We live in a postmodern society: in fact, in the most promising one that has ever existed. We have cured epidemics, created previously unimaginable transportation and communications systems, conceived methods of going to different worlds and have seen life spans and life qualities go up at near exponential rates.
Christmas began last year in the United States on November 25, on the heels of our national celebration of over-stuffing and cross-country flights, as it is every year. It snuck in after the last dishes were dried, took its place at starting lines across the nation, and took off with a bang: a Los Angeles woman pepper-sprayed a fellow shopper who took the last Xbox 360; in Florence, AL, police stun-gunned a man and arrested him. Altogether, Black Friday shoppers exorcised a record $52.4 billion in a free market feeding frenzy.
I completely agree with Ophelia Hu ’12 about one of her major propositions: the Bible should inspire Christians to be environmentally-minded.
However, I equally disagree with her other proposition that moral absolutism exists and should inform environmentalism.
Indeed, if there were moral absolutism — if we as a society did not change our ideas about “right” and “wrong,” however slowly — slavery would still exist in government-sanctioned forms. We would still consider women as the inferior sex, and of course, Ophelia and I would not be students at Amherst College today!
“Whoever oppresses a poor man insults his Maker, but he who is generous to the needy honors him.” (Proverbs 13:41)
These are the words of my placard. It is soft and worn from a night in New York and many days facing the sun and wind. I am a Christian dutifully attending my post, which is neither a Tea Party rally nor a Westboro “Baptist” convention; I am an Occupant because my faith compels me to the front lines.
