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Theology

 Campolo - "Social Action not an Option"

"Standing up for justice can land you in failure, or worse. Martin Luther King, Jr. is recognized today by most Americans as a great moral leader who stirred the consciousness of America. But if you lived during the civil rights movement in the 1950s and '60s, you'll remember how sheriffs and mayors and governors put him behind bars. We may revere King now, but his practice of civil disobedience then earned him condemnation from pulpits as a Marxist. 

Imprisonment and violence are not the only consequences of working as a Christian for social justice. There is the danger of short-circuiting your pursuit of social justice by aligning yourself with a political party. ...

Of all the 'principalities and powers' that St. Paul writes of in Ephesians 6:12, the government is one of those entities against which we are to wrestle as we seek to see God's will 'done on earth, as it is in heaven.' Not that this wrestling is always clear, when do we fight, and when do we submit (Romans 15:5, 1 Peter 2:13ff)? Therefore we must always deal with these principalities and powers and governments with fear and trembling, for political decisions seldom lend themselves to simple answers. When you struggle with government policies, you are likely to find yourself in controversy, and taking stands marked more by moral ambiguities than by start right and wrong sides.

Social action is no longer just an option for thinking Christians. The only questions remaining for us are what issues will we address, what will we say, and then what will we do?"

Adventures in Missing the Point: How the Culture-controlled Church Neutered the Gospel by Brian D. McLaren & Tony Campolo, Zondervan, 2003, (p. 110-111)

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