Christian guide to issues

Press, 15 October 1976, Page 17

Christian guide to issues

Many Christians have jumped on bandwaggons when they have become con-; cerned about topical or "popular” social issues, according to the Rev. Maurice Goodall. a former Christchurch City Missioned now studying social work at Canterbury University. Mr Goodall puts forward this view in his editorial for] the first news letter of the newly formed Christian Social Concern Committee. The committee was formed after i a conference on Christian social concern in Wellington' last year. The 50 persons who! attended the conference] looked at the implication of | Christian beliefs on the direction and development of New Zealand society.

The conference’s findings, jjwere distributed to Christian] .leaders in 50 countries. • Mr Goodall said that jmany who attended the conference felt a need for conItinuing communication on : social issues, with other • 1 Christians throughout New i Zealand. Mr Goodall, with the Rev. [P. H. E. Thomas, warden of Latimer House; Vai Ayres, a social researcher with the iHealth Department; and the ' Rev. R. H. Tripp, accordingly set up an ad-hoc com--I'mittee in Christchurch to •ipromote this communication, i The committee’s newsletter aims to recommend ; reading material to help .(Christians make decisions on .(social issues. | The committee may also iimake statements on social i issues, and hopes to compile I submissions to the Govern-

ment committee examining the domestic purposes benefit.

Commenting on his editorial, Mr Goodall said Christians ought to be concerned with social matters, but many Christians had taken the Bible to have a social message which was really out of context today. “Our culture is different from the culture in which the Bible was written,” said Mr Goodall. He was sure that many of the Christians who made statements about issues of national and international significance, had actually made detailed studies into these issues. But he felt that many Churches had oversimplified social issues and misapplied theories in their own communities.

Just because an Open Door worked in the centre of Christchurch, did not

mean that every parish had to set up such an organisation, he said.

“There is a danger here that you will end up with a lot of half-hearted organisations and efforts, and then begin to wonder why they do not work,” he said.

In the last 10 years, the Church had become much more involved in social issues.

Many Christians had tried to sort out their positions in these issues a little too quickly, and had sometimes arrived at glib solutions.

But the Church’s reaction was not unnatural considering the great social changes that had taken place over the last decade. Mr Goodall said that Christians were called to make social changes, through innovation, and by introducing new dimensions to social issues.