Why do aliens fascinate us? At least the ones from space. In an interview for the release of his film 'War of the Worlds', Steven Spielberg told how he had been fascinated since childhood by possibility of life existing outside of our world. It was their intelligence which most intrigued him. And this intrigued me - why intelligence, and not their morality or their spirituality?

Steven Spielberg's aliens have been mostly friendly (e.g. E.T., Close Encounters of the Third Kind) but not so in War of the Worlds. Certainly in many films, TV series and books, aliens tend to have evil intent towards Earth. Good will doesn't make for such good story lines. But sci-fi writers and film-makers aren't alone in neglecting goodness. Doing good isn't highly rated as a motivation and altruism is rarely commended per se. Even in church circles goodness is largely ignored. In fact goodness is more likely to have negative connotations. Being called a 'do-gooder' is hardly a welcome compliment and being perceived as good leads to derisive comments amongst school children.

Yet God is described as being good in the Psalms (e.g. 25:7, 119:68). Jesus said that no-one is good except God (Luke 18:19). God repeatedly described his work in creating the cosmos in all its diversity, complexity, detail, interdependence and beauty as 'good' (Genesis 1). So being creative is good and doing good involves being imaginative and powerful. 'Goodness' is one of the fruits of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22). It's why we have been saved - we are created to do good works (Ephesians 2:10). We are to provoke one another to good deeds.

But rather than imagining and competing to find ways of doing good and using our gifts and resources for good purposes, we put our efforts into preventing or avoiding wrong-doing. Much technological development is neutral morally but has the potential to be used for good and evil. The same could be said for much other human activity. Yet our insistence on seeing only the restrictions of morality, or, worse still, economic value, means we so often fail to identify opportunities for doing good as well as dangers to be avoided. Maybe the church would have a much greater impact on God's behalf if it focused its energies on doing good rather than being seen simply as an upholder of moral standards.

In the Mosaic law, aliens and the poor were taken special care of, clearly at some cost. Maybe, as we argue about spending tax revenue on asylum-seekers, we should seek to do good. Maybe, instead of so readily condemning with words those who resort to violence and thus alienating them further, we should find ways of doing them good that would give them an opportunity to be grateful and happy. Maybe doing good could replace fame and fortune and give our children and young people the hope that they all, each of them, can do something worthwhile with their lives.

Ethel White

Singing the Lord’s Song in a Strange Land is the title of the Centre’s Conference 2005, taking place on Saturday 5th November. Stuart and Sian Murray Williams will be exploring the theme of social and cultural change and its impact upon the witness of the church. For more information and to book online, click here.

The Centre's latest resource, Power and Providence: Studies on the Book of Esther is now available online (click here) or by contacting Anna Rankin.

We are pleased to recommend "Christianity: the encounter with modern culture", a six week course by Prof. David Livingstone and Prof. Stephen Williams beginning in September at the Institute for Christian Training. For further details go to http://www.union.ac.uk/ctnet/culture.html