Economist and journalist Rod Oram has issued a challenge to Christians who advocate for social justice — that they update their message in contemporary, practical, new and exciting terms.
Mr Oram, a lay canon of the Anglican Church and a member of the Holy Trinity Cathedral chapter in Auckland, gave a talk entitled “Opportunity for all” on February 29 at Selwyn Library in Parnell.
It was the first in a series of four lenten talks under the heading “Injustice in our time — a faith response”, presented by Holy Trinity and St Patrick’s Cathedrals.
Mr Oram set out the economic, financial, resource and human challenges and risks facing the world and New Zealand in some detail, before discussing community and faith responses.
In issuing a challenge to apply “timeless faith, in terms of our understanding of God, as halting and imperfect as that is, to very contemporary responses, to action,” Mr Oram said he “gets really stuck” when he looks at how Christians talk about social justice matters to the rest of the world.
“I think we must seem incredibly boring. We are saying the right things — my faith in that is unshaken. We are saying the right things about that, but we are completely failing to express them in contemporary terms, in practical terms, and in new and exciting terms.”
He added that he said this with “huge respect” for those who work in social justice areas, but the terms used to communicate the message must be both radical and encouraging.
Mr Oram admitted he struggled with finding ways to express the powerful concepts of Christian faith in contemporary terms himself, but it is vital that Christians work at doing this, “then we are able to speak really with a power and a simplicity and a beauty” to all these issues.
He cited the writings of American biblical scholar Marcus Borg as examples. Continue reading
Sources
- Michael Otto in New Zealand Catholic
- Image: The Catholic Church in Aotearoa New Zealand
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