Associated Baptist Press - Opinion: The God we share

Associated Baptist Press - Opinion: The God we share

My response to this article:

Carra Hughes Greer articulates important thoughts regarding the mission of God and Christian dialogue with Jews. I think both are important. Though I believe that Rev. Greer was reacting to Baptist ideology that says that preparing the soul for eternity is most important, at the expense of the needs of others, I believe that we need to be careful making absolute statements in favor of social justice at the expense of evangelism.

I agree with Xenophon, who argued that these ends should be one in the same and not mutually exclusive.

As I understand the mission of God in scripture, His New Creation is breaking into the midst of the fallen world. How people respond to Jesus (not misguided preaching about Jesus) is of the utmost importance. However, His followers are called to embrace a lifestyle change and a life mission to embody Christ in the world. The resulting communities of faith are to put their resources to work to use real needs as opportunities to demonstrate God's love, love that should come forth from the depths of their Spirit-filled character. We are communities of citizens of the New Creation (2 Cor. 5:17 and Phil. 3:20) who are called to live a new lifestyle in light of these realities in the midst of a fallen world.

They should never rely on government as the only means to secure their agenda. Question for the religious right: How do you end abortion without securing the support of your government? Question for the religious left: How do you secure justice for the poor without securing the aid of the government?

These are questions that the church should ask. Christian communities should be far ahead of the government in these aspects, before going to the picket lines demanding the government to do what they have been unwilling (not unable) to do all along.