智慧人生篇章 第15期:教會對時代變化的制肘

As things are, I see two dangers and they are linked.The first is that if the Church is quick to assert andslow to listen, it can give the impression to its ownmembers that moral insight is never to be hadoutside Christianity and that can be heard by othersas strident and bigoted. It may also leave churcheswith inadequate means of helping people faced withnew moral challenges, especially where tradition andscripture are silent.The second danger is thatbecause so many of our values originated withChristianity, those who walk away from religion maythink they have walked away from morality as well. If religion is optional why not morality?And religious stridency may well be what drives some to that kind of amorality or moralrelativism. Morality arises in a social context, but a social context that changes all the time.If we are to respond to those changes in ways that help us all to live our individual andcollective lives better, we'll need all the wisdom we can find from wherever we can find it.

事已至此，我看到兩個相關(guān)聯(lián)的危險信號。第一，如果教會總是枉下論斷，又充耳不聞其他聲音，那它的成員就會覺得基督教以外的世界不接受基督教的道德意識，覺得它尖銳刺耳，冥頑不靈。這可能讓教會在幫助人們解決新涌現(xiàn)的道德問題的方法上捉襟見肘，尤其在無傳統(tǒng)和典籍可以參考的時候。第二，我們很多的道德觀都源于基督教，那些慢慢脫離宗教的人會覺得自己也正在遠(yuǎn)離道德。如果宗教可有可無，憑什么道德就不是?宗教的刺耳也會驅(qū)使部分人轉(zhuǎn)變?yōu)槌赖抡撜?與道德無關(guān))或者道德相對論者。道德源于社會環(huán)境，而環(huán)境總在改變。如果我們要呼應(yīng)那些能讓我們個人和全體生活更美好的改變，我們就必須采用一切能采用的明智之舉。