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a healthy church...transformingLIFE

Tasmanian Anglican

May 2004

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bishop's reflection
Christian faith and social issues: a mission imperative?

by John Harrower

 

 

'Bishop, your grandfather, a Scotsman, fought at ANZAC Cove. Our Prime Minister sent our troops to war in Iraq. Is it right to go to war? What do you think about refugees and asylum seekers?'

Glenorchy Rotary Club is no 'Ho, hum gig' for a Bishop! Good food, good company and a stimulating question-time made for a challenging and rewarding evening.

That same week I was also working on my opening address for a seminar on domestic violence and an opinion piece for the media on 'being human'.

Do social issues have anything to do with 'a healthychurch . . .transforminglife'?

I believe they do. Christian participation with the social issues of our time is an important part of our missionary task. It requires both thinking through policy issues and our practical involvement.

Senator Amanda Vanstone's much quoted, 'Your religion is your own business and no-one else's' regarding the issue of stem cell research, is a classic case in point of someone's seeking to exclude religion from public policy making.

Veracity

With due respect to the Senator, her comment reflects her belief that religious truth-claims have a status different from other truth-claims. While religious truth-claims can't be subjected to laboratory experiment like scientific truth-claims, the latter in the final analysis are founded on faith just like the former-faith in the veracity of the evidence.

The irony is that Senator Vanstone's admonition can be turned back on her own truth-claim. Applying her logic to her own pronouncement, we might properly say, 'Your views on stem-cell research are your own business and no-one else's'; in which case she should oblige us by keeping her opinions to herself!

Silent world

The point, of course, is that public discourse consists precisely of the interchange of different opinions and world-views about every topic under the sun. In particular, what would be left of political discourse if there were a ban on the public expression of political truth-claims?

How would the Senator feel if someone said, 'Your politics are your own business and no-one else's'. Where would our democracy be in such a silent world?

Christians also have to deal with the common confusion of the correct need to separate the powers of the Church and the State, with the incorrect view that religious belief should be kept separate from informing and energising believers in their citizenship of the State. Silencing the Church on matters of public policy is the antithesis of Church-State separation. It amounts to the subordination of the Church to the official views of the State.

Engagement

I concur with Ian Barns who powerfully stated in his Conclusion to Christian Engagement in Public Issues: a missionary challenge (*Zadok paper S131, Autumn 2004, p.10):

'At the heart of Christian engagement with whatever culture it finds itself in is the message of the public lordship of Jesus: that in his life, death, resurrection and ascension, Jesus has overcome the age old powers that have oppressed and disfigured human personhood, society, politics and history and that he now calls people to repent, be baptized 'into him' and to find in him the source and goal of all things.

'The basic missionary task is to reframe such (public) issues, to contest the taken for granted enlightenment notions of human autonomy, and to re-vision them in terms of the alternative vision of God's kingdom. That is not to suggest that such issues are not important. Indeed, it is to claim that the ultimate resolution of the most intractable of moral problems is ultimately to be found in obedience to Jesus the Christ, the one in whom are found the treasures and wisdom of God.'

We will not be deterred by any attempt to silence Christian engagement. This does not deny that Christians may well disagree over issues. What is critical is our participation in the formation and practice of social issues, which affect our life together. As a missionary people we rightfully participate in the political and social issues of our local, state and national communities.

We are to be, when it is all said and done, 'ahealthychurch . . . transforminglife'.

May God strengthen our resolve; and give us wisdom and energy to participate.

(signed) John

*Zadok Centre www.zadok.org.au