A. Context and Assumptions.
True or authentic religion can be defined as religion which
endeavours to help life flourish 1 . It is transformative in nature.
Wherever one sees life struggling to emerge, that is where the
influence of God is located. The mandate of theology is to
facilitate this process by clarifying the terrain and trying to
discern a path towards life2. The purpose of this paper is to
provide for consideration an initial, informal sketch of how to best
position the RLDS church in this task. It combines the focus of last
year's Colloquy of "Revisioning" with this year's theme of "Justice".
Justice is a category within ethics. Ethics is derived, is in
response to the Goodness that we frame theologically and remains in a
dialectic with it3. Theology is contextual in nature, being couched
in and moulded by an overarching worldview, and within that more
specifically a sense of the human person which further shapes and is
shaped in the dialectic. This whole complex must be kept in view in
this consideration.
I start with the context. What are the salient features of today's
context for the RLDS church? Out of all the possibilities, I choose
two words which coalesce perceptions of certain phenomena or
concerns, at least in the North American middle-class context4:
`global' and `post-modern'. `Global' represents insights and
concerns regarding the relationships on this planet - economic,
environmental, political. `Post-modern' points to concerns of
thought and meaning. Not necessarily independent, both impact the
notions of justice and openness.
In relation to this paper, some key `global' insights are:
1. Life needs to be defined as everything within the planetary
biosphere. Within that, is the descriptive insight of the complex
interrelatedness of the various levels of life; and the ensuing
need for sustainability (not without ambiguity);
2. Economically, there is enormous world-wide inter-connectedness and
shifting of capital, raw materials and labour pools. What we buy
comes attached with environmental and social implications,
although doing ethical analysis can be extremely difficult.
Systemic injustices are easily fortified: buying hamburgers may
destroy rainforests; buying teak may cause floods; buying a shirt
may support child or prison labour. This quickly casts us as
oppressor while at the same time finds us caught by incredibly
powerful influences such as consumerism, and (GATT with its)
global corporate re-alignments and oft associated North American
downsizing, (World Bank and markets with its ensuing) fixation by
Western world governments on deficit-reduction, all which will
affect our response.
3. On the international political scene we remain very primitive, at
times abhorrent. We remain a collection of nation-states with
narrow views of national self-interests.
The word `post-modern' covers a diffuse range of concerns, whether or
not one ultimately supports their final analysis. But some basic
threads seem to be:
1. Rejection of a universal notion of truth, and a rejection of
metaphysics. Truth is relative, often seen as culturally derived.
Language is not a direct reflection of reality out there.
2. Rejection of a unifying view of history and modern view of
progress. One cannot grasp the whole, only a particular
perspective.
3. Rejection of the notion of a centred self, and self as a
metaphysical subject behind our thoughts and feelings. Whatever
self is, it is a part of community and traditions.
In sum, a loss of confidence in the inherited order of things.
What these two words represent should not be seen only in a negative
light. Far from it. Global conditions seem baffling and intrenched
injustices intractable. But influence is possible. And postmodern
is not simply disillusionment with what was trustworthy. There are
also glimmers of new, perhaps at times even more solid formulations.
The basic intent of this paper is first of all to say that neither
the concept of justice nor openness on their own form an adequate
response within the above context. Only in combination can they form
a potent mix, and even that has associated disclaimers. Basically
openness requires justice to prevent self-serving agendas; justice
requires openness to avoid outdated solutions or ideological
blinders. Secondly, having sketched the terrain somewhat, attention
will be turned to the other aspect of theology's mandate - trying to
discern a path towards life - by listing some practical ideas for the
RLDS church to consider.
B. What is Openness?
Given the above context, openness becomes one of the essential
ingredients for a hopeful future. At its most basic openness
involves some basic principles, discussed in previous work, but given
for reference:
1. Be willing to face reality as currently perceived.
2. Be willing to recognize our limited perspective.
3. Refrain from forming final answers until the answers are clear.
4. Remain true to one's current understanding and be willing to live
it out.
5. Be compassionate in all one does.
Openness is not really about being open to new ideas (the standard
liberal stance; these five principles without explanation seem to
fall into this); it is about being open to life - a fundamental
stance involving the totality of a person, and most basically
including the spiritual dimensions. New ideas may or may not have
anything to do with nurturing life.
There are certain deeper probings, beyond the scope of this paper,
having to do with the question of the fundamental nature of openness.
Without openness, how does love enter? Does not even the Spirit of
God mournfully pass by? There is a certain kinship here, not to be
overplayed, with Heidegger's later work "The End of Philosophy and
the Task of Thinking" where the forest opening becomes the key focus
after the dismantling of philosophy-as-technology. Does religion
tend to be mis-focused or perhaps not focused enough? Perhaps we
might find that God is not Mystery, God is constant and sure; instead
it is openness that is Mystery.
C. What is Justice?
Justice deals most basically with what one is due. Justice can be
seen as a moral norm which breaks into various categories such as
commutative justice (for example, equal pay for equal work),
administrative justice (do aboriginal peoples receive the same
treatment in the legal system as whites?) and distributive justice
(how to fairly distribute the goods of society, including power5).
Justice can also be seen as a more encompassing social ideal (as in
some liberation theologies), almost equivalent to the good society.
In this paper justice will be treated in the standard notion of a
norm.
Ethics has been framed as "acting morally in relative ignorance" and
books like Roger Shinn's highly regarded Forced Options indicate that
many things facing us have little precedent. Thus, due to the
complexity of life, justice requires openness. We have no privileged
objective position for viewing pure justice. On the one hand
openness may help us break through our inherited distortions:
Dom Helder {Camara} had more than once looked at the miserable
huts and caves perched on the slopes around Rio. "I had felt
the problem" - he reminisces - "but without getting involved in
the struggle." As he got involved, his views began to
radicalize. . . . He began to be vocal about it, and his
denunciations touched the sore political, economic, social
spots. "I am not an expert. . . . I am only a pastor who is
there and sees his people suffer." 6
And, on the other hand, openness may help to prevent just causes from
unravelling. Wogaman indicates that righteous causes do not
necessarily remain so:
... [one of the contributions of liberation theology is
that it] ... will never again be as easy for Christian
ethics to ignore the extent to which theological views
serve selfish personal and group interests. Ironically,
that also entails searching criticism of the extent to
which a social justice cause can itself confer special
privilege upon its leaders and the frequency with which
revolutionary movements, having gained power, turn to new
forms of oppression . . . though that by no means
vitiates the importance of moral critique of social
location. 7The Universal - Particular Tension
Ethics uses or assumes in its underlying worldview social theories
about how people interact in society. Theories are abstractions and
generalizations, and as such have come under sharp attack from
postmodernists, feminists and others. They easily disassociate
people, mask faces, keep people voiceless and nameless or objectify
them. For instance, Robert K. Thomas, a Cherokee anthropologist, is
concerned with the effect abstract categories of social theories can
have. He warns his fellow Native Americans against adopting the
definition of themselves as a "standard racial minority of American
society", letting themselves be defined by some abstract categories
as if those categories were real 8 .
Instead, the use of narratives has been used as a corrective.
Narratives maintain the context, flavour and face of a statement.
This paper states that justice must be done from a global
perspective. And so to clarify "global perspective", I will use
Thomas Dean's distinction between universal as `data' and as
`perspective'. The latter is rejected as no unattached objective
perspective is possible. But universal as data is acceptable. That
is, this paper claims that there is some data that all contexts doing
justice need to take into account, the data here being the meaning of
the word `global' in the introduction in terms of interrelated life,
global economic systems and politics. Doing justice without keeping
these in view is prone to partial solutions and to being at cross
purposes with itself.
The Justice - Common Good Tension
Most thought around justice typically ignored arguments for the
common good and with good reason - common good arguments were usually
made by those in power to maintain their well-being and who were
ignorant or indifferent to the implications for the poor. This is a
necessary insight, but it does not follow that the norm of the common
good should be ignored, and remains a crucial norm in the global
context, although as illustrated by the environment - development
question, how much weight to give it remains unresolved 9.
The Notion of Gauges.
In a complex world or a world where human objectivity is suspect,
courses of action need continual evaluation. Part of this must be
the establishment of gauges where possible. It lessens the
likelihood of justice being usurped by ideology, by such character
traits as excessive optimism, or as Wogamann indicates, by issues of
human nature and power, suggesting the need for gauges within a
movement itself. In general gauges provide a progress report. They
do not directly liberate10 although if the gauge doesn't move, they
can, by using the action-reflection cycle, become a catalyst to lead
to root causes.
Making Connections.
Since last summer in Vancouver, it has become almost impossible to
buy unbleached products such as toilet paper. Scott Paper Ltd had
stopped supplying them even though they had accounted for about 20%
of the Canadian market. The previous year the U.S. parent company
hired Albert Dunlap, also known as "Rambo in pinstripes". He is a
corporate-downsizing expert hired to restructure the company in order
to increase profits, and has become the toast of Wall Street. He cut
11,000 jobs, relocated head offices, eliminated all gifts to
charities, and forbade managers from being involved in community
activities as it takes away from their business duties 11.
Paper is bleached through chlorine bleaching, and more recently
chlorine-dioxide bleaching. Both leave toxic discharges such as
dioxins, although the latter leaves about 1/5 of the amount but is 10
times more dangerous as a gas around the mills. An EPA study leaked
last year, indicates our current level of exposure to such toxic
elements is 300 to 600 times above the safe level and reaffirmed
possible links to cancer and other problems (immune, nervous
respiratory and reproductive).
Thus for something as innocuous as toilet paper, the connections
include our buying choices, corporate directions, workers health,
unemployment, charity funding, community vitality and the health of
everyone including the eco-system. Forward steps such as unbleached
paper, do not always remain such. Without gauges, even such as
shelf-space, one is easily left adrift.
D. Levels of Engagement
For myself and perhaps most white middle-class North Americans,
engaging in the issue of justice is a gradual process. For later
comment three stages will be somewhat arbitrarily delineated.
Level one: justice as pacifier: And as affinity to the idea of
justice.
At this level I felt a genuine urge to help others but
channelled that either by giving to UNICEF or by seeing Zion as the
light on the hill - we must be that type of people so the world will
know the way it is meant to be. Very genuine feeling and response,
but it kept one isolated and thus largely ignorant. Like having a
donation box for the food bank - these can be valuable efforts but
there may be no real contact or engagement with the people and issues
and at best one treats symptoms not causes.
At times, even my own studies on justice have become an academic
pacifier for me as I come to such conferences seeking ever more
insight on the idea of justice rather than seeking deeper commitment
to justice.
Level two: commitment to justice:
Consider again the Camara quote: "I had felt the problem but without
getting involved in the struggle." This is what distinguishes level
one from level two. How many previous bishops had felt the same but
never went beyond that sentence? What allowed for Camara's openness
to alternatives?
Regardless, it is clear that this is a quantum step, requiring as
Ruether says, a metanoia, a changing of consciousness, a conversion
or commitment. I can't say that I am usually there.
Level three: Steadfastness:
This is probably part of level two. I separate it out for it more
clearly shows the complexity involved. Comparing global justice,
that is, what is due all people and all life with what we currently
have, I can't help but think of the words of Mark 7:27. Allowing the
dogs under the table to eat the odd crumb may be deemed good, but
somehow it is not justice. If we are going to talk about justice,
let us keep our language clear. We are so incredibly unjust and due
to our most basic commandment to love neighbour as self, we are so
utterly immoral12. If that was really my child or mother or brother
starving, or forced into prostitution, would I give my $50 to Oxfam
and say, "there that will do it"? If that was my child, what would I
not do? So no, I do not love all people equally; most get an
occasional crumb. I want to rage should "I love all people!" ever be
uttered again in this church. But that would be wrong. Such is
response from God's Good Spirit, so let it be heard, it may be our
only hope - but only if it is followed by "and here is how I will
respond". Without that phrase, it is self-gratifying, emotional
slop.
In seeing over 500,000 people hacked to death when a few thousand
troops could have shut down the Rwandan genocide in a couple of days;
in knowing that the rich-poor gap continues to widen in spite of all
the wonderful and innovative efforts to date; these and other
continuing downward trends leave me with two emotions. One is a
lingering sadness: I don't try to remove or avoid it; I don't feel
wise, smart or even humble; I just grieve. The other is a resolve -
what I call steadfastness, what Ruether calls "committed love" and
"patient passion", what McFague says is "the hope against hope that
our efforts are not ours alone but that the source and power of life
in the universe is working in and through us for the well-being of
all creation"13.
E. Practical Considerations for the RLDS Church.
The above analysis indicates that while certain sensitivities are
needed, the concepts are straightforward. Yet clarification does not
necessarily lead to action. If there is hope in addressing the
demands of justice from a global perspective as it pertains to the
middle-class Western world, it is located in the notion of community.
That is, while some people of their own initiative can shape their
overall response more appropriately - whether greatly reducing their
dependence on petroleum products or choosing a career in
international law - overall such transformations will need community
to accomplish and maintain the necessary and dramatic changes needed.
Without that (and in all likelihood the route that will be
followed14), change will only occur when the problems of our global
reality directly impact this dominant group, and long after it has
meant suffering, dislocation, or death to marginalized people.
While such community will include networking with other groups, this
paper will focus on the implications for the RLDS church.
Specifically this section will sketch out two areas: a sense of our
history, and a possible supporting structure for committed groups.
1. Tradition: Reconsidering our History.
There are tendencies in me to pursue justice ahistorically, that is,
in a truncated fashion within the church - to simply no longer talk
of our past, but simply focus on justice issues as they arise today
in the world (who cares about Nauvoo given the Rwandan genocide?!).
It is true that in isolated contexts, there is no need to consider
our particular history. But overall, history and its interpretation
remain key components in seeking out more just patterns; we can
hardly advocate that without doing the same ourselves.
So the, what is the most appropriate interpretations(s) of our past
for today? To me, we are a church well-positioned to more fully
embrace openness and I think it valid to reinterpret our history from
that of the story of the one true church, to a story of the thread of
ongoing openness. The thread includes
- the formative story of the openness of a young boy in a grove,
just wanting to know what to do;
- the young Joseph and his openness to being wrong and his later
seeming closed outlook and consequences15.
- Joseph Smith III and his and others' expanded view of Zion;
- Elbert A. Smiths's formative counsel;
- The church's response to the issue of polygamy in India (Doctrine
and Covenants 150);
- The church's responde to the ordination of women and the call to
pursue peace (Doctrine and Covenants 156).
Among other things it allows one to name Nauvoo for what it was,
without losing that basic defining thread of who we are.
2. Tradition: Strengthening the justice link.
Zion was our call to social action, our link between the gospel and
social dimensions; but it was to be built via spiritual activity and
moral character - the pure in heart, light on a hill, living and
acting honestly and honourably toward all men (start of a possible
shift); thus we need to strengthen that heritage with a justice link.
Of course there are powerful biblical scriptures to assist us.
However, I wish to mention three that are directly linked to our
tradition of Zionic thought. The first is in the Inspired Version:
Gen 6:23: And the Lord called his people, Zion, because
they were of one heart and of one mind, and dwelt in
righteousness; and there were no poor among them.
Originally seeing that final phrase as redundant, I now see it as
absolutely essential - "there were no poor among them" is the gauge!
The second scripture is from DC 16:3, which states that the worth of
souls is great in the sight of God and how great is the joy in
heaven, even if you should labour all your days and bring save it be
one soul unto God. When the justice cause seems hopelessly entangled
in seemingly unmoveable forces, this can provide reason enough to
carry on.
With Doctrine and Covenants 156, we have the invigorating call to
pursue peace. An academic synthesis of peace-justice-openness, while
needing continuing refining, is simple:
Peace is defined as the well-being of all life, always
open to further insight, based on and moving to bring
about justice for all, gauged by the effect on the most
disadvantaged16.
The difficulty is in the implementation. The final considerations
are in relation to that task.
3. Supporting the Peace-Justice Impulse.
The following are given for consideration if not already being
examined. The overall suggestion is that the Church needs
deliberately and specifically to consider how to support the peace-
justice impulse in the church. Consider what may be staring us in
the face. President Smith has recently voiced concerns about the
lack of real commitment . Yet this peace-justice impulse lends
itself to precisely that for a certain segment of the church
membership. It should be capitalized on while the window exists.
Here are some possibilities.
(a) Communities of Joy or Communities of Celebration and Resistance.
In Gaia and God, Ruether's analysis concludes that for a healed
society, for earth healing, in the face of the "intransigent system
of death" it will be necessary to carry on the struggle in a
sustained way by building strong base communities of celebration and
resistance18. She means building local face-to-face groups to
provide an ongoing process of metanoia, or change of consciousness
and ongoing transformation. She recognizes that one group probably
can't provide all three aspects of this (nurturing the inner
spiritual self and group nurturing; utilizing local institutions
where we have fairly direct control; and building regional and
international networks).
I agree with Ruether: nothing short of a process of conversion and
ongoing nurturing within a community setting will sustain oneself
over a long period of time. Justice from a global perspective
involves changing habits and patterns and grappling with endless
analyses - all without ever getting much feedback. This is a long
term process and so it simply needs the ongoing support that comes
from being within a committed group. And while I have my doubts that
even that is workable given the pull of consumerism, the focus on
individual self-gratification, the mobility of society plus the
seemingly unavoidable demands placed on the modern family in urban
contexts, it is the best scenario that we have. And the church's
genuine threads of openness and spirituality and social concern,
coupled with the recent toward peace-justice impulse, position the
church well to make some inroads. While a certain level of
conversion and ongoing transformation could (and does) take place
within the overall congregation and should continue to be nurtured, I
think that what is most likely to succeed are smaller, highly
committed group settings, supported by World Church resources19 plus
supported and supporting local community groups.
(b) Develop Stewardship 2000, Part II.
Part I concentrated on giving with the laudable goal of helping to
bolster programs of ministry. Orval Fisher's Family Financial
Planning contains sensible objectives to be in control of one's
finances in the broad sense. What is needed now are guidelines to
help order our other dimensions of life in line with the nurturing of
all life on this planet. Here are two examples:
1. Based on the above "connections", set forth lifestyle
guidelines for implementing solutions. It would include buying
habits (consume less, buy products that are least damaging to the
environment, buy locally 20 , etc), eating habits (try to eat lower
on the food chain), investments (seeking out ethical funds), etc.
2. Gauges: along with annual tithing and consecration form do
personal and congregational inventory of such things as household
power usage, car gas consumption, garbage creation, etc to see if
we really are stewards.
(c) Decision-Making Analysis.
1. Continue the balancing of increasing the local autonomy of
jurisdictions (since there are such contextual variations) while
at the same time maintaining some overall cohesion (since some
issues can only be addressed at global levels which needs a broad-
based voice).
2. Ensure adequate checks and balances are in place in all areas
of church structure to safeguard adequate voices and perspectives.
From my perspective the decision-making structure of the Temple
building process failed that test badly.
Related, consider an analysis of the structural make-up of the
Temple programs in terms of their compatibility with the
Temple's overall objectives: who decides the funding and
proposed budgets, the programs, the hiring, and so on. I am
not saying that we do or do not need to clean up our backyard;
I am simply saying we need to know our backyard.
(d) Regarding the Temple Peace Center or other resource provider.
1. Establish "connections" that can then be used to give to the
local committed groups. There are many organizations which do
such analysis and so it may often be a case of obtaining and
distilling reports from two or more differing views on a given
area.
2. Establish responses and gauges where possible.
3. Sponsor leadership / membership awareness seminars. For
example, at the macro-level of economics, alternatives should
be widely disseminated21. That is, Daly & Cobb's book in
distilled form, could be as widely digested by leadership and
membership as Covey's The Seven Habits book.
(e) Regarding Temple School or other education providers:
1. Develop experiential educational opportunities via direct
contact and immersion settings, such as the GATE program
(Global Awareness Through Experience), through site visits with
World Accord or Outreach International, etc.
2. Develop programs to equip the leadership and membership with
ethical / social analysis skills.
Conclusions.
In the final analysis I do take hope because insights continue: it
may be in finding that up to 80% of people in prison are dyslexic -
this points to preventative measures; it may be in unmasking the
extent of wife and child abuse - this allows for analysis; it may be
in the Third World contexts in seeing the value of partnering, the
power of micro-enterprises, or the incredible value of the
empowerment of women. And so steadfastness, step by step, forming
committed groups, taking insights and making connections, creating
gauges, adjusting actions, all in the hermeneutic circle, - this the
church can do!
And for those willing to endure, then maybe, just maybe, another
South Africa someday will be on the horizon, just waiting to break
through.
ENDNOTES:
1 (i) The phrase "true religion" (a) is used to distinguish from obscene
religion such as Jonestown; (b) is not referring to religion in the
Barthian sense as humanity's attempts to reach God (in contradistinction
to the real concern of theology, God's self-disclosure); and (c) does not
exclude religions other than Christianity. The tying of true religion to
life rather than to correct religious beliefs or devotion finds support
with Hans Kung, although I find his wording too anthropocentric. He does
also include secondarily canonical and "specifically Christian" criteria
as well, with which I have little trouble. (Hans Kung: Theology for the
Third Millennium: An Ecumenical View, (New York: Doubleday, 1988), 240-
253).
(ii) Flourish is meant in the fuller sense of the word, not simply an inner
spiritual or life-after-death flourishing, but first and foremost in terms
of basic life needs - food, water, sustainable eco-systems, for humans,
beyond that, a sense of being alive (Joseph Campbell), and so on;
(iii) I employ the usual category of pan-en-theism regarding the nature of
God.
(iv) This is not ethics defining religion, although I feel there is more of
a dialectic than is often acknowledged.
2 (a) To clarify, this is not simply sociological analysis; it does involve
"faith seeking understanding" for, siding with McFague, "Christian faith
is most basically a claim that the universe is neither indifferent nor
malevolent but that there is a power (and a personal one at that) which is
on the side of life and its fulfilment", and further that the Christian
believes we have some clues for fleshing out this claim, (Sallie McFague:
Models of God, (Philadelphia, Fortress Press), p. x). But my statement
does suggest more than faith seeking understanding, a rational end; rather
it is more like "faith seeking engagement, seeking its home, supporting
itself: life; life grounded in God".
(b) To be clear there is an in underlying agenda at work here - to frame
our religious concepts and use our language in a more life-focused, rather
than God-focused manner. It is simply what I find most promising,
although the Ellingsen book makes clear that a variety of theological
perspectives can come up with decent ethical evaluations.
3 This is in keeping with Segundo's hermeneutical circle, or as I have
stated it, a four-stage cyclical process of awareness, facts, action, and
reflection.
4 I feel a loss at having the overwhelming majority of work being done in
and by the white, English-speaking, primarily middle-class Western world.
5 Reinhold Neibuhr, The Nature & Destiny of Man, Vol 2, (New York: Charles
Scribner's Sons, 1941, 1964), 265ff.
6 Jose Miguez Bonino, Doing Theology in a Revolutionary Situation
(Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1975), 45.
7 J. Philip Wogaman: Christian Ethics A Historical Introduction,
(Louisville: John Knox Press, 1993) 256.
8 R. K. Thomas, Getting to the Heart of the Matter, (Vancouver: Native
Ministries Consortium, Vancouver School of Theology, 1990), 72, as quoted
in Terence R. Anderson, Walking the Way: Christian Ethics as a Guide,
Toronto: United Church Publishing House, 1993), 206-7.
9 The U.N.'s Brundtland Report has helped to orient the discussion along
more fruitful lines with its notion of sustainable development, but
even that has it sceptics, such as some of British Columbia's
aboriginal people, who fear that this term may become sustainable
exploitation.
10 See Julian Edney, "Free Riders En Route to Disaster", Psychology Today,
Aug/79. It described an experiment to see how people behave with
issues dealing with the commons - things we must jointly share. The
result was that two features needed to be present to avoid depleting
the commons: a gauge of the current level, and the ability to discuss
with others what strategy to pursue. Both had to be in place, and
even that did not guarantee success. Gauges, although essential, were
by themselves inadequate.
11 Postscript: Three days after the Colloquy, Scott Paper announced record
profits and doubled its dividend payments to shareholders. While
sales increased 25%, profits jumped almost ten-fold.
12 I am referring to the word `immoral' somewhat in the same sense as
Reinholt Neibuhr in Moral Man, Immoral Society.
13 Sallie McFague: The Body of God: An Ecological Theology, (Mineapolis:
Fortress Press, 1993), 212.
14 This is the route that has been and is being followed overall. There are
exceptions - the marginalized do make gains, such as in South Africa,
and some people on top do make responses out of duty or compassion
rather than desperate self-interest only. But it has been highly
insufficient.
15 See Richard P. Howard, The Church Through the Years, Volume I,
(Independence, Herald House, 1992), 81-86.
16 To clarify, the notion of gauge must not be seen as quantifying and
objectifying the marginalized; rather it is through listening to them,
through dialogue, that gauges emerge.
17 The Saints Herald, January 1996.
18 Rosemary Radford Ruether: Gaia and God: An Ecofeminist Theology of Earth
Healing, (San Francisco: Harper, 1992), 268-9.
19 The "Communities of Joy" emphasis based on local decision-making is a step
in the right direction, allowing for local groups to form, though not
indicating that specific resources will be dedicated to it as part of
the World Church's overall commitment to justice. As well, its lack
of "and Resistance" shows the general liberal slant that remains part
of our ethos.
20 John Cobb, Jr: Sustaining the Common Good: A Christian Perspective on the
Common Good, (Cleveland: Pilgrim Press, 1994), 12-13.
21 For example, the highly acclaimed Herman E. Daly and John Cobb, Jr.: For
The Common Good: Redirecting the Economy Toward Community, the
Environment, and a Sustainable Future, (Boston: Beacon Press, 1989).
RLDS Church - is the short name for The Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day
Saints. For further information, see RLDS.