Faith Meets Life: Inconvenient truths we face

According to Al Gore's film An Inconvenient Truth, the level of the ocean's water is going to rise six metres in the near future. This is one of the certainties we face if we don't act decisively now to stop global warming.

On another front, the “War on Terror,” employing terror itself, drags on, and with it raises the question once again of whether the world can actually become a better place by fighting violence with more violence. Are we really safer because Canadian soldiers and others are fighting Islamicist terror groups in the Middle East? I confess I don't have an answer.

Families are collapsing all around us. A culture has arisen around us that elevates individual rights and self-expression, but in return we are losing our ability to support those small, but crucial communities called marriages and families.

We are becoming increasingly addicted to consumerism and technology. Commercials abound that tout the joys of sitting in front of video screens, isolated from family members and friends. At one time, people complained about those who could not have a good social time without alcohol. But today, we could equally note that many people can't seem to be happy without daily generous infusions of money and technology.

Is there any hope for the coming year? I think so, but you may have to look for it where you were not expecting to go. I'm thinking of the Christian community. I say this even though there is a barrier to overcome here; many people have spent a great deal of energy ridiculing this community. Still, I think that you can find there a lot of hope.

First, on the care of the planet. Christianity has a powerful notion that it belongs to God, not us. We are its stewards, not its masters. It is ours on loan, to care for, as a precious landscape that is our home.

Second, Christians are generally very supportive of marriage and family. Although this support can be expressed in ways that can seem rigid, the underlying idea points the way to a more hopeful future. Every child deserves parents committed to each other for life. Every family member deserves to have a supportive network of relatives who are tied together by genetics, biology, loyalty and faith in each other. Our sexual and social energies need to be organized around the welfare of children. If they aren't, our population will continue to decline and society will fail to thrive (though our machines probably will!).

And on the elimination of terror: so much of terror rooted in religious commitment. Sometimes it is rooted in Christian religious commitment. But all Christians, and potentially all people, can recognize in God, in Jesus Christ, one of his names: the Prince of Peace—a name especially heard at Christmas. It comes from the Christian Bible.

And if God can be understood as the Prince of Peace, doesn't that open a new road for us? Rather than succumbing to the Gods of war, we can work for peace with women's organizations, rights groups such as Amnesty International, humanitarian organizations such as the Red Cross, and other NGOs (many, if not most of them, Christian) that form a network across the suffering parts of the globe.

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