Social Action

SUN., JULY 28, 1991, 6:18 AM
FARM, STUDY

Your prayers were heard, and the trip home from Synod School was smooth, fast, and safe. Yesterday you caught up on your lost sleep, and today you shall worship once more in the familiar place with the familiar people. You carried out your responsibilities well, and you participate fully. It was a week worthwhile among a group of unique Christians.

Now today in the Forum the announced theme is social action, so you might as well go prepared with some thoughts from Me. It is fairly accurate to conclude that you Presbyterians are somewhere midway between those who see social action as the raison etre of being a Christian and those whose focus is entirely upon personal conversion to Christ and upon that wait for the imminent second coming. True, there are Presbyterians like My servant Bob, whose are in the extreme for social action and there are others whose focus is individual salvation, but this just represents the span of belief in your denomination. My affirmation of your original judgment still stands, for the many.

Then, interestingly, among those who lean toward social action as the Christian responsibility there is quite a split, though not an equal one. On the one extreme are those who would provide goods, services, and education to the various have-nots of the world, with little concern for what these concerns mean for the health of My planet Earth. At the other are those concerned about the environment and what increased population is doing to harm this living orb. Among Presbyterian activists the large number lean toward service to people.

In some ways these do conflict. Increases in population in some under-developed countries will eventually ruin their part of the earth for human habitation and thus leave them even poorer. For the ultimate material wealth is the earth and its plants and animals. The wealth of things… even homes, roads, medical supplies, etc… are strictly secondary to the wealth inherent in ecological balancing. Humans can dominate, but with gentleness and restraint.

This split is partly responsible for your lukewarm approach to social action. You see that all-out support of down-trodden people can encourage them to be “normal” and have children. This is ultimately harmful to the earth, this increased affluence. You hang back from gung-ho participation in environmental crusades because you recognize that these often are at the expense of the well being of people.

You would like to oppose the general thrust of your economy… production… but you realize that your standard of living comes as a benefit from this system… and you shy away from being a hypocrite. You are fairly faithful in giving to causes on both extremes, but you also have thoughts about your own economic future and are overly concerned about storing up for your own future well-being.

Here again I have a preference for variety. It is not My desire that all Christian social activists be of one stripe. Some may even oppose others. What is important is that your motivation is beyond yourself… toward the welfare of others now or the sustainability of the earth for future generations. I continue to tell you that I have no plans to end this earth adventure, even to restore it to “Edenic glory.”