The following question stems from my trip to the downtown east-side of Vancouver (it is the poorest neighborhood in Canada) and an informal meeting with the leader of a secular social advocacy group. The guy was fascinating and, although he has some different ideas and means to social change, he made the statement that the churches were doing commendable deeds by handing out food and clothing. He even went so far to say that they were doing such a good job that people could always find something to eat in the Downtown Eastside. However, he also commented that the churches were doing nothing to solve the problem, they were just treating the symptoms of it.
His comments got me thinking…
What is the extent of the churches role in society with social justice? Do we only treat the symptoms or do we fight for beating the disease?
I am a strong proponent of separation of Church and State but I admit, he got me thinking. Do we as the Church just stop at addressing the symptoms of hunger and not deal with the disease of our cultural, social and government systems that have cause the problem the the first place? Where to we stop in our fight for justice?
I am not sure of the answers but I have definitely started to ask the questions.
This question stems from Richard Dawkins’ bestselling book The God Delusion and Allstair McGrath’s rebuttal in The Dawkin’s Delusion: Atheist Fundamentalism and the Denial of the Divine. This question is an important one due to the magnitude of The God Delusion’s popularity in our culture. I admit that I have not had time to read either book, I plan on it sometime soon, but I did find sometime to listen to a public debate Dawkins and McGrath had at Oxford.
After my class in Music and Arts in Worship, I have been continually coming back to the question:
What is beauty? Is it simply in the eye of the beholder? Is it just culturally determined? Can sin, evil, or its results be beautiful? What then is beauty?
This is one of those questions that needs to percolate for a while…slow roast if you will.
The following question stems from the quote I came across during some recent reading I’ve done on Martin Luther King Jr. The quote is from a sermon he gave entitled “Guidelines for a Constructive Church” in which he says “The acceptable year of the Lord is that year when men will keep their theology abreast with their technology.” With this quote in mind, here is the question:
Should there be a relationship between theology and technology? How should this relationship function?
I think we typically see technology as distinct and disconnected from theology. But I would argue that although we may have the capability to do something, it does not necessarily mean we should.
The following question stems from my trip to the downtown east-side of Vancouver (it is the poorest neighborhood in Canada) and an informal meeting with the leader of a secular social advocacy group. The guy was fascinating and, although he has some different ideas and means to social change, he made the statement that the churches were doing commendable deeds by handing out food and clothing. He even went so far to say that they were doing such a good job that people could always find something to eat in the Downtown Eastside. However, he also commented that the churches were doing nothing to solve the problem, they were just treating the symptoms of it.
