Sydney and Mates

http://sydneyanglicans.net/life/culture/7-sins-of-sydney-3-loyalty-to-mates


I feel I should put in an explanatory note about how I am working on these 'Sins of Sydney'.
Some people feel I have been too critical of 'our' side.
It would be too easy for the series to degenerate into a series of swipes from a height at the culture we inhabit. But that seems to be cheap to me. In each piece I have tried to include a reference to the way in which churches and/or Christians are themselves part of the 'sin' that we are describing and analysing.

The importance of this is theological and rhetorical and historical.

It's historical because (I hope) it is simply the truth that we have shared in the sins of our city to some extent and there is no point denying it!

It's rhetorical because in our times to admit one's faults is a very important thing to do in order to get a hearing (if indeed they are faults). In addition, we will find it very hard to accurately and precisely speak to society about its sins if we don't understand our own complicity in the social pathologies we discover.

It's theological because the one thing that constitutes the church is that it is a repentent church that has received mercy. There's no need for us to be defensive: we can be genuinely repentant in the expectation that there is no condemnation for those in Christ.

Quite simply: we, of all people, have nothing to hide!