Categories: uncategorized
Date: 30 August 2006 23:09:39
As I mentioned the other day, I read a great interview recently. Here's a bit that really jumped out the page at me.
The two hungers in the world today are for spiritual growth and for social justice. The connection between the two is the one the world is waiting for.
Spirituality without justice in an affluent society can turn easily into consumerism and narcissism. It's one more book to read. One more tape, just to posess the spirituality so I can have it, have it, have it! But the fight for justice without spirituality can lead to despair, bitterness, anger and burn-out. Really, there's a rhythm there: they need each other.
So says Jim Wallis, a christian activist who started the Sojourners magazine. And I have a strange feeling in my stomach that he's right. Justice and spirituality do so together, like two sides of the same coin.
The christians who opposed slavery in the 19th century knew that well, and their spirituality led them to action for justice. It's a hard thing to do, and to be honest I doubt I have the conviction or guts to really make a stand for either justice or spirituality, but I recognise those are two of the main hungers in me. The next step? Who knows...