To say, “there is no God”, is not the worst thing in the world! But to believe and affirm God while denying the right of another human to live, at least, as much as I want to live is the nastiest.
This is the essence of Amos’ concern. Amos lived about 800 years before Jesus and has left behind a little book, which is part of the Bible that could be of great value for those promoting a religious culture.
Amos was very hard-hitting on those who limited all “God talk” to a “worship service” and “the Sabbath” (or a Holy Day) and went onto to live the rest of the week a self-centred, a selfish life.
The book of Amos is addressed to those “very religious” persons who have not integrated their religious faith to the values and culture of their daily living! These are the people who wait for the religious activities to be over so that they could go into another set of rules to fatten their wallet at the expense of the poor and the needy. These people, Amos said, “trample on the needy, and bring to ruin the poor of the land”.
How do they do this? They do this, in his terms, by “making” the “ephah small and the shekel great”. In our terms the weight, or the volume decreases in the market place and the dollars you need to part-with goes up!
Amos observed the people. First, he saw how people behaved in the “religious spaces”. Second, he also saw how they conducted themselves in the “market places”. He did not find any connection between the two. One said something in side the four walls of the sacred space and went out to do something else.
This lack of correlation between religious profession and conduct in the day-to-day living invalidates the authenticity of the faith professed and does disservice to the religious cause!
This is the essence of Amos’ concern. Amos lived about 800 years before Jesus and has left behind a little book, which is part of the Bible that could be of great value for those promoting a religious culture.
Amos was very hard-hitting on those who limited all “God talk” to a “worship service” and “the Sabbath” (or a Holy Day) and went onto to live the rest of the week a self-centred, a selfish life.
The book of Amos is addressed to those “very religious” persons who have not integrated their religious faith to the values and culture of their daily living! These are the people who wait for the religious activities to be over so that they could go into another set of rules to fatten their wallet at the expense of the poor and the needy. These people, Amos said, “trample on the needy, and bring to ruin the poor of the land”.
How do they do this? They do this, in his terms, by “making” the “ephah small and the shekel great”. In our terms the weight, or the volume decreases in the market place and the dollars you need to part-with goes up!
Amos observed the people. First, he saw how people behaved in the “religious spaces”. Second, he also saw how they conducted themselves in the “market places”. He did not find any connection between the two. One said something in side the four walls of the sacred space and went out to do something else.
This lack of correlation between religious profession and conduct in the day-to-day living invalidates the authenticity of the faith professed and does disservice to the religious cause!
No comments:
Post a Comment