Don Browning, a pastoral counselor, and trainer of such counselors, writes of a change in culture he has noticed. Years ago he write that pastors were trained to suspend moral judgment as pastoral caregivers. The assumption was that when people came for counsel there was a common moral understanding. "I know what I am supposed to do in life, but I have gotten to the place that I cannot do it."
But now the culture has changed, observes Browning. When people come to pastors today, their cry is often not "I know what I am supposed to do; I just can't do it," but "I do not know what I am supposed to do."
Browning says that because people are unsure about what constitutes the shape of a life that matters and what it means to live a life that has moral substance, that pastors have to be willing to speak of these matters. "This does not mean that the church and its pastors should become hectoriing and judgmental moral exhorters, but instead that pastors should call morre freely upon those swaths of scripture that appeal to the wisdom and ethical traditions o0f the faith and should seek to help people discern what the total acceptance and grface of the gospel looks like on the moral ground."
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Friends in church make a difference
Here's something significant picked up on Martin Marty's Context
Scholars say their studies found that religious American are three to four times more likely to be involved in their kcommunity than are nonreligious Americans. They are more apt to work on community projects, belong to voluntary associations, attend public meetings, vote in local elections attend political rallies and dontate time and money to causes.
However the increase in civic engagement has nothing to do with ideas of divine judgment or with trying to secure a place in heaven. Rather it's the relationships people make in their churches, that draw them into comm unity activism.
The theory is: if someone from your "moral community" asks you to volunteer for a casue, its really hard to say no. Being asked to do something by a member of your congregation is different from being asked to do something by a member of bowling league. The effect is so strong, that peoploe whoattend religious services regularly but don't have any friends there look more like secularists than fellow believers when it comes to civic participation. It's not faith that accounts for this, its faith communities.
Scholars say their studies found that religious American are three to four times more likely to be involved in their kcommunity than are nonreligious Americans. They are more apt to work on community projects, belong to voluntary associations, attend public meetings, vote in local elections attend political rallies and dontate time and money to causes.
However the increase in civic engagement has nothing to do with ideas of divine judgment or with trying to secure a place in heaven. Rather it's the relationships people make in their churches, that draw them into comm unity activism.
The theory is: if someone from your "moral community" asks you to volunteer for a casue, its really hard to say no. Being asked to do something by a member of your congregation is different from being asked to do something by a member of bowling league. The effect is so strong, that peoploe whoattend religious services regularly but don't have any friends there look more like secularists than fellow believers when it comes to civic participation. It's not faith that accounts for this, its faith communities.
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