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

Prosperity and Poverty. Prosperity Gospel?

Do you believe in the prosperity gospel? I don't, but should I believe in a gospel of poverty?

Jesus said:

Looking at his disciples, he said: “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.
 
Blessed are you who hunger now, for you will be satisfied. Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh. Lk 6:20–21 NIV

“But woe to you who are rich, for you have already received your comfort. Lk 6:24 NIV

So should we all be poor? I read in the Old Testament that poverty is a curse.

Should wealth be a sin?

The first person in Europe to be converted through Paul’s ministry was a rich merchant, Lydia.

One of those listening was a woman from the city of Thyatira named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth. She was a worshipper of God. The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul’s message.

When she and the members of her household were baptised, she invited us to her home. “If you consider me a believer in the Lord,” she said, “come and stay at my house.” And she persuaded us. Acts 16:14–15 NIV

Most churches in the first Christian centuries were house churches. The large houses of wealthy Christians became house churches.

The question is not whether you are allowed to be rich, but what you do with your wealth.

What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them?

Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food.

If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it?

In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. Jas 2:14–17 NIV

There are some rich Christians who are politically conservative. They want to pay less tax. They can pay for the best care from a specialist, but they don't worry about poor people dying because they can't afford good care.

What does the Bible say?

Happy are those who consider the poor; the LORD delivers them in the day of trouble.

The LORD protects them and keeps them alive; they are called happy in the land. You do not give them up to the will of their enemies. 

 The LORD sustains them on their sickbed; in their illness you heal all their infirmities. Ps 41:1–3 NRSV

Despising the Poor

 Whoever is kind to the poor lends to the LORD, and he will reward them for what they have done. Pr 19:17 NIV

Some years ago I was visiting another city. A man asked me for some money. When I asked him about his situation, he said he was unemployed and homeless. He had been in a poorly paid job and living from paycheck to paycheck, unable to save. 

The conservative government made him wait six weeks before he could receive unemployment benefits. He couldn’t pay his rent and was homeless.

Some people are able to save money from their wages but spend everything, but others are genuinely unable to save, and are punished by heartless governments.

If we look upon all welfare clients as lazy dole bludgers or freeloaders, we are guilty of arrogance. The Bible tells us God is not pleased.

It is a sin to despise one’s neighbour, but blessed is the one who is kind to the needy. Pr 14:21 NIV

We can despise the poor by looking upon everyone on welfare as lazy and irresponsible. Some are, but many are not. Many are suffering from mental or physical ill health.

We can be cruel to the poor by trying to pay the least possible tax and supporting policies to keep wages and welfare payments as low as possible.

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

Socialist dictatorship is evil, but market economics without humane regulation has resulted in unrestrained profiteering from real estate speculation, resulting in an epidemic of homelessness in some rich countries.