

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  2. janet.rice11:04 AM

    Ditto Ian
    Margaret Wente's column was pretty strong - if her purpose is to rile readers, it is working.
    We are a social justice denomination - consider our creed.

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  3. Laura8:52 AM

    Seems that the One we follow didn't spend His whole life sitting around reading religious text and praying for His own salvation...nor should we.
    I will admit that I have been to worthy United Church social justice functions/meetings/retreats that seemed to overlook in whose name we work and live, great outreach just a little out of focus for me.
    It seems we are in trouble if we are inward,self interested country club-ish and we are in trouble if we are outward,interfering,social activist...hmmm. We weren't ever told that faithful living would be easy...only that it will be worth it.

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