Víra a společnost
I am very glad I was asked to use the word “complex” to talk about our theme this afternoon. Under the influence of our own moral and spiritual blindness it is very easy to be one-sided and miss a balanced and complete perspective. This is a major reason why in Evangelical theology and philosophy today we increasingly talk complementarity, meaning convictions and truth claims that we have to hold together to keep our lives in balance, convictions that might otherwise come apart. This desire has been a part of Protestantism at least since the time of Martin Luther, who sometimes used a turn of phrase that sounded completely contradictory in order to get his readers to listen carefully and to think with him. For example, in his essay “The Freedom of the Christian,” he famously wrote, “A Christian is a perfectly free lord of all, subject to none. A Christian is a perfectly dutiful servant of all, subject to all.” My theses lack the eloquence of Luther, but in this spirit let me suggest for your consideration the following complementary theses:
1. A crucial way to demonstrate to the watching world that we truly believe that both
creation and redemption bestow a unique dignity on humanity is to help people in need.
2. An easy way to destroy the dignity of the poor who are created in the image of God, for
whom Jesus gave his life on the cross, is to treat them like objects of charity.
One of the most important questions in Christian ethics is the relationship
between the moral principles we should follow before God within the
Christian community and the ethics followed in the secular societies within
which we live. This question became painful when I toured the preserved
World War II Nazi concentration camp at Dachau as a teenager (August
1972). After the mental shock receded, I heard a statement by Corrie ten
Boom which clarified the relation between the principles followed by the
Nazis and those followed by Christians. She simply said, “They think differently
than we do.” At the very same time, it was clear to ten Boom both
that many of the Nazis knew that their actions were wrong and that the actions
of the people she represented can have a large influence on what happens
in entire societies. That is our dilemma: 1. We claim we have received
a revelation of God’s moral will in the Bible and in creation which must
shape the distinct identity of believers individually and in community over
against unbelieving cultures; 2. We know our neighbors follow the ethics
of other worldviews (such as the Nazis), which can easily wreak destruction
in the lives of millions of people and entire societies. We have both a
moral duty to a distinct, separate Christian identity in contrast with the cultures
in which we live and a universal moral duty to love our many neighbors
who are hurt because of the ethical principles flowing from other
worldviews and religions. The millions who died in the Holocaust were my
neighbors whom Jesus taught me to love. The millions of people who get
hurt or killed because the ethics of some other religions do not promote
freedom of religion are my neighbors whom Jesus taught me to love. The
millions of people who get seriously hurt because the ethics flowing from
their worldview does not support healthy family life are my neighbors
whom Jesus taught me to love. How should we, as Christians whom God
has called to a separate moral identity in the Body of Christ, participate in
the moral considerations that shape the lives of people in entire cultures,
knowing the role of other worldviews and religions in the ethics of those
cultures, and really love our neighbors?
(full text of the paper in the pdf file)
My philosophy, including my philosophy of family values and public life, is self-consciously a result of my theology; this is not the result of me being some type of religious fanatic; it is a normal but often unrecognized part of the human condition that our ultimate beliefs about the nature of the universe exercise extensive influence over our penultimate or secondary beliefs and convictions in the everyday realms of family, child raising, education, and public policy...
A Czech economist compares the pain of the world economic crisis to a hangover after a night of hard partying, implying that our developed economies have been drinking irresponsibly, that the changes needed are much deeper than merely taking some aspirin or buying a better brand of vodka...
In the last few days we have begun to hear the various international protests against the actions of Swiss voters, to not allow the construction of future minarets in their small alpine nation...