Let's discuss this article, Learning from the Sin of Sodom.
For much of my life I have seen a divide between two kinds of churches. One is doctrinally orthodox, but tend to be inward focused. The other is justice-oriented serving in the community and world, but doctrinally weak. I love the idea of orthodox Christians serving as Jesus intended. Have you seen this divide as well? Why do you think it is so? How can we continue to work against this stereotype?
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I really only have in depth experience of two churches, the Catholic church I grew up in and Church of the Redeemer where we have been for the past 8 years or so, and then marginal experience of a church I attended in college which was nondenominational. I would say prior to Redeemer, possibly because I was young, at the other two churches I was not aware of any orientation toward justice aside from the occasional food drive. The church I attended in college was focused on evangelism but despite the vast quantity of homeless and otherwise impoverished in Savannah, I have no recollection of any kind of social outreach to help these people. I think we are moving in the right direction by pointing out the discrepancy in what we consider being active in the church and what the church as an entire body should be looking to accomplish in the world.
ReplyDeleteI thought it interesting in the book we are reading that Stearns pointed out how less likely we are to respond to statistics than we are to respond when the issue is made personal. I guess it is difficult to visualize vast numbers of nameless faceless individuals, but much harder to ignore a face with a name attached.
Kristof states in his article "The American view of evangelicals is still shaped by preening television blowhards and hypocrites who seem obsessed with gays and fetuses." It would be fabulous if we could break this stereotype of hatred and instead draw people to Christ with the light of compassion which echoes the unconditional love of God.
I think it is each one of us acting in the love of Christ in our own circles of people that change the stereotypes. Before I was a Christian, I had a very negative view, but when I met Christians who acted like it, I was intrigued by their faith, their hope, their assurance. We change perceptions one person at a time.
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