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THE QUESTION
Curing Social Problems
Rick Warren's Saddleback Church just hosted its third "Global Summit on AIDS and the Church." Do you think the world's biggest social problems -- poverty, disease, homelessness -- can be cured by well-intentioned religious believers?
Posted by
Sally Quinn and Jon Meacham on December 12, 2007 4:02 AM
FROM THE PANEL
Temporal and Eternal Cures
It is Jesus Christ who has the ultimate answer to the poverty of the soul and the "disease" called sin.
Posted by Cal Thomas, on December 14, 2007 1:30 PM
God Save Us from Some “Well-intentioned Religious Believers”
Can big social problems be solved by “well-intentioned religious believers”? Not without telling the truth about homophobia, about greed or about selfishness.
Posted by Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite, on December 14, 2007 12:32 PM
Do Not Be Discouraged
If our motivation is to “cure” poverty—and all disease and homelessness—we are bound to become disillusioned.
Posted by Richard Mouw, on December 14, 2007 10:13 AM
Religion No Panacea For Social Injustice
What many religious figures, including the empire-builder Rick Warren, do is confuse charity with work for fundamental social change.
Posted by Susan Jacoby, on December 13, 2007 2:05 PM
Saving the World and Ourselves
We must engage in acts of compassion but also analyze the systems that cause and maintain perennial social ills
Posted by Gabriel Salguero, on December 13, 2007 1:26 PM
Faith is One Door to Good Works
I wish people who get hysterical about teddy bears or cartoons would put their energy into good works that help people.
Posted by Pamela K. Taylor, on December 13, 2007 11:41 AM
AIDS, Condoms and Dogma
In practice the selflessness of such people can be awe inspiring. But at a policy level when they see practical problems through the narrow prism of dogma the results can be shocking.
Posted by Christopher Dickey, on December 13, 2007 11:19 AM
Christ Calls Us To Try
Jesus was acutely aware that the poor would always be with us but that did not mean that we should not engage in the hard work of ending poverty.
Posted by John Bryson Chane, on December 12, 2007 8:01 AM
A Faith of Hope
I believe God uses the efforts of well-intentioned believers, who rely on His strength, to shine into the darkness and advance the light.
Posted by Charles "Chuck" Colson, on December 12, 2007 6:57 AM
Religion, Heal Thyself First
The major challenge to religion is not whether it can cure the world’s biggest social problems but whether it will make things incredibly worse.
Posted by Irwin Kula, on December 6, 2007 10:07 AM
Good Intentions Not Enough
According to Gandhi's philosophy of nonviolence, when a good act is performed with such expectations the results are never what one desires.
Posted by Arun Gandhi, on December 6, 2007 9:09 AM
Believers Must Value Truth and Facts
Religion inspires believers to be concerned for their neighbors whom they see as children of the same God.
Posted by Thomas J. Reese, S.J., on December 6, 2007 7:20 AM
Faith Turns Dreams into Deeds
I’m not hopeful that governments will successfully attack the great social problems, but I am hopeful that “religious believers” will continue to do so.
Posted by Willis E. Elliott, on December 5, 2007 8:40 AM
No artificial distinctions
The best efforts to attack poverty, disease and homelessness will be partnerships between deeply committed individuals -- religious and secular.
Posted by Michael Otterson, on December 5, 2007 6:27 AM
FEATURED COMMENTS
Kay: I believe that people in the church probably have a better motivation than politicians do to actually do something about homelessness and p...
Terry Bond: Religion, by its own definition, is only interested in the ‘poverty of the soul’ and teaches that material desire is a sin. As Mother Teres...
Marco Polo: Ok.....Poverty and homelessness.
These can be solved by better economics and universal health care.
Disease.
Fix every ailment, yet lik...
