I'm reading a couple of books at the minute: my tutor picked me up and asked me hard questions about the role of personal ethics the other day, so I'm reading "Living as the People of God", by Chris Wright, former principal of this place. It says a lot about social and corporate ethics, which I heartily agree with. It points out that the command to "be holy as I am holy" is not followed with a description of Victorian-era men's morality, but exhortations to look after the weak, the foreigners and the orphans.
I'm a big fan of the Tony Campolo sermon which he gave at a Holiness seminar, which goes something like this: (wild paraphrase)
The sad thing is that we're here at a holiness seminar while because of exploitation of the poor, a child dies in Africa every three seconds and none of us gives a shit. The really sad thing is that you're more upset that I said "shit" at a holiness serminar than about a child dying in Africa every three seconds.
Personal holiness is important, sure, but it needs to be viewed through the lens of, and not as a substitute for, corporate holiness. I know WEC takes a strong line on personal holiness, and not such a strong line on corporate holiness. That might be an interesting talking point when I meet the UK director tomorrow. But hopefully not. :)
The other book I'm reading takes the social dimension of holiness much further than Chris Wright, who sees Israel's laws as a paradigm for society. Jim Wallis's "The Call To Conversion" was published twenty-odd years ago, but could almost have been written last week. There's an exercept from it in the link over on the right entitled "Betraying Jesus". Here's some more, 'cos it's good...
Evangelicals in this century have a history of going along with the culture on the big issues and taking their stands on the smaller issues. That has been one of the serious problems of evangelical religion. Today many evangelicals no longer just acquiesce to the culture on the larger economic and political issues, but actively promote the culture's worst values on those matters... After being neglected for years, evangelicals have proven that they can "make it" in this society - and they have made it on terms that this society understands: success, fame, prosperity, political influence, and, above all, a thoroughgoing loyalty to the "American way of life."
Of course Wallis is talking about the US, and the rare occasions where evangelicals have stood up to social injustice (say, Make Poverty History) have happened outside the US. But he goes on to talk about something that scares me right now:
For many years now, US evangelicals have implicitly endorsed a vision of America that was white, prosperous and number one in the world. They have implicitly supported every commercial conquest, political intervention and military action by the United States in this century. In the past few years, however, what was once implicit has become explicit. What was once not very politicized has become highly politicized... Specifically, the evangelical nationalists perpetuate a theology of empire.
And tying it back to personal versus social holiness:
Most evangelicals still seem to believe that the spread of personal piety is the most reliable standard for a nation's morality. What the evangelical movement has failed to see is that the biblical demands for justice and compassion bring the harshest judgment to the system of wealth and power upon which this society is based... Both the nationalists and the personalists set aside the biblical standards of social righteousness. Unless that changes, the present evangelical movement will not have any lasting gospel impact on our society.
Another take on this has been represented by the recent conference on "downward mobility", and in particular this excellent paper. And finally, here's my Refrain: (Apologies to Larry Lessig)
Full version - 1 Comment