Then you haven’t been paying sufficient attention.

This is one of those perpetually debated questions in which replies
can so easily be misconstrued that I long ago gave up entering
into it.

[snip] For starters: religion is not about progress or even
about social issues at all. Religion is about worshipping God.

Well said. Jesus’ "render unto Caesar that which is Caesars,
render unto God that which is God’s" speaks of this.

I have wondered recently what Christ would say if we asked him
whether he would fight in a war. A bloke in our bible study would
take this verse to mean that Jesus would not have an opinion.
He, Jesus, would probably answer "Wars will not finish until
all people believe in the word of God." That is, Jesus is
the ultimate "2nd Quadrant" man, or the ultimate "5
whys" thinker. His concern was with the deeper causes of
the problems rather than the problems themselves. I note in passing
that this has a bearing on the "problem of pain" thread
that I’m furiously mulling over for Peter and Dean in another
thread (hold on guys, a reply’s coming).

[snip] Next you ought to define "progress". Not
all movement is progress – some movement takes us backwards or
sideways. Our modern society with it’s huge rates of crime, homelessness,
family break ups etc is not NECESSARILY progressing.

In fact, I think you can say that individually we are not progressing
at all. As a humanist (gasp!) I believe that it is up to every
individual to find their own purpose in life and I see no evidence
that people are any less likely to cock this up now than ever
before. In this area at least there is nothing new under the sun.

[snip] If you read more history you might be surprised as
to how many great > steps forwards were initiated or carried
through by Christians. Start with William Wilberforce, the man
who devoted much of his life to the outlawing of slavery in the
UK. There are plenty of others. I presume that you have never
heard of organisations such as the Salvation Army or St Vincent
de Paul?

Or hospitals, the Red Cross, Black Rights in the U.S., Aboriginal
Reconciliation (Uncle John just ain’t listening to the Churches),
etc… None of these things prove that the church is always politically
leading social change, but the church isn’t a political organisation,
and when it tries to be it invariably gets taken over by politicians
and goes astray. (Which, incidently, is the reason we shouldn’t
hold elections for President when we become a republic — I can’t
believe I just said that!)

Regards, Richard Kerr Information Technology Education Manager
Organisation Development Unit, K07 Tel: 9351 5876 The University
of Sydney Fax: 9351 4951 NSW 2006