10.09.2008

Greatest force for Good

After listening to the debate, I got thinking (OK, I admit, I argued with the screen.) on a phrase that was repeated a couple times. Did anyone else catch it? I'm not talking about the 19 "my friends"s, either.

What would YOU say is the "greatest force for good in the history of the world"?

  • America
  • My Friends (thanks Matt!)
  • Christianity and the Church
  • Some other movement
Discuss in the comments.


2 comments:

Matt Moberly said...

I'm surprised "my friends" wasn't one of the options. If you did a wordle of the debate, that would have to be the largest thing in it.

My answer is God, which is almost like saying "Christianity and the Church", only different in a few important ways.

First, God's got a much better record than the Church, and he's much older than Christianity.
Second, he's a living, feeling, sovereign being, not a belief system or a group of people incapable of making their own decisions.
Third, he actually knows what's good. In fact, our definition of good is derived from who God is, not the other way around. Something is good because it's like God.

Here's some of Jesus' words on the subject, from Mark 10:
17 As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him and fell on his knees before him. "Good teacher," he asked, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?"
18 "Why do you call me good?" Jesus answered. "No one is good—except God alone."

Joanna said...

I'm surprised more people didn't catch this phrase and were bothered by it. (a Forbes columnist did)

I agree with you, Matt, the greatest force for good in the history of the world is God. To say it's America instead of God is making dangerous assumptions- that America is infalliable and that God is on AMERICA'S side (rather than seeking to be on His). I preferred the more humble approach of saying "America is a force of good in the world"- a very worthy goal to live up to, but based on better assumptions (Good can be done by other movements, we need to work together with other good-doers, God is the "greatest"- not us).

LinkWithin

Blog Widget by LinkWithin