Outsource Ethics
I'm usually not a huge fan of Charles Krauthammer. He has a syndicated column that appears on Op-Ed pages all over the country, so he obviously has a lot of people out there who are huge fans of his. It's not that I dislike his writing per se, it's just that he tends to spend most of his columns talking about one specific topic and I prefer writers who are more balanced in both subject and content.
Mad props to Krauthammer this week though for this article that showed up in Time. It essentially calls the wealthy to task for using their vast wealth to outsource environmental responsibility. I didn't even realize you could do stuff like this, but apparently it's common practice.
I'm all for environmentalism. It's a big part of my faith as a person who views the Earth and all that is within it as gifts from God. I'm also a big fan personal responsibility, however. Really internalizing the ideals you are convicted of, and then going out and living out those ideals. If we are doing this thing right, then we are going to be convicted of things that align our thoughts and actions with the heart of God, thus living out the Gospel in ways that are real and tangible to the people around us.
So as I was reading this article last night, it brought up some questions concerning how Christians and Churches possibly outsource certain things that we claim to be important to us. For instance, this whole idea of helping the poor. It's a pretty en vogue subject these days, especially since it is a subject that people in their 20's seem to be passionate about. As churches reach to become for edgy or emerging or whatever they want to call themselves, the rhetoric about helping the poor has escalated.
Here's the problem...how many people are actually living amongst the poor? Is it enough to preach sermons and support ministries that do work amongst the poor? Is it enough to occasionally volunteer for ministries who help the poor? Or should be be radically reconfiguring our lives so that we are really living out this ethic in a real way? Tough saying. I will say this, however. If you find a church that talks a lot about justice and helping the poor AND has a pastor that live amongst the poor, you should let me know. That would really excite me. What I tend to see however, are pastors who live comfortable to extravagant lives while preaching about justice. That pretty much does nothing for me, but maybe that's just me.
Fair Dinkum
Mad props to Krauthammer this week though for this article that showed up in Time. It essentially calls the wealthy to task for using their vast wealth to outsource environmental responsibility. I didn't even realize you could do stuff like this, but apparently it's common practice.
I'm all for environmentalism. It's a big part of my faith as a person who views the Earth and all that is within it as gifts from God. I'm also a big fan personal responsibility, however. Really internalizing the ideals you are convicted of, and then going out and living out those ideals. If we are doing this thing right, then we are going to be convicted of things that align our thoughts and actions with the heart of God, thus living out the Gospel in ways that are real and tangible to the people around us.
So as I was reading this article last night, it brought up some questions concerning how Christians and Churches possibly outsource certain things that we claim to be important to us. For instance, this whole idea of helping the poor. It's a pretty en vogue subject these days, especially since it is a subject that people in their 20's seem to be passionate about. As churches reach to become for edgy or emerging or whatever they want to call themselves, the rhetoric about helping the poor has escalated.
Here's the problem...how many people are actually living amongst the poor? Is it enough to preach sermons and support ministries that do work amongst the poor? Is it enough to occasionally volunteer for ministries who help the poor? Or should be be radically reconfiguring our lives so that we are really living out this ethic in a real way? Tough saying. I will say this, however. If you find a church that talks a lot about justice and helping the poor AND has a pastor that live amongst the poor, you should let me know. That would really excite me. What I tend to see however, are pastors who live comfortable to extravagant lives while preaching about justice. That pretty much does nothing for me, but maybe that's just me.
Fair Dinkum
it has those pastors you speak of.
~t.