Christian Activism

 As a little girl, she firmly believed in Jesus and prayed to God with childlike trust. But then she was sexually abused. As a teenager, she was confused and sought solace in marijuana and boys.

I am thinking of stories of more than one or two women who ended up in a brothel, a clinic or on the street.

I am thinking of a young man who was begging on the street in a German city in winter. He lived from donations and told me that he sometimes spent the night with a client.

I know women in Germany who visited brothels to help prostitutes with friendliness. In one year, they found four victims of human trafficking and helped them to return home.

In one Australian state, the government reported that 15-20% of all mentally ill patients committed suicide within 24 hours of being discharged. After that, no more statistics were published. The scandal was simply hushed up.

Yesterday a Christian political activist rang me. He told me to contact the government and demand that we have religious freedom.

I was not at all impressed and told him in very clear terms what I was thinking

Why do these activists protest against abortion, gender mainstreaming etc. but ignore domestic violence, homelessness and the neglect of the mentally ill and victims of abuse?

I told the Christian on the phone that his organisation should be lobbying governments to provide adequate poverty relief and mental health services. He said he had been a homeless drug addict until someone told him about Jesus, and he was born again. He said we just needed more evangelism.

I answered rather angrily that I minister to Christians who are mentally ill or suicidal because of abuse in Christian families and churches.

I know a Christian woman who needed therapy in a psychiatric clinic. In the clinic, she met Christians she had known in Church.

Of course, freedom of speech is important. I am not in favour of gay marriage or gender mainstreaming, but if we focus on a few moral issues and fail to care for broken people, we are misrepresenting Jesus.

A conservative Christian politician in Australia loudly opposed abortion and post-modern gender policies. He said it is better to have a fence and a warning sign at the top of a cliff than an ambulance at the bottom.

But warning signs will not stop people jumping or falling. It is good to promote Biblical principles for personal morality, but we still need ambulances and rehab services.
 
Jesus sharply rebuked the Pharisees for imposing a narrow religious mindset on others, but they didn't care about poor, sick and suffering people.

Righteousness and justice are the foundation of Your throne; loving kindness and truth go before You. Ps 89:14 NASB95

For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, “You shall love your neighbour as yourself.” Gal 5:14 NRSV