Christian Ethics – Reflecting on Norms and Forms Essay (Critical Writing)

Introduction

Having home is critical for everybody that is why Atlanta local churches should initiate reforms to solve the problem of homelessness, which will be beneficial for the whole society. Such change requires much from the community in the moral perspective.

Main body

First of all, it deals with norms of collaboration and mutual help. In the Kingdom Community, people should be ready to help each other. Integrity also plays a vital role in this perspective, as it ensures efficient cooperation and minimalizes misunderstandings. Thus, there will be no stigmatism and class system that separates the community allowing to neglect homeless people. Except for that, the value of the human heart should be considered. People are expected to act in regard to it in order to be fair and not to cause harm to their personal views and beliefs. In this way, the spiritual unity of the community is created¹. While these norms perform scripture reflection of Mark and Luke, Copeland’s ideas provide more theological view. She speaks about the significance of such values as solidarity, emphasizing that the community should share sufferings of poor people. She believes in love and comparison as driving forces of the Kingdom Community and discusses negative influences of oppression².

Unfortunately, the current community fails is out of sync with the Kingdom Community that would be much more beneficial for the general public. For now, the majority of the population does not act under the human heart and tends to find personal benefits, which shows that it is not ready to be a part of the Kingdom Community. Moreover, many people are rather vulnerable because they do not have enough money for living and are homeless. Only few individuals really try to help them and share their pain while the others prefer to ignore the fact that society is separated. People live so that they do not act in a particular way because they find it to be morally right but because it will improve their state in the society. The main issue is that the community does not consider itself to be united and equal. It consists of various groups of people, including those who are deprived, discriminated and stigmatized.

In order to bring about the Kingdom Community, the representatives of the general public should start caring about each other³. It is impossible to do this in the twinkling of an eye, as it takes much time to form and alter human values and views. It would be advantageous to start with the provision of the decent residences for the homeless people as the hierarchy of the current society can be reduced in this way to some degree. There would be no homeless individuals, and the quality of life would improve. People would feel more confident, which can give them strength to search for working places and turn into a middle-class population. Such step should be initiated by churches because they show how the Kingdom Society should look like and encourage individuals to practice moral actions. Moreover, they have influence not only on people’s spirituality and the way they perceive the world but also can attract the attention of the government and motivate it to accept changes and implement required programs.

Of course, it might be considered that the creation of the Kingdom Community will reduce people’s personal tangible assets and make the society less happy, as sufferings should be shared by others. Still, the Kingdom Community is likely to prosper if all people value each other.

Conclusion

My paper explains why churches need to initiate changes that are targeted at dealing with the problem of homelessness. It is addressed to the churchmen and congregation because they are those people who can be both sympathetic to individuals who lost their homes and powerful enough to implement changes.

Bibliography

Copeland, S. Enfleshing freedom: Body, race, and being. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2010.

Natural Church Development. “Developing Kingdom Community”. ncd-uk. Web.

The Community. “Understanding Kingdom Community”. Word Press. Web.

Footnotes

1. The Community. “Understanding Kingdom Community” (2016).
2. Shawn Copeland. Enfleshing freedom: Body, race, and being (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2010).
3. Natural Church Development. “Developing Kingdom Community” (2016).