Christians and the Common Good Quotes

“At the end of the day, we may never be able to move from correlation to causality, but the failure to be able to make this subtle distinction does not free us from the obligation to take constructive steps forward.”
― Charles E. Gutenson, Christians and the Common Good

“God expects us to live in communities of mutual interdependence—not just among members of nuclear families but among much broader senses of family, even our communities.”
― Charles E. Gutenson, Christians and the Common Good

“God desires human well-being. Ensuring access to health care is one way to imitate this.”
― Charles E. Gutenson, Christians and the Common Good

“As Christians, we must not fail to care for the poor in favor of “personal responsibility” or “tough love.” Are there places for personal responsibility and tough love? Of course, but they are not an excuse to stand by and do nothing when our neighbors are in need.”
― Charles E. Gutenson, Christians and the Common Good

“Many of the laws in Scripture are focused on preventing the creation of an economic system that allows for the concentration of wealth.”
― Charles E. Gutenson, Christians and the Common Good

“As Christians we should insist that governments live up to the divine intent, but in so doing, we should not place our ultimate hope in them.”
― Charles E. Gutenson, Christians and the Common Good

“serving a kingdom agenda is generally not a matter of commitment to certain policies but rather to a set of policy outcomes.”
― Charles E. Gutenson, Christians and the Common Good

“Stanley Hauerwas has observed that the most basic job of the church is just to be the church—to embody a different way of being that arises from following the radical Rabbi from Nazareth who managed to get himself executed on a cross outside the city walls.[32] The twin temptations to either shortcut the process by too heavily relying on legislation or to withdraw into sectarianism should not be underestimated. Maintaining a position that allows the church primarily to be the church while still offering a critique to the political institutions is difficult. It is, however, critical for our best serving a kingdom agenda at all levels of human interaction—public and private. The role of the church is to just be the church, but in so doing the church should both embody and speak critique to the powers that have been corrupted and no longer serve a kingdom agenda.”
― Charles E. Gutenson, Christians and the Common Good

“Theocracy is a form of idolatry that puts ultimate trust in political institutions rather than in the Spirit speaking through the church.”
― Charles E. Gutenson, Christians and the Common Good

“God intends for there to be no poor among his people.”
― Charles E. Gutenson, Christians and the Common Good

“we need not disparage humanity in order to exalt God.”
― Charles E. Gutenson, Christians and the Common Good

“All the preachers I heard would have affirmed, at least theoretically, the biblical claim that “God is love.” Nevertheless, there was a remarkably consistent undertone (and, frankly, too often an overtone) of judgment and condemnation present in virtually every sermon.”
― Charles E. Gutenson, Christians and the Common Good

“How can you be faithful to following Jesus when the depths of what it means to follow Jesus are never plumbed?”
― Charles E. Gutenson, Christians and the Common Good

“If our best judgments incline us in one way but our best understanding of what God calls us to do leads us in another direction, which path will we follow? What if the life and teaching of Jesus really do turn our normal conceptions of power and strength upside down? Can we allow ourselves to be formed by the biblical narratives if they undermine common sense? If not, one has to wonder in what sense we would claim our positions to be Christian in the end.”
― Charles E. Gutenson, Christians and the Common Good