Lastly it could be about moral issues - look at the 10 commandments and see how many of these are about issues that could be considered as political such as "do not kill"
So if a Christian is living under a set of moral principle such as those in the 10 commandments and those in the bible "Love you neighbour etc.." how are they going to react to some political questions:
Now think about some political issues and the Christian response. If the government were to pass a law on Capital punishment how would a Christian react ? or a rule of keeping the homeless of the streets or a ruling on marriage and divorce ?
Lastly you might consider HOW a Christian might react. Violent protest would probably be condemned by most Christians but peaceful protest would be OK. Think about famous Christians who have been involved in Civil rights movements like Martin Luther King in the USA and Archbishop Tutu and Trevor Huddlestone in South Africa or the role of the RC church in the Solidarity movement in Poland in the 1990s.
Why do Jews and Christians feel they should care for the earth ?
Christian and Jewish attitudes are based around the Old Testament and the belief that God was the creator of the Universe. c.f the Creation story in Genesis (Genesis chapter 1)
Christian also look to the teaching of Jesus' in the NT (Luke 12:27-28)
Thus Christians and Jews have a responsibility to take care of the earth and all that is in it. This means that many Christians are members of movements that have an environmental concern such as CAFOD and Christian Aid. There is also an organisation, set up in 1991, called Christian ecology link. Both Christianity and Judaism have festivals that celebrate the belief that God created the world. Harvest Festival (Christians) and Succoth for Jews.
Is it more important to preserve human life than it is to care for the environment?
Some thoughts:
- If we save the environment are we not protecting the future of humanity?
- If we kill the environment (Or carry on acting the way we are) we will all die anyway
- We have a responsibility to other living things as well as ourselves
- What expectations do we have about the standard of living we should have, and is this too high?
How might individual Christians respond to racism, directed either at themselves or someone else?
Christians will build their beleifs about Racism around some key biblical texts:
"Love you neighbour as yourself" (Matthew 19:19)
"There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus." Galatians 3:28
These will show that there should be no disctinction between any person and another person. Thus a Christian should fight racism (or other prejudice) when they see it.
If they see racial abuse they should try to reason with the person to ask them why they are being abusive and try to make the person see that they are being prejudice and thus they should not judge someone because of their skin colour. They should NOT use violence but rather passive and peacful resistence. A good example of this is the Revered Martin Luther King.
