Anthony Bradley
Acton Researcher Speaks At Erskine College
A research associate with the Acton Institute for the Study of Religion and Liberty spoke about Christian compassion and helping the poor during a convocation talk Thursday at Erskine College.
Anthony Bradley told students that religious groups are confused about how to help people in need.
During his speech, titled “The Tragedy of Christian Compassion,” Bradley said the tragedy is the confusion among religious groups about helping others.
“There’s no unity on how and why to help people,” he said.
The Acton Institute’s mission is promote a free and virtuous society characterized by individual liberty and sustained by religious principles.
The confusion is a result of people relying on personal feelings rather than submitting to God’s authority.
“Personal feelings are more important than what God says,” Bradley said. “They replace the authority of God with personal feelings.”
He said people help those in need with temporary programs rather than researching the root of poverty or other social ills.
Bradley said poverty and all other social ills are the result of sin.
“Human error and sin are at the root of the problems,” he said.
Sin produces poverty through power and greed, Bradley said, giving the ENRON scandal as an example.
The 9/11 terrorist attacks, the AIDS epidemic and conflict in the Middle East are other examples of the disastrous results of human error and sin, he said.
“Three planes crashed into three buildings and thousands died because of sin and error,” Bradley said. “Millions are dying of AIDS because of sin and error. The Palestinians and Israelis continue to murder one another because of sin and error.”
Other issues closer to home are also the result of sin and human error, he said, reciting a list of numerous social ills, such as divorce, sexual abuse, alcoholism and drug use.
Since the fall in the Garden of Eden, people have progressively become more self-absorbed, Bradley said, which is diametrically opposed to what God intended.
“The human person was created in the very image of God to do things that are good in his sight,” he said.
But when that didn’t happen, God did not abandon his people.
“God has not left us in this state of misery,” Bradley said. “God sent Jesus to remedy sin and error.”
Christian compassion is designed to help people and give them freedom, he said.
Through Jesus, Christians have a “justifiable, transcendent reason” for helping those in need.
The selfishness of people – helping others for the wrong reason – stands in the way of getting true help with correcting a problem.
Bradley gave as an example the donation of money to a charitable cause when a tax deduction, rather than genuine compassion, motivates the giver.
“Christian compassion provides a motive – Godly – and a goal – to move closer to God,” he said.
Bradley called the Acton Institute a “group of radical liberals – that people be free to do what God intended them to do.”
The Acton Institute is based in Grand Rapids, Mich.
Bradley’s work at Acton involves research for his dissertation and work in the programs department. His policy research interests are welfare and education and his dissertation focus is the social philosophy of Thomas Sowell.
