From Religion Dispatches

Here is a good article interview that touches on what the Church is and is not doing in our culture. A few paragraphs reposted here. Click the title to read more.

Money, Technology, and the Silence of Churches: A Conversation with Susan Thistlethwaite
by Candace Chellew-Hodge | July 25, 2012 | Religion Dispatches

How do we occupy the Bible?
There are several steps to take. First, read the book, the whole Bible. I quote studies that show if you actually read the Bible outside of the church it turns you liberal. Also, get a New Revised Standard version. There is a conservative Bible project that is cutting out passages considered too liberal, so get a whole Bible.

The thing about human nature is you don’t think your way out of temptation. That’s the value of the recent decade, where we’ve realized that these systemic problems need systemic solutions; they need structures and regulations. We learned that lesson in the Great Depression and put Glass-Steagall into effect. But we believed it couldn’t happen today, so the act was repealed. The drive from the Reagan years of anti-government individualism is going to be the death of the economy. Everything that the Great Depression taught us has gone away, and it’s not just in the financial sector, it’s the labor sector as well, in the attack on unions. No CEO is going to give up their money; you have to have labor solidarity in order to adjust that.

These are theological problems: what the internet does is put it on steroids.

The key to internet-driven culture is having people become more savvy, recognizing how this stuff is coming at them at 90 miles per hour. I also advocate public activism; I do what I preach. Every week I write a theological piece for the Washington Post on topics like JP Morgan Chase, which is really about hubris. I point out that this is sin. It’s not the gay people sinning, it’s these people over here who are sinning. In this way, I take back sin for what it really is.