Engaging the World

This coming Sunday is Peace with Justice Sunday, one of six designated special Sundays in the UMC. On each of these Sundays a special offering is taken and we are encouraged to build the worship service around this theme. The title of this week’s sermon will be, A Profound Ignorance, and I will be talking about the relationship between thinking and being about to work for peace with justice in our world.

The United Methodist Church has always been on the forefront of working for peace and justice: Starting with John Wesley who indentified two issues in his time: slavery and debtors prisons. We have always seen a part of our spiritual vocation of engage the world with all of its issues, suffering and problems. Annual Conference is coming up, and again we will address various petitions concerning social, economic and political matters. In this way, we engage each other too – we Methodists are known to talk about everything! I’m proud of that.

I am also proud of our Social Principles. I don’t agree with everything in them, but I am proud of what it says about our desire to engage the world. The Social Principles are guidelines regarding various issues in our world from poverty to technology, the rights of women and the needs of children. During confirmation I present the Social Principles to the youth hoping that they will read them. Even more it would be great to know that adults in our Church are both aware of them and read them. Alas, experience says this isn’t so. Therefore, I will present a few quotes from the Social Principles for us all to consider. If you have any response to these or questions by all means contact me. P.Jim

Science and Technology

In acknowledging the important roles of science and technology, however we also believe that theological understandings of human experience are crucial to full understanding of the place of humanity in the universe. Science and theology are complementary rather than mutually incompatible. We therefore encourage dialogue between the scientific and theological communities and seek the kind of participation that will enable humanity to sustain life on earth and, by God’s grace, increase the quality of our common life together.

Suicide

A Christian perspective on suicide begins with an affirmation of faith that nothing, including suicide, separates us from the love of God. Therefore, we deplore the condemnation of people who complete suicide, and we consider unjust the stigma that so often falls on surviving family and friends.

Information Communication Technology

While the Internet can be used to nurture minds and spirits of children and adults, it is in danger of being overrun with commercial material. Therefore, the Internet must be managed responsibly in order to maximize the benefits while minimizing its risks, especially for children.

Corporate Responsibility

Corporations are responsible not only to their stockholders, but also to other stakeholders; their workers, suppliers, vendors customers, the communities in which they do business, and for the earth, which supports them. We support the public’s right to know what impact corporations have in these various arenas, so that people can make informed choices about which corporations to support.

Restorative Justice

In the love of Christ, who came to save those who are lost and vulnerable, we urge the creation of a genuinely new system of the care and restoration of victims, offenders, criminal justice officials, and the community as a whole. Restorative justice grows out of biblical authority, which emphasizes the right relationship with God, self, and community. When such relationships are vi8olted or broken through crime, opportunities are created to make things right.

Most criminal justice systems around the world are retributive. These retributive justice systems profess to hold the offender accountable to the state and use punishment as the equalizing tool for accountability. In contrast, restorative justice seeks to hole the offender accountable to the victimized person, and to the disrupted community. Through Gods transforming power, restorative justice seeks to repair the damage, right the wrong, and bring healing to all involved, including the victim, the offender, the families, and the community. The Church is transformed when it responds to the claims of discipleship by becoming an agent of healing and systemic change.

War and Peace

We believe war is in incompatible with the teachings and example of Christ. WE therefore reject war as an instrument of national foreign policy. We oppose unilateral first/preemptive strike actions and strategies on the part of any government…We insist that the first moral duty of all nations is to work together to resolve by peaceful means every dispute that arises between or among them.