Christmas
• Holy Morally pure, perfect, free from sin.
• Divine Above the nature of man, extremely good.
• Love Great affection and devotion.
• Just Acting according to what is right, fair, impartial.
When I gave my life to Jesus, I put my trust in a God who, by His very nature, is extremely good, morally pure and acts with impartial justice and love, a God who is perfect in every way. I would be very foolish to put all my trust in a God who said He loved me but showed total indifference to the suffering of others, yet many Christians go out of their way to convince me that this is the God I worship!
Most Christians would agree that the God I have described is also their God, So why, if we worship the same God, do we arrive at different answers to moral questions concerning our compassion and mercy towards Gods other creatures? I believe the answer depends on how we view ; ourselves, the Bible and self interest, taking each in turn:
• Creation caring Christians consider themselves a part of creation, that to be made in God’s image carries responsibilities towards all of God’s creation, either as Stewards or Servant Kings.
• Anthropocentric Christians will claim that being made in God’s image puts them above creation which was designed to serve mankind alone, giving him/her the right to use and abuse it.
• Anthropocentric Christians will claim that being made in God’s image puts them above creation which was designed to serve mankind alone, giving him/her the right to use and abuse it.
• Creation caring Christians will use the Bible to discover God’s attributes and then use that knowledge to become God’s Ambassadors, by applying as far as humanly possible, God’s moral attributes of justice, goodness and mercy.
• Anthropocentric Christians will use the Bible as a ‘manual of moral absolutes’ to be used, when necessary, to excuse their immoral treatment of God’s creation.
• Anthropocentric Christians will use the Bible as a ‘manual of moral absolutes’ to be used, when necessary, to excuse their immoral treatment of God’s creation.
Finally their are the vast majority of Christians who, satisfied with the status quo, are either oblivious to, or wilfully blind to, the destruction, violence and cruelty, imposed on both mankind (the poor & hungry), the environment and the rest of God’s creatures, by their overindulgent lifestyle. Our main hope however, lies in reaching the hearts and minds of these Christians, who care, but usually in a very limited way, their care does not extend beyond their immediate fellow Christians, their church or local community.
I would like to thank our Patron Fr Derek Reeve, for his timely comments about our ‘Christmas for all Creation’ campaign, he wrote ‘My problem is that I am not happy about washing our dirty linen in public and I don't feel that the press is the proper place for us to be taking the churches to task for their attitudes to the animal creation and the environment generally’ (full text on the back page of report). It was Fr Derek’s comments that encouraged me to review our campaign and write this letter.
I therefore propose that ‘when dealing with the secular press, we avoid criticising the church and only proclaim a creation caring Gospel to the secular world’. This censorship will not apply to the Christian press.
I would like to add the above proviso to our ‘Code of Practice’ but as these thoughts are my personal opinions, I welcome guidance from our patrons and constructive comments from our members. #
Is this the way forward?
By Don Gwillim
By Don Gwillim
Christmas For All Creation
