Dunedin Emeritus Bishop Colin Campbell said people should pray “that our country will be delivered from this culture of death and the pervasive relativism in New Zealand today”.
Dunedin Emeritus Bishop Colin Campbell
Bishop Campbell gave this message at a retreat for Catholic men held by the Joshua Catholic Men’s Fellowship North Shore on October 1 at St Thomas More Church in Glenfield, Auckland. The retreat was open to all men who wanted to deepen their faith. The theme of the retreat was “Stand up and Step out of the Boat”.
Bishop Campbell, the national chaplain of the group, based his talk on Matthew: 14, 29, when Peter stepped out of the boat to walk to Jesus.
He noted the state of the world today with the rise of starvation, human rights abuse, injustice, floods, storms, wildfires and intense heat or intense cold.
In New Zealand, he said, we are faced with rising prices, inflation, misinformation and a housing crisis as well as numeracy and literacy deficiency.
“The task is enormous, yet Jesus calls us all to stand up and step out. Often, we get confused as to what to do about it, when to do it, how to do it and isn’t it all too difficult?” he said.
Citing Gordon McLauchlan’s book The Passionless People (Revisited), Bishop Campbell said there are four kinds of Kiwis today: first, those who swing from one belief to another depending on fashions; second, those who are convinced of a great truth and repel all intellectual and emotional arguments to the contrary; third, who look on from the side-lines, shake their heads and moan but never to the ones responsible; and lastly, the “passionate people who think for themselves and may face ostracism and isolation but remain determined to fight for the good of themselves and their community”.
Bishop Campbell added that the problem of society today is relativism.
“We need to be very clear about the basic issue and where the battlelines are being drawn up in the struggle for the minds and hearts of people today,” he said.
He said the Judeo-Christian ethic believes in absolute values such as the importance of life. Relativism, on the other hand, asserts that truth is subject to change.
“When a society attempts to live by relative values, then no one is safe any longer. Sadly, governments have gone along with this fictitious charade and shallow thinking and legislated to support such relativism in the moral sphere,” he said.
The bishop said euphemisms are used to make palatable topics such as abortion, euthanasia, and warfare.
“When we are called to stand up, what is our response to this rampant relativism in our world today? We have lost many battles, but we must not, as God’s disciples, lose the war,” he said.
Bishop Campbell suggested not looking at party lines when voting, but to look at a candidate’s values and vision.
“Encourage those with good Christian values to consider standing,” he said.
Bishop Campbell also told participants at the retreat to “be prayerful, watchful, aware and ready to stand up when we need to”.
“And remember, when we stand up and step out, Christ steps out with us,” he said.
The bishop also discussed the parable of the Prodigal Son at the retreat, looking at it from a different perspective.
He offered a scenario where the father rejected the prodigal son. Bishop Campbell’s alternative scenario emphasised the generosity of the father’s mercy in the original story.
“We now have to look out and go out and meet those who need to come home. The Church is there to go out and invite people to come in,” he said.
Reader Interactions