The Gospel, Human Flourishing, And The Foundation Of Social Order -- By: Jason Glas

Journal: Southern Baptist Journal of Theology
Volume: SBJT 19:2 (Summer 2015)
Article: The Gospel, Human Flourishing, And The Foundation Of Social Order
Author: Jason Glas


The Gospel, Human Flourishing, And The Foundation Of Social Order

Jason Glas

Jason Glas is a M.Div. graduate of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Presently he serves as an elder at Covenant Baptist Church in Valdosta, Georgia. In addition, he is a vice president and commercial banker with Ameris Bancorp and an investor and developer of commercial real estate. Mr. Glas has pastored churches in Kentucky and Georgia and serves on the board of directors for Reaching and Teaching International Ministries, Inc.

Introduction

The headlines over the past few months attest our society is experiencing rapid transformation culminating from decades of moral mutiny. Events in Ferguson, Indianapolis, Baltimore, Dallas, Charleston and Supreme Court decisions is a predictable course of America’s trajectory because the moral revolutionaries have secularized the public conscience. The myriad of competing voices through the omnipresent media drowns the prophetic voice of the church even confusing evangelicals on how best to think about social, political, and economic issues. The stereotypical rhetoric on economic inequality attempts to reduce everyone who has financial resources as callous toward the poor and their wealth obtained through fraud, extortion, or insatiable avarice. We must steer clear of narrowly judging all rich as immoral and all poor as victims.

The complexity of humanity demands more thought in our analysis and solutions. The problem today, however, is debates over social and economic issues are intensely emotional with a lack of discipline toward sustained

logic that stretches beyond 140 characters. The increased conversation over human flourishing is refreshing because it forces the needed holistic approach to understanding and enhancing the human experience since it “encompasses all human activity and goals because there is nothing so natural and inescapable as the desire to live, and to live in peace, security, love, health, and happiness.”1

The conversation concerning human flourishing and the reach of the gospel extends to all spheres of the human experience including the element we treasure most as Americans—freedom. The American experience is most privileged in its enjoyment of liberties but the hostility toward Christianity threatens every privilege enjoyed because marriage, race, and borders are moral issues that require shared moral conviction. For humanity to have quiet enjoyment in society it demands specific environmental regularities to nourish freedom in civic, political, and economic life. Sadly, the mission of moral revolutionaries i...

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