Thomas K. Johnson hat als Vertreter der Weltweiten Evangelischen Allianz einen Vortrag am Dignitatis Humanae Institute des Vatikans halten dürfen. Er stellte die Frage: Wie soll sich die Kirche zur Armutsfrage positionieren? Seine Schlussfolgerung:
Our western culture is in a difficult situation. It lacks a definition of humanness to guide education, politics, and economic life. People suspect that others do not believe their own words because they know they do not entirely believe their own words. And everyone but a psychopath has a God-given sympathy reaction to people in need. We as Christians have a large duty to show that we really believe what we say we believe about humans being created in the image of God and God’s special concern for people in the most difficult situations. But the moment we treat a person as an object of concern we can hurt that person more. God has chosen to engage us through our consciousness and our subjectivity in redemption; imitating God, we have to engage people in the worst circumstances through their subjectivity, meaning through what they think, feel, and decide. Then we can begin to practice our complex Christian relationship to poverty and wealth.
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