Steps for Society ...

Thursday, August 6, 2009. We are talking about “Steps into the Unknown” this week. There are many steps our society needs to go!

It is always slighly dangerous to talk about faith and society. There are several points where we need to be careful. Everywhere on this planet we have societies which consist of people of faith and people who consider faith to be wrong. There are people of different faiths, Christians and Muslims, Buddhists and Jews and many more. What is our model of society from a Christian point of view? How do we think about the different religions and about atheims?

The Christian message confirms that God loves every human, whether he believes in him or not. Christians need to reflect this love. When someone lives in the spirit of Jesus, he will accept and tolerate everyone. We need to live a life of appreciation, regardless of the particular religion of the people we live with. This also means that we respect particular sensitive points of our neighbors. We will accept that Muhammad plays the role of a prophet for Islam, and he is held holy by Muslims. We will not insult someone held holy by a friend, even if we do not believe in his religion.

But a society influenced by Christian faith will also allow faith and belief. This means that we allow a discussion about truth. Tolerance means that we love other people and let them live their faith. It does not mean that we need to adapt to their opinion - we can have and should have our own idea about what is right and what is wrong. The discussion about the truth cannot be suppressed. It cannot be forbidden to invite to a particular faith. There are different faiths and all of them claim to know something about God. Why do we want to suppress people to call others to join their belief? We should give everyone the right to search God, to follow his belief and to discuss it with everyone who wants to listen!

A Christian society will allow a lot of freedom. As God gave freedom to mankind, Christians will give freedom to their neighbors. A Christian society will always be a society with the freedom to go into atheism. It will be a society which does not suppress the non-Christian. It will love even those who fight the faith. But it will continue to express the invitation for everyone to discover the love of God, his grace and kindness.

When Christian faith is lived by people, it changes a society. People start to go steps into the unknown, they start to pick up the truth, they start to discover the love of God. In different parts of the world society has developed particular tools to carry out the responsibilities which it has for its members. Some social systems pay aid to people in need. That is a good step. But a Christian society will do much more. There will be many people who will help the others further, not just by giving money, but by helping everyone to transform into an active and helpful member of the community. There is enough work for everyone. There are so many ressources on this planet, that everyone can have plenty. Christians will pick up the dream of the old prophets, they will dream of justice, of everyone to have enough food to live, enough clothing, shelter against rain and wind and work to carry out daily. Christians will dream of reasonable social processes to distribute goods and wealth. And they will transform the dreams into actions, they will stand up and speak words of wisdom. They will start to work for the others. They will not become weary, but will be encouraged every day again by the spirit of the eternal God to live towards his kingdom. ... more texts