The Social Obsession:

Straight AheadThe major Christian denominations are preparing to issue a "social creed for the 21st century" and to celebrate the original "social creed: for the churches as they commemorate the founding, in 1908, of the Federal Council of Churches, now known as the National Council of Churches. Additionally, the stated clerk of the PC(USA), Clifton Kirkpatrick, joined ten other religious leaders in October to call on Congress to raise the federal minimum wage. They said that it was a matter of economic justice. Again, we see the mainline churches engaged in their social obsession. Involvement in social issues by the churches is not new, of course. The difference today is that religious leaders seem to think it's their responsibility to speak out on every social issue. The leaders of mainline denominations usually take the liberal side. The leaders of evangelical or more theologically conservative religious groups generally take the more conservative political stance. The liberals seem to be the most hypocritical, though, since they criticize the conservative evangelicals not only for their conservative stance, but for taking such an active role in the political process. That's a very strange criticism, since the liberal wing of Protestantism has been doing the same thing for at least 50 years. When will the religious leaders from all across the theological spectrum realize that the power of the church comes from the Holy Spirit, not from a secular spirit of politics? When will we remember that our true vitality comes when we are involved in the mission of bringing people to faith in Christ, not the mission of dubious material gains? Increasingly, it seems that when churches talk about their outreach and missions projects, the emphasis is almost totally social and material, not spiritual and eternal. Have done, O church, with this social obsession!