17 January 2010

Sunday Quote 11710

I have emphasized what I think is the meat and potatoes of this quote, and quite honestly, of our walk with Christ.  Blind adherance to a certain political party will not change anything, nor will blind adherance to a certain denominational stance.

"We need a transformation of our religion and our politics that acknowledges that the old ways don't work.  But we need more than critique.  We must ask what's wrong, but also what the answers are.  At it's heart, we must offer a challenge to hope, which is the only real path to change.

Our private religions have failed, but we must not lose a personal God.  Instead of trying to strike an elusive "balance" between private piety and the social gospel, we must go to the heart of the prophetic religion itself in which a personal God demands public justice as an act of worship (emphasis mine).  We meet the personal God in the public arena and are invited to take our relationship to that God right into the struggle for justice.  Indeed, without that personal relationship we will lose the political struggle.  That shift-bringing the personal God into the public arena-is at the heart of the prophet's message and will transform both our religion and our politics."

Jim Wallis, God's Politics pp40


jj

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey Wingnut, thanks for following my blog! I agree with you wholeheartedly. I think for a good chunk of history, Christianity has limped along in an anemic, half-living state. There are parts of it I like and that are easy for me, and others I'd rather leave to someone else, and that is the temptation for many I think. But we have to embrace the difficult parts with the easy parts if we are to know God.

Jason Jasperse said...

Thanks for stopping by, Matt!

I agree, there is much to do, and too often we find it more convenient to sit back and hide behind whatever traditional position we maintain, and claim that God is there with us.

But nobody told us this would be easy. If it is easy, we should do some serious soul-searching.

jj