Watch Germany fall further into the abyss as it turns its back on both liberalism and Christianity.
Once a staunchly pro-American, global economic powerhouse, the country is now the “sick man” of Europe more ways than one. These recent news items offer proof:
Here’s a well-balanced story by Steve Greenhouse in today’s New York Times, “Can’t Wal-Mart, a Retail Behemoth, Pay More?”
On this point, refer to an op-ed by Acton staff about the economics and ethics of the “living wage” (PDF).
Noting the declining participation in community and civic groups, Jordan J. Ballor assesses a different root cause than has been put forth so far. “The greatest share of blame,” he writes, “Ought to be laid at the feet of the modernist view of individuality, which minimizes the importance of community and social structures.”
"In the French revolution a civil liberty for every Christian to agree with the unbelieving majority; in Calvinism, a liberty of conscience, which enables every man to serve God according to his own conviction and the dictates of his own heart."
—Abraham Kuyper, "Calvinism and Politics," Stone Lectures on Calvinism, 1898.
Some theologians have taken a troubling interpretation of the Noahic covenant to support a heterodox agenda. The World Alliance of Reformed Churches, in its attempts to call a status confessionis, called various study groups and forums to report on the "global crisis of life."
To this end, both the south-south member churches forum (held in Buenos Aires, Argentina, April 23-26 2003) and the south-north member churches forum (held in London Colney, UK, February 8-11 2004) affirm that:
God has made an all-inclusive covenant with all creation (Gen 9.8-12).
This covenant has been sealed by the gift of God’s grace, a gift which is not for sale in the market place (Is 55.1). We reaffirm that God made a covenant to liberate from the imperial powers (Babylon and Rome). God’s covenant is over and against any contract, which is the "law" of domination and exploitation. It is an inclusive covenant in which the poor and marginalized are God’s primary partners.
The reduction of the Noahic covenant merely to a covenant made "with all creatures," and the abstracting out from that the working assumption that God places equal value on human and animal life is simply unbiblical, and smacks of neo-pagan pan(en)theism.
The Buenos Aires faith stance also stated that:
We repent from believing that Christians have an exclusive relationship with God. We have excluded people because of their class, race, sex, ethnicity or religion, and in our beliefs about salvation we have excluded people outside the Christian community and also the non-human world.
These faith stances played a large part in the formation of the task force report to last year’s WARC General Council in Accra, Ghana. The task force report reads, in part:
In the covenant, God put God’s own self into all creation. In the covenant that God has made with the whole of creation, all members of creation are put into one another’s place.
…
In the context of life threatened, communities dismantled and the truth distorted, we must reaffirm and renew the covenant that God made with all creation, that Christ made new and promised would never be broken, and that the Holy Spirit continues to renew even today.
The context of the entire passage surrounding the Noahic covenant is critical to proper interpretation.
Read more on Remaking the Covenant…
Over the course of the past few months, many leaders on the left have been ramping up their rhetoric against the influence of the much-maligned “religious right” in American politics. The most recent high-profile example came from Democratic Senator Ken Salazar of Colorado, who described James Dobson and his Focus on the Family organization as “…the Antichrist of the world” in response to their strong advocacy against the filibustering of judicial nominees. Salazar later retracted his statement in the face of mounting criticism, but it is indicative of the state of things in America today that a major politician can so thoughtlessly condemn a major Christian organization using such inflammatory language.
The Center for Effective Compassion has opened its 2005 Samaritan Award applications. The survey and instructions are available from May 2 through June 30.
First prize is $10,000; nine runners up will receive grant writing assistance, information technology support, Web site support, and much more from nationally-acclaimed consultants.
On May 2, 1810, the future Pope Leo XIII, 257th Roman Catholic pope (1878-1903), is born. For a survey of the legacy of Pope Leo XIII’s Rerum Novarum and the initiation of Catholic Social Teaching, as well as his confluence with the thought of Abraham Kuyper, read this article by Mark A. Noll, “A Century of Christian Social Teaching: The Legacy of Leo XIII and Abraham Kuyper.”
The end of April marks the conclusion to the first month of operation for the Acton Institute’s PowerBlog. Thanks to all the commenters and readers who have made this outreach effective.
