Church condemnation….

I contributed this short comment on a Christian Psychologists web-debate it’s about the churches recent condemnations re: stem cell research

Christians I believe have both a right and a duty to participate in the great debates of our times. However down through the years many of the churches interventions have been overly authoritarian with the effect of causing many people to react to the policing aspect of the message as opposed to seeing some merit in the content of their contribution. The challenge, particularly for Church leaders, is to inspire rather than shame people as they express their concerns. Instead of the language of condemnation they could emphasise the areas of joint concerns, and praise the scientific communities efforts to alleviate human suffering. Promoting the sacredness of life is a noble cause lets acknowledge that we in the Christian Churches have no exclusive ownership of it. In taking this stance we open ourselves up to the possibility of genuine dialogue and may place ourselves in a better position to facilitate the search for truth.