Religion and Violence
This past week a friend of mine studying Peace and Conflict Resolution conducted a survey of seminary students asking what leads people to comit acts of violence against other people. While I have my own ideas about why our society continues to uplift violence, I was interested to discover that not one single seminarian commented that violence against others stems from not seeing the other as created in the image of God.
Maybe this is too easy. Maybe we all think this, but assume it is too obvious and begin to think in more grandeous concepts. And yet maybe this is the problem. Is it possible that we have assumed that those who claim the Christian faith fully understand the concept of imago Dei, and thus have forgotten to teach and preach about it?
Who is beyond the designation, "made in God's image"? Does God set those limits or do we? And do we accept the responsibility for not emphazing life in the image of God?
Maybe this is too easy. Maybe we all think this, but assume it is too obvious and begin to think in more grandeous concepts. And yet maybe this is the problem. Is it possible that we have assumed that those who claim the Christian faith fully understand the concept of imago Dei, and thus have forgotten to teach and preach about it?
Who is beyond the designation, "made in God's image"? Does God set those limits or do we? And do we accept the responsibility for not emphazing life in the image of God?
posted by Chett Pritchett at
7:27 PM
1 Comments:
Your words evolked the memory of a conversation I once had with a member of another church's Pastor-Parish Committee. He was extremely hostile toward his pastor. He asked what I thought he could do.
"Pray for him," I said.
"I don't know if it will do him any good, because he's so stubborn."
"But it will do you a world of good. It's hard to be as angry as you are toward someone you're praying for."
By
Questing Parson, at 11:32 AM
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