Of Gnats and Camels

Jesus once castigated the ruling elite for getting their knickers in a knot about the finer details of the law, insignificant stuff like the minutae of taxation law. You lot a careful to give 10% of your herbs but you forget the weightier matters of the law
Justice,
mercy,
faithfulness

and then he called them blind guides
"YOU STRAIN OUT A GNAT AND SWALLOW A CAMEL"

How often through the centuries have Jesus words been relevant in application to the religious and political leaders of society.

Dealing with the 'naughty' things that other people do is a useful way of drawing attention away from the systematic evil that you are involved with.

I start this blog with the hope of drawing attention to camels, perhaps in modern parlance 'the elephant in the room' that people would rather ignore, but the weightier matters of the law; Justice, mercy and faithfulness can't be ignored by any follower of Jesus.

Over the last few years much of the polical debate in NZ has been around things that I think are gnats not altogether insignifcant but often distracting public attention from the pressing issues of a world facing economic, envirnmental, religious, and territorial crises wherein teh stakes are enormously high.

It disturbs me greatly that so much "Christian" energy has been put into things like defending the rights of parents to discipline (read 'punch' for that is what the repeal of Section 59 was all about) their children. We demand the right to beat our kids while millions of people around the world want the right to feed their kids, educate them, raise them in a safe environment with future and hope.

It's time we had a debate in this country about morality, what is it really? And the church should lead the way - though I have my doubts. Is morality more about we do in the bedroom or the boardroom? Is a rightesous nation one that crimalises sodomy or one that stands up against the bullies of the world and says no to nukes, no to war, no to whaling, no to poverty, no to the money sharks demanding their pound of flesh from poor third world nations that are crippled with unjust debt burdens.

There'll be lots of stuff to blog about and I hope one or two people might actually read this stuff and enter into a discussion with a comment or two.

As you may have guesed from my Blog name I'm a Christian lefty a social democrat who believes that the social justice imperatives of the gospel must find expresion in social policy. You may choose to disagree and I affirm your right to do so. But if you want to enter the debate please do so respectfully and I'll follow suit

cheers Micah 68

Its not those parts of the bible that I don't understand that bother me, its those parts that I do Mark Twain