The discussion topic for this conference is how do we evaluate or observe the religious life of young adults. Our presenter is a sociologist, who has done a study of over 3.300 youth/young adults. In her research, she has heard all sorts of answers to questions like, "Would say you are religious?" or "How have you lived out your religious thoughts?"
It is interesting to listen to my colleagues. Our questions reveal what it is that we consider to be "essential" for one who self-identifies as "Christian." Perhaps, as the final weigh-in of the day, the person leading our closing devotion presented materials form a Book of Prayer on Mohandas Gandhi. The responsive reading spoke of one measure of what is sometimes spoken of as essential traits.
"We know, Lord, that the world will never cease to return hatred for love and violence for peace. Still we pray for the courage and confidence to walk in love and peace for the sake of those who have never known love or peace, for the sake of our own treacherous hearts."
I realize that for me at least one of the essential marks of a Christian has to be a willingness to absorb as much of the hatred and violence banging around in the world as I possibly can. That following Jesus means speaking that word or doing that action which reduces the verbal and physical abuse of others. We must learn to replace competition with compassion. We need to return to the central message of Jesus which is that God loves us and calls upon us to love others.
How a sociologist might measure that is beyond me. How one does this requires a lot of courage. But I fear that unless we do this we fall short of the hope God has for us
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment