Statement on Social justice - Part 4
Sep. 10th, 2018 08:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
yrieithyddSo in the first post in this series I tackled Scripture from the Statement on Social Justice. Article 2: Imago Dei was the subject of part 2 article 3 was on Justice. Now for article 4.
My first response to this one was a realisation that the 10 commandments really don't have a high place in my theology. Jesus' 2 commandment summary definitely wins for me.
I also note the use of righteousness/righteous rather than justice/just in this article. Learning Welsh made me sensitive to this distinction, in that Welsh doesn't have it - cyfiawnder/cyfiawn covers both and my understanding is that the same is true of the Greek. Having noticed this distinction, which is rooted in the Anglo-saxon/Norman French & Latin sides of the modern English language, I've come to see the ways in which emphasis on one side of this or other of this English distinction can be at the root of different emphases and understandings within the church. For me, justice is more important or maybe more resonant, than righteousness. Righteousness seems to me to be focussed on me being a good, upright person; justice on the other hand is more about everyone not just me.
As to the denial, there's nothing in the words with which I disagree. However, there is an underlying assumption which needs to be tackled. That is, that calls for social justice; talk of intersectionality; calls for repentance of homophobia are not about calling out things which are in violation of God's commandments.
This may be because I put Jesus' summary first over the 10 commandments, but I would say that the way the church has treated (and is treating) LGBTQIA+ people falls short of "loving our neighbour as ourselves". If you want to talk about the 10, I think there's quite a lot of false witness about LGBTQIA+ people out there in the discourse.
Next up: Sin
God’s Law
WE AFFIRM that God’s law, as summarized in the ten commandments, more succinctly summarized in the two great commandments, and manifested in Jesus Christ, is the only standard of unchanging righteousness. Violation of that law is what constitutes sin.
WE DENY that any obligation that does not arise from God’s commandments can be legitimately imposed on Christians as a prescription for righteous living. We further deny the legitimacy of any charge of sin or call to repentance that does not arise from a violation of God’s commandments.
SCRIPTURE: DEUTERONOMY 10:4; ROMANS 6:14, 10:5; GALATIANS 2:16, 3:10, 12; COLOSSIANS 2:14-17; HEBREWS 10:1
My first response to this one was a realisation that the 10 commandments really don't have a high place in my theology. Jesus' 2 commandment summary definitely wins for me.
I also note the use of righteousness/righteous rather than justice/just in this article. Learning Welsh made me sensitive to this distinction, in that Welsh doesn't have it - cyfiawnder/cyfiawn covers both and my understanding is that the same is true of the Greek. Having noticed this distinction, which is rooted in the Anglo-saxon/Norman French & Latin sides of the modern English language, I've come to see the ways in which emphasis on one side of this or other of this English distinction can be at the root of different emphases and understandings within the church. For me, justice is more important or maybe more resonant, than righteousness. Righteousness seems to me to be focussed on me being a good, upright person; justice on the other hand is more about everyone not just me.
As to the denial, there's nothing in the words with which I disagree. However, there is an underlying assumption which needs to be tackled. That is, that calls for social justice; talk of intersectionality; calls for repentance of homophobia are not about calling out things which are in violation of God's commandments.
This may be because I put Jesus' summary first over the 10 commandments, but I would say that the way the church has treated (and is treating) LGBTQIA+ people falls short of "loving our neighbour as ourselves". If you want to talk about the 10, I think there's quite a lot of false witness about LGBTQIA+ people out there in the discourse.
Next up: Sin
