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Thursday, October 7, 2021

 

                 SOCIAL PRINCIPLES #4 – THE ECONOMIC COMMUNITY

 

            I am continuing my weekly blogs talking about the United Methodist Social Principles. I have discussed The Natural World, The Nurturing Community and the Social Community sections.


            This week is The Economic Community section with sub-sections of:

  • ·         Property
  • ·         Collective Bargaining
  • ·         Work and Leisure
  • ·         Consumption
  • ·         Poverty
  • ·         Foreign Workers
  • ·         Gambling
  • ·         Family Farms
  • ·         Corporate Responsibility
  • ·         Finance
  • ·         Trade and Investment
  • ·         Graft and Corruption
  • ·         Public Indebtedness


            When we talk stewardship, we talk about being stewards of what God has given us. And if the first stewardship scripture is “In the beginning God created,” then everything is God’s. We don’t own any of it. We use it (hopefully well); we care for it (hopefully wisely); and we share it (hopefully generously). So, then, everything we have is God’s. Thus, it makes total sense why all these categories and economics becomes part of a community, a community of which we are all a part. Individuals must act as good stewards, but so much governments and communities, companies and churches.

           


            This isn’t new. John Wesley had many opinions that are summarized in his “Political Manifesto”. This was shared in a series of blogs in mid-2020. Feel free to go back and review them. As an ordained Deacon in the United Methodist Church, I am ordained to compassion and justice. The Economic Community speaks to compassion and justice, and it can’t be limited to just deacons. We can be compassionate and feel sorry for someone, but unless we’re willing to do something to make a chance, justice won’t happen. We obviously need to be compassionate, but we also need to work for justice. May it always be so!


 

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