Posted by Shes_InItForTheMoney on September 25, 2011, at 2:41:34
In reply to Re: Liberal Christian » shes_initforthemoney, posted by hyperfocus on September 23, 2011, at 0:08:59
> Well I'd say it's 50-50. You'd find bad people and good people mixed in the same proportion in a Calcutta slum as on Wall Street. I think one major reservation I have about the whole social justice movement is this silent assumption that people of the East are sort of morally superior to the capitalists and technocrats of the West. This is not the case. If you think corruption is bad in the U.S. you should visit India some time. If billion-dollar infrastructure projects or disaster-relief programs were shutdown every month because most of the funds were siphoned off by the government officials and company executives assigned to run them, all hell would break loose. Imagine 10 AIGs or Solyndrass. But this is what happens in India and Pakistan and Nigeria and so many resource-rich countries whose citizens have been living in desperate poverty for more than a hundred years. It's a really sad thing reading about Indian women committing suicide because the micro-finance programs designed to help left them from grinding poverty are turned into exploitation schemes by local business men.
>
> I'm not saying that everyone in the rest of the world is like this - there are good people and miracles of achievement and self-empowerment taking place all over the world, just as in the U.S. But it is not the case that Western political and economic theories are any more exploitative or less moral than anywhere else. I do agree with you totally about Jesus' identification with the poor and sick and downtrodden though.Well, I would also say you will find Him in slums in New York, or any other place of suffering regardless of East Vs. West. I know that corruption in India is very widespread. For those seeking some kind of forgiveness or redemption you will find Him close to them if they are on Wall St. I dare not even think of how many Wall Street Traders do what they do day after day and seek redemption. Just like the powerful and affluent in India who live with the caste system.
Social justice is about looking for God's mercy. You have to be looking, congruent in what you are doing, though. Read "What's so amazing about grace" by Philip Yancy and you will see what I mean. Making money on the back's of others while knowing many suffer because of it, is evil. They gambled on Jesus' clothing while he was dying. These things are inherently evil.
Social Justice is a moral issue. That is why they published The Poverty and Justice Bible. It highlights more than 2,000 verses that refer to poverty and social justice in Scripture.
I'd highly recommend reading.(With all due respect.)Jay
"Love is better than anger. Hope is better than fear. Optimism is better than despair. So let us be loving, hopeful and optimistic and we'll change the world," ~Jack Layton 1950-2011
poster:Shes_InItForTheMoney
thread:996797
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/faith/20101230/msgs/997809.html