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06578 November 8, 2006
Healing society's wounds requires church to be 'social therapists,' theologian tells NCC
Franklin says gospel demands personal and social transformation
by Jerry Van Marter
ORLANDO, FL - In these days of deep political, economic, global religious and racial wounds, churches must become "social therapists," renowned theologian Robert M. Franklin Jr. told the General Assembly of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the USA (NCC) and Church World Service (CWS) today (Nov. 8).
"In our time therapy and healing have become privatized and pathology has become personalized," Franklin - a theological educator and administrator at the University of Chicago and Harvard divinity schools, Colgate-Rochester Divinity School and the Candler School of Theology and Interdenominational Theological Center in Atlanta - said. "We need to rediscover the gospel of Jesus Christ as a means to both personal and social transformation, to practice Christian ethics as a social therapeutic."
Franklin led the 250 delegates and observers gathered here into small-group discussions of "four wounds that call for healers, even wounded healers."
First, Franklin said, are political wounds. "Elections have become the political equivalent of root canal surgery," he said, "and we must take responsibility for the ways we have exacerbated polarization. In the days after elections, those clergy who have contributed to divisive rhetoric must return to the town square to engage in the social therapy of reconciliation."
Franklin posed a number of questions for discussion: "What can religious leaders to heal our communities following polarized elections? What distinguishes the social witness of the church from the simple calculations of political hacks? What makes us different from the mere politicians? Can Christians be patriots and what does it mean to be a Christian American patriot today?"
Secondly, Franklin said, are economic wounds. "It is a moral scandal that there's so much poverty in our land of riches," he said. Noting that 18 percent of the U.S.'s children live below the poverty line, Franklin said, "This makes Jesus mad."
Added to that, he continued, is the "growing phenomenon of those who work but are still living in poverty.
Questions to explore, he said are: "What two things should the church do to intensify the nation's focus on the alleviation of poverty? How can the churches awaken a church that is in denial about this travesty?"
Third, Franklin continued, are global religious wounds. "We are all perceived as ugly Americans, having squandered global sympathy since 9/11," he said. "We have acted stupidly and arrogantly in Iraq and have suffered greatly for our facile association of American power with God's will."
Questions Franklin posed for discussion were: "What is the next big step the church should take in declaring our solidarity with all God's children? What can we do to declare that we're all children of Abraham and that America is not at war with Islam?"
Finally, Franklin said, are the racial wounds. "The color line that was once black-white has become a series of color lines," he said, "with the prospect that soon there will be no ethnic majority in America."
Historic black and white churches "aren't doing very well in managing our diversity," Franklin said. "I believe the needed new energy may come from our Latino churches - we better pay close attention to them.
"What should the church do to revive interest in healing our racial divides?" Franklin asked.
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