On theology and social justice.

My theological position, or if you prefer my belief, is very simple to state: love God, love others.  In other words the two great commandments set out in the synoptic gospels. However I do not regard God as being a metaphysical entity.  God is the great unknown beyond human imagination, beyond metaphor, beyond symbolism.  Can such a God be loved?  I find the following statements immensely helpful.

The moment I seek to understand God, I limit God.  The moment I seek to love myself, I enter into God. The moment I seek to love people unconditionally, I become God.

Chris Kratzer

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You are never more like God than when you are helping hurting people, lifting up the fallen, and restoring the broken.

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Stop searching for god in the farthest corners of the universe.  He is in you.  You are it.

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We are all God in disguise.

Alan Watts

Give up searching, god is with us, in us.  Well that is my belief.  Doubtless many disagree but so be it. Our faith is a personal matter, not one to be foisted on us by others.

Was Jesus a real historical person?  Or is he a concept, a myth, a legend?  It doesn't matter.  What does matter is the message of love conveyed by the authors of the synoptic gospels that should be read to understand the ideas the words are conveying, not literally as an instruction manual.

The thrust of the gospels is the requirement to love unconditionally.  The following statements have assisted me in coming to the views I hold.

"I accept Jesus Christ as my saviour" diminishes the Gospel into an introverted and self-centred individualism.

Jurgen Moltmann

People have differing opinions of what the term 'social justice' means and how the term is used, but nobody should be opposed to the goal of improving societal systems for the well-being of others.

Stephen Mattson

Charity is necessary.  But charity without justice is complicit in supporting systems that create the need for charity.

Rev Dr Mark Sandlin

Christian theology need to speak of social revolution, not reform; of liberation, not development; of socialism, not modernization of the prevailing system.

Gustavo Gutierrez 

The problems of racial injustice and economic injustice cannot be solved without a redistribution of political and economic power.

Martin Luther King Jr.