Politurgy

No theology, bad theology, ethical theology

First thing I caught on radio this morning as kettle boiled furiously behind me (sure it is meant to swithch itself off) was further discussion on British government plans on immigration. Deptuty Prime minister said that he would not support and more restrictions and indicated that he would not support sticking a big no entry sign on the cliffs of Dover.

First thought...Dover is very far away from my day to day life. Second thought immigration is such a part of the biblical story of salvation. Third thought, I wonder if there is an evangelical/Baptist theology, reponse to issues of immigration?

I suspect that the answer to this will be no. This worries me, as the lack of response to questions of Scottish independence worries me - because it seems to me increasing that on major socio-political issues we lack any sort of theological ability to engage in a Biblical, Spirit led, congregational, engagement.

Why does this matter - well because historically no theology and bad theology have implicitly and explicitly supported such things as apartheid, racism, and various oppressive regimes. Whereas good and ethical theology has often undergirded the prophetic critique of these. Here I think of  those who in South Africa declared apartheid a heresy and those in Nazi Germany who said 'No' to the domianant ideologies supporting the actions of the regime. To be sure in hindsight we praise the prophets but at the time we in the evangelical churches were often those who rejected them.

It seems to me that the 'failure' of our theology to engage with these issues raises questions about the adequacy of our theology to ensure that we bear faithful witness to Jesus Christ beyond anything but a very limited number of areas and in turn weakens our correct claim that Jesus Christ is Lord over all, the world as well as the church, the public as well as the personal.

I do not think things need to be like this - but we certainly need to learn a more robust, theological, and ethical response to issues for the sake of our mission and discipleship if the concern is to bear faithful witness to Jesus Christ as we go on our way in this world.

If I were to be asked why I think we do not have a more theological and ethical response to these issues I suspect that on the one hand we do not know how and on the other hand that to confront these issues may require us to repent.

 

 

 

the poor you will always have with you

St Andrews is a great University, one of the 'best' not simply in Scotland but in the UK.

It has a very low drop out rate: http://www.studentbeans.com/student101/a/Universities/universities-with-the-lowest-drop-out-rates2610.html

It is in the top ten Universities in Scotland according to the Times best University guide 2012 - the only one from Scotland: http://lywong.hubpages.com/hub/Sunday-Times-University-Ranking-Top-10-UK-Universities

Apparently as proudly reported in the recent local paper the Courier it is also in the top ten UK Universities for producing grduates who go on to be millionaires: http://www.thesaint-online.com/2012/03/st-andrews-among-top-ten-universities-to-produce-millionaires-in-uk/

In comparisson to the above the University of the West of Scotlad where the Scottish Baptist College is locateed fares very poorly with for example a drop out rate of 23.4% in comparisson to St Andrews 1.4%.

Yet there is another statistic that is interesting. This statistic is that the ancient universities in Scotland including St Andrews are very poor at taking students from the poorest economic backgrounds in Scotland: http://www.scotsman.com/the-scotsman/education/st-andrews-university-takes-only-13-students-from-poor-backgrounds-1-2337132

In contrast to this the University of the West of Scotland takes some 25.4% of its students from the lowest 20% of economic backgrounds (Herald).

The ancient Universities often among the best in the light of the above but poor in taking poorer students are the places where theology has traditionally been taught. They are great places to study theology - I get that having done post-graduate theology studies at Edinburgh and feel part of an ancient institution.

On the other hand I am really proud of the UWS record in taking poorer students something which explains at least in part some of its lower rankings in other tables.

In turn I would hope that this location for the Scottish Baptist College could inform our theologising and shape our understanding and practice of mission.

It seems that Jesus thought that authentic discipleship would always be among and concerned for the poor.

Baptist wish - that we be known as those who place themselves among marginalised groups of all sorts - this will probabaly not get us in any Times top ten list - but hey this was not the sort of recognition that the crucified one sought.