- Pathfinder

Reply To: Have you ever consciously or subconsciously used your faith to examine foreign policy? Was it harmful or helpful? Please elaborate.

#5006
AvatarDavid Bainbridge
Participant

Yes. First of all, it’s helpful for me to consciously recognize that my faith does, and should, affect all aspects of my life and the way that I think about things. Second, and more particularly, I think my faith is essential to my belief that all human beings are created with dignity and in the image of God. So, just because I happen to have been born in a particular country, does not mean I, or my fellow countrymen, are somehow better than the people of another country. Conversely, it is very important to recognize that just because people live in far away lands across the world does not mean that their lives are any less valuable in the eyes of God.

So, to answer the question, I do think viewing foreign policy through the lens of my faith is helpful. I also think that it can help open my eyes to the suffering of the world in a way that I might not be able to appreciate otherwise. At the same time, though, my Christian heritage can cause me to have blind spots in my thoughts on foreign policy, which is something the course mentioned, and I think that’s a good reminder.