Thought for the Week: Our challenge
David Milner considers individuals, society and faithful action
Picture four people discussing the role of the church. Two considered inequalities in society; facts about homelessness, unemployment and poverty. They dealt with the role of large corporations and how unscrupulous politicians facilitate their actions. They touched on how misguided financial mechanisms bring much of the world to recession and a continued slide to inequality and injustice; how this is enabled by a commitment to globalisation, monetisation of transactions, free markets and the setting aside of other values, with public service disappearing as privatisation for profit careers on.
These arguments are rehearsed in many places. They even surface in establishment newspapers and journals. They are a convenient analysis for communists, social democrats and others who dislike and distrust the changes involved. Amongst them are Christians following Christ in attempting to actively change the world to better reflect human relationships as expressed in the Biblical message.
The other two participants drew strongly from the tradition of Protestant evangelicalism. The world is inherently fallible, with its wrongness and injustices a direct result of Adam’s fall, with sin entering a Godly paradise to corrupt the functioning of society. Individual acts of rebellion against a loving God inevitably lead to moral degradation for society: war, selfishness and poverty appear as night follows day.
Their argument resolved with the conclusion that it was not possible to alter the structures of the world (‘you have the poor always with you’). The church’s role is to witness to the need for salvation – not embark on the process of achieving institutional change.
The response was swift: ‘There are legal and economic measures that could be easily implemented to make society more just.’ These include closing high earners’ tax loopholes, a maximum earnings ratio between lowest and highest paid employees (Triodos Bank’s was 8.5 in 2010) and an increased requirement on developers to build social housing. It is changes like these that could be campaigned for as a visible expression of the beliefs of a faith community rooted in Christianity.
The evangelical argument followed: ‘Attempting change is a diversion from the key call to the church, which is to witness to the saving grace of Jesus and bring about faith that will change individual hearts and minds. Only this will change the world’.
Some kind of synthesis can readily be produced. It is more illuminating to follow the next arguments, which challenge us all. Those proposing political action asked: ‘Let us accept that converting individuals leads to a better society. Exactly what will this society look like in its contractual, political, economic and social arrangements?’
Answer came there none, except ’trusting in Christ is what humans were made for. Our stubborn sin, self-centredness and pride prevents this’. How can core beliefs about individuals be related to their society? How do evangelicals envisage mechanisms linking belief to social change? Political activists have a change agenda; but is there a real vision beyond a general commitment to increased justice? Have they considered all possible effects of the legislative and economic changes they suggest?
For Quakers, in particular, what is the underpinning rationale for actions we recommend and testimonies we bear? What is the place of individuals in the proposals we encounter in our writings and conferences? Why are we so concerned with justice, peace, simplicity and truth?
Evangelicals often appear to have a solid basis for their ideas and a less clear grasp of societal analysis and action. Christian social activists often appear to have solid proposals and a less clear grasp of the supporting reasons. It is our challenge to be more open to others’ promptings and to better understand the reasons for our beliefs and actions as we discern the ways forward.
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