Christian Moral Theology engages questions and issues that invite discussion and interpretation of convictions through lenses of theology, using The Bible as one of its chief sources. It involves examination of perspectives through sociology, history, religion, ethics, policy, politics, ecclesiology, ideology, law, culture, and societal expectations and standards. This paper will focus on answering the question if Christians should desire happiness or not, and if they should, what are the reasons for their doing.
Furthermore, the paper will include class lectures and course readings. Using myself as a specimen, I would answer the above mentioned question that I as Christian desire happiness because it is a legal, moral, ethical and Christian right for me to desire and hope for it. When I state “Christian right,” I mean to claim my inheritance to the Family of God who is Love and my identity as a God’s child. The reason for me to desire is because I believe in a living God and not a deceased God.
I believe in a living Christ who died and was resurrected. Though the secular world does not believe in the Triune God nor accept the fact that God can appear to someone in a vision today, or that Christ can appear to people like he appeared to his disciples on the road to Emmaus, I desire happiness because the source of grace, peace, happiness, contentment, blessings and rejuvenation is God. All blessings come from God and one needs to be attentive to that. Augustine mentions this as “following after God is the desire of happiness. (chapter 11)
Prayer is a channel that makes the relationship between man and God strong and healthy, but what makes it distant is the attitude of humans toward God and that relationship between them. God’s love remains faithful, but the relationship between the two becomes distant when humans want to experience negative transformation. (Using Doctrine of God class as a source) Some of the ways through which humans become distant from God is doubt, suspicion, double-mindedness, losing one’s faith in oneself, in God, in the God given gifts and, one’s future that is related to it.
Above all, one loses faith in God’s power to grant one happiness, a new hope and begin a new journey with God and people. In the present era, technology is so advanced that one forgets that as Christians our rule of life that involves devotion, prayer, scripture reading, fasting, family worship and, meditation deeply and strongly affects our relationships with God. Whether it happens unknowing or on purpose, it creates a way of its own, distancing one with the people, God and oneself. I believe one of the reasons is the culture and its ideology.
The western world has become so engaged in one’s own business that it is busyness, work, no Sabbath, no hospitality, no love, no concern for anyone other than their individual elves, living out individualism, and marginalization. Using Dr. Brent Waters’ words about those that use technology a lot, it “allows them to ignore the person next to them. ” Though the western culture focuses on creating “community” or “building a community,” Dr. Waters mentions the word “community” has a standard and expectation of accountability. Furthermore, he also mentions that one does not build a community.
Using biblical image and engaging theology, it is important to state that most of the Christians gather in one place and not space. That is why, most of the churches are a social ground for people because they gather only for the sake of attending a service, not realizing that their coming together for worship signifies their one mindedness and love to worship God. Also, the fellowship hours or church breakfasts, dinners and outings usually ask church members to buy tickets for food, which means those that can afford to buy the tickets to a meal have the chance to feel they are “invited” but not the rest of them.
Is the church not making a fault to marginalize the rest, though in some instances churches do provide free tickets for meals. Do the Christians, that are church members but cannot afford, have the right to eat with the rest of the church attendee/members? Do those that are visitors not have a Christian, moral and ethical right to be received with loved through acts of hospitality? Is the church trying to convey a message that through it is Ash Wednesday, the meal is only for those that have signed up, and paid money to buy online tickets?
What about those that might not have access to signing up online? Before I claim that the concept of homelessness is very different in the U. S. , I would define the idea of homelessness. For a country like Pakistan, the communal culture encourages people to take in one’s family member, relative, friend or even an acquaintance in refuge, at a time of their crisis, financial bankruptcy, loss of job or even death of a person. If by chance, the person has no one that he or she can look up to, that person would be forced to either become a beggar or try best working beneath one’s educational standard.
Having stated that, this happens rare because either the person would be part of a join family or would be a nuclear family and even as a nuclear family might have some savings in their bank accounts. Even though there has been a loss of job, or lack of finance, the love of his family, near or distant, even neighbors, would help that person survive and make a comeback. This would fall in the category of poverty but not typically homelessness.
Those who sleep on the streets might be the laborers who survive on daily ages and having lack of finances would sleep on the streets and send their savings to the families where they come from. Hence, people sleeping on the streets or in the parks most likely have someone in their lives, it is rare that some have no kindred, but one cannot deny that either. Contrary to this, the homelessness in a culture like the U. S. , would be called a systemic evil because it is operated through a pattern that is about taxes and loans, student debts, health insurance, medical bills.
Once a person crosses the barrier of being able to pay off the debt of loans, he or she has not place to live. And, if some family member is kind to offer them a place to live, other basic necessities might be a challenge, including finding a job or looking after a new child, family or the children’s education. This is not the same as the poverty in other places. At the same time, I do not think that I have seen a church that would desire to reach out to preach, teach and administer sacraments to the poor, homeless, marginalized, or janitors.
Why would any church be interested in doing that, because there would be no tithes from the people? Most of the churches have requirement that their church members pay their tithes, and offerings to continue their membership. What about people who cannot afford to do so, would the church not be at fault to cut their names from the membership’s list because those certain people were unable to send their gifts to the church? In this regard, is a certain church taking “tax” from people to attend their church, and not worship God with other believers?
Is it not the church’s task to reach out to the unchurched, unbaptized, poor, weak, forgotten and marginalized people? If the church has forgotten what it originally has been called for, then it is like a wedded wife who was once married, and now acts as if it had been an era that she had been widowed, she not only lost her husband, but has a full right to look for her future husband, but through her coquetry. The churches that are called to serve the people of God are meant to be a source of spiritual formation.
The sermons, worship, leadership, administration, sacraments, all re meant to nourish people’s minds and hearts. If the church leaders themselves are famished spiritually, how can one expect them to them to work with their existing spiritual malnutrition and be a good inspiration? Though having tattoos on one’s body is not only a debatable topic, it also carries with it a cultural essence, would any Christian desire to seek happiness through the making of tattoos on their bodies? I see it as a form of idolatry and one that God did not command in the Bible. If humans had needed any of that, God would have marked us with that.
Leviticus 19:28 states “You shall not make any gashes in your flesh for the dead or tattoo any marks upon you: I am the Lord. ” Furthermore, the scripture mentions God’s love for humans whose names are engraved on the palm of his hands. This indicates who much God loves humans. Also, that God has given some people birth marks on their bodies, but we are the work of the artist. Stepping further in the question “Who gets to be called a Christian,” I am eager to ask if animals as God’s creation have a right to be called Christians or not.
This might be an unusual question, but I am reminded of the people and animals in Nineveh that did not eat any food when Jonah shared God’s word with them. (Jonah 3:7) Though I am trying to qualify animals as equal to the humans, I am asking if God can have compassion on God’s entire creation, including animals, should the humans not show compassion on animals too. Does it not indicate that not only because the earth is the Lord’s and everything that is in it, God’s creation is the unnamed Christian congregation? In other words, if the humans are the Church, what about the animals?
Can we call them the unbaptized Christians too? Sometimes, I wonder if the birds not only chirp, they praise God because God talks with them, just like Jonah 2:10 mentions God “ordered” the whale which means God communicated with the wale. Though animals do not have the same status as humans, do the animals also not desire to receive love, compassion and mercy, and not intolerant injustices from humans, like the dogs and pigs that are boiled alive for food? Do the baptized Christians forget that animals are God’s Creation and not theirs .
Animals belong to God and they should treat them without brutality and persecution. Augustan states in chapter 15 “justice is love serving only the loved object. ” This signifies the love that one can or should have toward the other. If humans understand that animals also deserve love, the Christian animals would also receive justice. Desire for better education and future is a conviction that people have. Some feel that they can experience a happy and better future if they receive good, expensive and/or higher education.
Education requires money, but in countries like India and Pakistan, parents provide money for education for their children. In a country like the U. S. , students either depend on scholarship and endowment funds or apply for student loans. In chapter 21, Augustan makes the claim that “man is confirmed to whatever he loves,” in this scenario, if Christians of the U. S. , who desire a better and happy life, do not opt for student loans through the government, they can experience deprivation of education which will hinder their desire for attaining better jobs, positions and salaries.
In a country like Pakistan, a Christian is not allowed to have access to well reputed university or college, nor does the government consider that Christian is a Pakistani, rather an infidel, a worshiper of three gods, not allowing a special minority slot for Christians. If a Christian tries to receive higher education abroad and later work there, the Muslim Pakistanis would claim that Christian’s unfaithfulness to the country and further claim that Christians are pro-America. This brings forth a question if Pakistani Christians cannot receive education or jobs, what do they do?
On a separate note, if any Christian does not make use of the God given talents that one has, one would be like that lazy servant mentioned in the parable of the talents who dug his one talent in the Earth and on the return of his master, gave that talent back to him. (Matthew 25) If Christians do not take a risk of taking decisions that have an unimaginable future, it would mean that they are relying on their human understanding and weaknesses and fear the world (the systems) more than God.
Christianity invites one to be humble in the eyes of God and mankind and walk in faith. Whether it is food, shelter, decision, marriage, or miracles, all require faith in God. In many countries like the U. S. , marriage and divorce has become a debatable question. This is based on the interfaith, intercultural and interracial marriages between spouses and partners. Wanting to remain single without a relationship or a single mother without a husband is another of the few options that people are choosing. All people are trying to seek happiness and contentment.
If people are preferring abortion over birth of children, or birth of children over abortion, they have reasons for choosing that. Though a U. S. doctor who has performed 1200 abortions proves the fact that abortion is murder, still women like to choose that. Though a woman is choosing to give birth to a baby, the new political policy in the U. S. says that a baby that has no name for his or her father does not have any legal right to passport, social security and birth certificates, is it unfair for Christians in this instance to desire to have children, and give life to them instead of aborting them?
