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

Jesus is Perfect Theology

 My father was once invited to join an anti-communist association. He refused. He was certainly not sympathetic to Communism, but he did not want to base his life on a negative, to be focused on what he was against.

The people who invited my father were refugees from Russian oppression in post-war Hungary, so their anti-communist preoccupation was easy to understand.

Many Christian women are struggling to get free of oppressive religious patriarchy. That is necessary and good.

But it is important to focus on God Himself. One famous preacher said: “Jesus is perfect theology.” Jesus was the great liberator of men and especially also women.

I am currently reading an excellent book by Dan Kimball. “How Not to Read the Bible.”
In spite of the negative word NOT, he focuses on how God is positive towards women.

A lot of the ideas are familiar to moderate Christian feminists or egalitarians, but he approaches gender issues from a different point of view.

He is not addressing evangelicals wrestling with patriarchy. He is appealing more to people who may be rejecting the bible and God himself because of the way God seems to be endorsing oppressive patriarchy. 

He is showing readers how to understand the Bible in historical context.

When Joshua was leading the Hebrews into the Promised Land, he had a visitation from God, the Commander of the Army of the Lord.

Now when Joshua was near Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing in front of him with a drawn sword in his hand. Joshua went up to him and asked, “Are you for us or for our enemies?”

“Neither,” he replied, “but as commander of the army of the LORD I have now come.” Then Joshua fell face down to the ground in reverence, and asked him, “What message does my Lord have for his servant?”

The commander of the LORD’s army replied, “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy.” And Joshua did so. Jos 5:13–15 NIV

The heavenly commander must have been Jesus, because Joshua worshipped him. Angels do not allow you to worship them.

God had told Joshua to kill all the idol worshippers in the Promised Land, but one of them was Rahab, a prostitute who repented and helped the Hebrews. She married a Hebrew leader and became an ancestor of Jesus.

It is easy to become so committed to a political party, or a Christian cause, that we assume Jesus is a member of our party. Jesus also loves your adversaries. Your theological or political opponents may not be entirely in the wrong in every way.

Today, we see Christians divided between Conservative and Progressive factions. So many of us define ourselves by what we are against. There are rights and wrongs on both sides.

Billy Graham was mostly conservative, although he insisted that black and white Christians should not be segregated in his meetings. He also ministered to US presidents on both sides of politics.

Martin Luther King Jr was opposed by many conservative Christians because his civil rights cause was considered to be rebellion against divine order.

 

God's Laws for a Just Society

 When Jesus preached in his hometown of Nazareth, it was the Sabbath day, and he read this text from the Old Testament.

“The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me, Because He has anointed Me To preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, 

To proclaim liberty to the captives And recovery of sight to the blind, To set at liberty those who are oppressed;
To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD.” Lk 4:18–19 NKJV

The acceptable year of the Lord was the Jubilee.

Every fiftieth year was the jubilee. Anyone, who had sold his inherited land to pay debts, could repossess his inheritance free of charge.

Jesus read this text on the Sabbath. Every seventh day was also a day of rest. This was a great mercy for workaholics and poor labourers.

In addition, every seventh year was a year when the land rested. The crops that grew in this year must not be harvested by the landowners, but the poor could help themselves.

Every seventh year, all debts were also cancelled.

In the OT Law of Moses, the Hebrew landowners harvested the grain, the olives and grapes, but they were not allowed to harvest too thoroughly. They had to leave a generous portion of unharvested produce for the poor to gather. This was called gleaning.

An evangelical preacher in the USA explained these laws. He then asked his congregation, what they would think if these laws were not in the Bible and we applied these principles today.

The conservative congregation answered, that this would be Communism.

Does this shock you? It seems to me, that evangelical Christians in America and similar countries have badly misunderstood what it means to be Bible believing Christians. We have been indoctrinated to accept uncritically the priority of maximising investment returns and corporate profits.

What does the bible say about financial greed?

Woe to you who add house to house and join field to field till no space is left, and you live alone in the land. Is 5:8 NIV

In America, Australia and some other countries, real estate speculation has resulted in mass homelessness.

These Bible laws were not just principles for believers to follow, but laws to govern a just society. If we live in democratic countries, and governments are not adequately providing for the care of the poor, the disabled and the sick, churches should do more to provide help. 

In the past, many schools and hospitals have been founded by churches to help people in need.

But it is not enough for Christians to help. We should also call upon governments to do more.

When the Luke and the Apostles wrote the New Testament, they said very little about principles of government. It was already in the OT. The early church also had no possibility of influencing Roman laws. They were like the church today under dictatorships.

In democratic countries, Christian political activists do try to influence laws. Many oppose homosexual marriage and try to restrict abortion, but conservative activists often ignore the OT principles of making adequate provision for the poor.

Many churches do help the poor but they don’t understand that they should pressure governments to help the poor and sick adequately.

Many American Christians have become so indoctrinated with the philosophy of big business, that they think affordable universal medical service is evil socialism.

What many conservative Christians fail to understand, is that poverty often leads to prostitution and more abortions.

In most democratic countries, the majority of people are no longer bible believing Christians. Political action to stop abortion has usually had little or no success. Adequate social welfare for poor or single mothers could reduce the desperation to get abortions.

Christian Activism and Abuse Victims

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

I am thinking of stories of not just one or two women who ended up in a brothel, a psychiatric institution or on the street.

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

I know women in Germany who visited brothels to help prostitutes with friendship and kindness.  In one year, they uncovered four victims of trafficking and helped them 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 phoned me. He told me to contact the government and demand that we should have religious freedom.

I was not impressed, and I gave him a piece of my mind.

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

The young activist protested that he had himself been homeless before he found Jesus in his life. He insisted that this was not a political issue, but personal evangelism was the correct response.

Sorry, but my experience tells me that there are many homeless and mentally ill people who believe in Jesus or have believed once, but are human wrecks because of hypocrisy and abuse in Christian families or churches.

I have talked to Christians who struggle with suicidal thoughts. I know Christians in this situation who sometimes needed government funded psychiatric care to repair the damage done to them by professing Christians, Christian families or churches.

Inadequate government funding of services for homeless victims and mental patients is an urgent political issue and also a Christian issue.

Jesus sharply rebuked the Pharisees for imposing a narrow religious way of thinking on others, but they did not care about poor, sick and suffering people.

For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: “You shall love your neighbour as yourself.” Galatians 5:14 NKJV

There is a very important word in biblical Hebrew and also in Greek. It means both righteousness and justice. In French, Spanish, Italian, German and Dutch bibles, the same wonderful word is very prominent.

Sadly, the English language has no word to translate this word. Many Christians read the word “righteousness” and do not realise that it also includes justice and mercy.

“But woe to you Pharisees! For you tithe mint and rue and all manner of herbs, and pass by justice and the love of God. These you ought to have done, without leaving the others undone. Luke 11:42 NKJV

Righteousness and justice are the foundation of Your throne; Mercy and truth go before Your face. Psalm 89:14 NKJV