Go to Bumpy Road of an Unconventional Christian
- Add a comment
- Go to A Response
More Opinionated Comments, But With Less Vinegar . . .
Regarding your response to my comments, I have a few more comments to add. You are writing of your experiences where you live, and I am obviously writing about my experiences where I live -- and they are very different. Hence, our generalizations. Both in Central CA, where I spent the first 21 years of my life, and then in Indiana and Michigan, where I have lived many years since, I have seen the Church in action in a mighty way. And I still stick with my assertions that the Church -- peopled I believe on average with a majority evangelical Christians (who tend to be Republican) is a powerful tool for good.
I'm with you that we still need some amount of government support. In this imperfect world, there needs to be a safety net for the times when very imperfect people do not step up to the plate to help their fellow man in dire straights. Unlike what you insinuated, I am certainly not against some amount of welfare; however, I believe the more welfare available, the more dependent some people become, eventually assuming that a monthly welfare check is their right. I think it needs to be made available for a time to those in need, until they are back on their own two feet and able to support themselves.
You mentioned that people attending your church give 99% of their givings to the Church, which includes a school. And somehow you know that 99% of these other peoples' funds go to the local church and not elsewhere? Are you living in their pocket books? The church I'm attending actually tithes above and beyond what is also raised by the church for missions, and gives a minimum of 10% to local and foreign needs -- and it is exciting to see the lives changed and the people affected because of this policy. I attend a large church with no school attached, so the money tithed by the church and given by its church members has a significant impact on a variety of causes.
I will say that there is much, much more the Church could be doing in this world . . . and is not. We have dropped the ball in so many ways -- and I do take responsibility for my part in these failings. I believe God created the Church -- God's people empowered by God's Spirit working together to affect all of humanity -- to have an eternal impact on the world. I wonder what it would look like if each person who calls him or herself a Christian -- whether Democrat or Republican or new Republican or religious right or left wing or what have you -- actually lived out the principals given by Christ in the New Testament. "There were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned lands or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles' feet, and it was distributed to anyone as he had need" (Acts 4:34-35).
posted by
JanesOpinion
on October 19, 2004 at 9:25 AM
| link to this | reply