Prayer and Social Justice...

It's been a while since I've posted. Since then have commenced another course "Protestant Spiritual Traditions, and have visited the National Cathedral in Washington DC on Martin Luther King Jr. day no less.

Nouwen says; "Prayer without action is piety; action without prayer is manipulation"

Dietrich Bonhoeffer was an incredibly devout man, who also was imprisoned for standing up to an oppressive Nazi regime. His opinion (he was executed just before the end of WWII, was that the church's role - and more specifically in the western world would become more secret, low-key - that of prayer and advocating for social justice).

It's costly - and of course we have his notion of "Cheap grace"which he cautions against - while salvation is free, it is not cheap - and we are to follow Jesus in advocating for the oppressed, mariginalized, forgotten.

I finish with a quote from Martin Luther King Jr.'s last Sunday sermon (another man martyred for his faith - this Christianity business can be deadly:

SOMEWHERE we must come to see that HUMAN PROGRESS never rolls in on the wheel of inveitability.

It comes through the tireless efforts and the persistent work of dedicated individuals who are willing to be CO-WORKERS WITH GOD.

And without this HARD WORK, time itself becomes an ally of the primitive forces of social stagnation.

So we must help time and realize that THE TIME IS ALWAYS RIPE TO DO RIGHT.

It's not a question of what is more important, prayer/worship or action/justice. When be hold God and desire to be like His son, we will be constrained to act, disregarding the cost.

And as of July 1, the Salvation Army will have An interntational Social Justice Director in New York, our present Commissioner Christine McMillan. Let's do it.