Thursday, 19 March 2009
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The Church Can No Longer Deny World Crises
Guest post by Tri Robinson
What I am about to state seems indisputably clear to me as a Bible believing and Bible practicing Christian. After spending the better part of 30 years of my adult life studying and teaching the Old and New Testament, I believe that those who profess Jesus as Messiah and call his words and ministry the "Gospel of truth" have no other option than to care for suffering humanity and address the root causes of such suffering. Denying the conditions of a world that is escalating in crises is not an option.
It is no secret that the world's population has grown at an exponential rate in the last 100 years. In my lifetime alone (a baby boomer born in 1948) the population has nearly tripled from 2.5 to 6.8 billion people. Half of these people (3 billion) are living on less than two dollars a day. One third of them are starving and another third are suffering from malnutrition. Extreme poverty like this not only places people in physical jeopardy, but into vulnerable states of desperation.
Desperate people are often forced to do desperate things. In dire efforts they struggle to feed their hungry families by slashing and burning their forests in attempt to grow food and produce charcoal to heat their homes, cook their food and as a meager means of commerce. Rains then erode the land washing precious topsoil into the rivers and oceans resulting in ecological disaster and the inability to produce more food. This escalates poverty and elevates vulnerability producing hotbeds for such atrocities as human trafficking and child soldiering. Each year there are over 800,000 people illegally trafficked across borders, many of which are children who are exploited into the sex slave industry.
Observation tells us that the most effective curb against excessive population growth and extreme poverty is literacy, but sadly one billion people entered the 21st century unable to read their own name. Ironically it would only require less than 1% of the money spent on weapons of war each year to put every child on the planet in school.
The direction in which the world is heading is not sustainable. Something must be done; something has gone horribly amiss. The world needs reformation.
As a Christian I believe in the sanctity of life, including before and after the womb. I believe that every life is divine and precious to God; therefore, I believe that every Christian must be concerned with the environmental crisis that is threatening the wellbeing of our planet. Today, 80% of all illness and death (especially among infants and children) in developing countries is water related. Two and a half billion people do not have access to clean drinking water causing the deaths of 2.1 million people every year. It's difficult to deny the reality of climate change (no matter who or what is causing it) and consequently the potential devastation that will come because of it. For those who sincerely care about the poor and are biblically called to serve them, there must be an awakening to the impending calamity. It is the poor who will be impacted first by devastating wave surges in low-lying coastal areas such as Bangladesh. The call to action cannot be postponed as these natural disasters are increasing in frequency and intensity.
There are presently over two billion people who profess to know Jesus and who believe that the Bible is true. That is a third of the world's population - a potential massive, worldwide, networked workforce. If the church would embrace this cause as the compassionate, merciful ministry of Jesus, a difference could truly be made.
After spending 30 days in the wilderness Jesus began his three year public ministry. He started by entering his hometown of Nazareth and going to the synagogue on the Sabbath. The attendant in charge that day handed him the book of the prophet Isaiah for a public reading. Jesus unrolled the scroll to Isaiah 61 where the prophet had proclaimed and recorded eight hundred years before the things that the messiah would do when he came. Jesus read:
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,for he has anointed me to bring Good News to the poor.He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released,that the blind will see,that the oppressed will be set free,and that the time of the Lord's favor has come
After he had finished, he rolled the scroll up, handed it back to the attendant, sat down and said, "The scripture has come true today before your very eyes." What he meant was that he was the fulfillment of Isaiah's prophecy, he was the Christ and Isaiah 61 was his job description. This infuriated everyone in the room that day, and is still cause for reaction by many today. Despite what some may say, the fact remains that Jesus accepted the ministry to the lost and broken world as his own. For the next three years he did just that - spending his time among the devastated, rejected and broken.
Three years later we find Jesus talking to some of his disciples on a hillside in Jerusalem just before his crucifixion. This is recorded in Matthew 24. They asked him about the last days of the earth and what those days would look like. In response he painted a picture of a world in extreme crises. He told them there would be an increase of world violence (wars and rumors of wars), an escalation of natural disasters and a breakdown of social ethics and values. He described drought, famine and extreme world hunger as well as an increase of plagues, disease and human suffering. He went on to say that no one knows when this will happen ("no man knows the time or the hour"), and that when these things occur it will be like in the days of Noah when people were in denial trying to maintain life like they always had. After that he told three parables or stories, all of which were about stewardship.
He first told of an unfaithful steward whose master had entrusted him with his estate after announcing he was going away for a while. Later the master returned unannounced and unexpected and judged the servant based on how well he had taken care of his people and his land. This is an obvious exhortation and warning to every person that desires to be responsive to God's heart for humanity.
Right after these parables, Jesus spoke of the final judgment and a time of separation between the wicked and righteous. It was here that Jesus said those famous words:
Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the creation of the world. For I was hungry, and you fed me. I was thirsty, and you gave me a drink. I was a stranger, and you invited me into your home. I was naked, and you gave me clothing. I was sick, and you cared for me. I was in prison, and you visited me.
The disciples curiously responded by asking Jesus when any of this ever happened to him, and he simply said, "as you (all those who profess him as Lord and savior) do this to the least of humanity, you do it to him." Caring for suffering humanity is now the charge entrusted to those who profess to follow Jesus. How much more clarity do we need? If we love God and desire to obediently serve him we must not only go and serve in this suffering world, but we must do it until the day He returns. There is no option; there is no way around it. There can be no rationalizing or denying it. We must pray that we capture the very heart of God so that we will be impassioned for the ministry of Jesus. We must unite around His commission, equip ourselves for His mission and courageously go.
Tri Robinson is the pastor of the Vineyard Boise Church in Boise, ID, and author of Saving God's Green Earth and Small Footprint, Big Handprint. This post is reposted from The Huffington Post with the permission of Pastor Robinson.
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Comments (13)
This is a lot of words. I'm just not sure that it is saying anything.
You have spoken the truth on here.
I hope Christians will react by saying "Lets go be servants to Glorify the Name of Christ" instead of ignoring what you did say, or criticizing this message.
@Joe - perhaps what it is saying is that Christians need to rise up and do something?
Does your Church have a service ministry that it implements to help the poor, hungry, or needy? No? Contact the city and figure out what it would take to start one or find a Church that does
This definitely didn't provide a "system" or a "solution" to the problem, but it identified a problem that no one wants to talk about.
Excellent post. We can't expect the world to take significant action on these things; the statistics were similarly alarming when I was in college 30 years ago, and nothing has slowed the trends. Deforestation, illiteracy, famine, wars, oppression, exploitation, pollution have kept pace with or surpassed population growth.
(Minor correction: it was 40 days in the desert, not 30.)
if every church member tithed 10% the church would have enough money to end world hunger. I can't remember the exact numbers but its a true fact. Pretty incredible. Just think, the CHURCH doing something so prominent that its looked upon as a GOOD thing by atheists and people of different faith. I guess God had a brain when he said to tithe 10%. Is it really that hard.. when God is faithful to supply in abundance anyway if we tithe what we don't really have? the church has such little faith.
The problem is there has been a lot of money poured into Africa and the situation hasn't changed there because the problem is not economic but the problem is spiritual. You can't approach the faith politically, economically or otherwise. It is a spiritual condition.
beatiful writing, and perhaps a idea for most of mankind is to live in celecibity, I don't now on the moment the english word for it but te catholic church call it like periodical doing nothing. I read an statement from a pope about a petition from the clerus and congregations about , 20 years back. The community familie's an a few modern priest say lay the responsebilyty more by the people, modern birthcontrol. The pope was against it because the people,the catholic representive forget in the first instance, that they are not the flesh , and he the pope dont wanted to give another meaning on the words about birth control in the holy scripture, then this, when they control themself like written in the scripture and live on that guidelines no harm can be done to them..Pieterfranciscus from Holland
the people who lives like monks and priest they have lesser problems in the days that come. And it is good thing to preach that the people in common follow their senses, like the pope told them, and I have the names of great examples of this in Cristian history
@Sosthenes - I agree that a lot of money HAS been poured into Africa and that, for the most part, "the situation" hasn't changed there, as you say. But I cannot accept that poverty, hunger and disease are "spiritual conditions". A lack of success in development aid in Africa is not the result of some innate condition of the people there, it is the result of the manner in which that aid is distributed. Top-down efforts led by Western institutions through (usually corrupt) local governments generally have little success BECAUSE they are top-down, BECAUSE they are led by the West (incidentally, many African countries have 400 years worth of reasons not to trust the "developed world") and BECAUSE they are led through corrupt governments. These are structural difficulties that have nothing to do with a "spiritual condition" that you seem so ready to attribute to an entire continent.
Then again, perhaps I misinterpreted your comment. My apologies if this is the case.
unfortunately, many churches apparently disagree with you, because they continue to deny world crises and our own role in them.
I'll have to agree with Sosthenes. I believe the root problem is a spiritual problem. This is shown in the example of Uganda. Many years ago, they were a corrupt nation, with a corrupt government corrupt police force. The thing is, nothing was done to uphold morals and sin was rampant - therefore AIDS was prominent and a negligence toward the poor was so evident the whole world knew about it. But after the nation had wept and turned their eyes upon Jesus, there was revival. There was healing from sickness and diseases as well as political and structural healing. There is still devastation that is occurring and debris are still being picked up from the darkness, but generally speaking Uganda is becoming a better nation, experiencing much growth and economic stability, compared to way before.
I believe if the spiritual counterpart were to be dealt with, everything else would come. If the God and His Word were to be put first, then natural healing will come.
@fuegosdesoledad@xanga - I'm telling you what some of the ministries inside of Africa are saying. They are saying not to send in any more money.
I can send in money to buy a pig or a small animal for a family living in Africa and they are going to turn around and have more children which means that the money perpetuates the problem.
I can put clothes on a street person and put them in my house but it doesn't change their behavior.
When you reform a sinner then all you have is a reformed sinner. Until they see their need for Jesus Christ, they aren't going to change.
@reformissionary@xanga - From what I've read, the role of the church in Uganda in relation to HIV/AIDS seems to have been an education-based approach that was aimed at educating communities about safe-sex practices and decreasing numbers of sexual partners. This was definitely a large factor in Uganda's success but I don't see how safe-sex education relates to what you say about turning peoples' eyes to Jesus.
@Sosthenes - Having lots of children may seem like perpetuating the problem to you, but in countries with no social security system, in jobs with no retirement plan, having children is seen as good insurance. Hisorically, birth rates increase as rates of disease and infant mortality are high, and decline after these rates lower. Since many (treatable) diseases are still rampant in sub-saharan Africa, and infant mortality rates are among the highest in the world, it's not surprising that the birth rate is so high. That said, I'm not sure you or I are in a position to say how many children any family besides our own should be having.
Additionally, I feel like the kind of development you're referring to is unsustainable. If you give a person a free meal, all they learn is where they can get a free meal. If you instead devote your resources to buying that person/family a plot of land (or even micro-loaning the money to buy the land themselves) and educating them about sustainable farming techniques (for example), they will learn how to provide for themselves, and not feel dependent on other wealthy nations to take care of them.
Perhaps some development organizations are asking people to stop sending money because they are learning that the kind of aid they're providing is unsustainable or even harmful, and they are looking to restructure. I can't think of any specific examples of this off the top of my head though, maybe you have some?
@fuegosdesoledad@xanga - How many additional children should we volunteer to support when we send support to Africa?
John 3:19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
John 3:20 For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.
Regardless to what contributions you make, the spiritual condition of people won't change. Light came into the world and men love darkness rather than light. You can help someone who is destitute but the scripture says that they love darkness rather than light.
I work with a person who has a lot of problems. He lives in the slums and there are churches that give out free meals. I don't see the impact that the churches are making and the man I work with would rather starve than get a free meal from a Church because he knows what they are going to tell him and he doesn't want to clean up his life. I've tried to help him by offering him my car when I was getting a new car and he was so badly in debt because of traffic tickets that the only thing he wanted to do was sell it and not spend the money on getting rid of the fines and I've given rides to people at work so they wouldn't have to spend it on the bus and they would turn right around and spend the money on alcohol or live beyond their means. I got wise to trying to help people and I think that money should go to churches and they should deal with the people because there are a lot of people who will come to church just to rip you off. Show me the need because people will come just for the handout. They will say they need money for baby formula and they don't have a baby. They will say they are Christian and they aren't and they won't change. I contract for large companies that make drugs and they spend billions on making drugs and their workers will turn around and buy $12 dollar pens or fancier stuff for their office so they can make themselves look more important at work and a lot of money was wasted and few results in terms of development was accomplished at one drug company I know. Do we see any of these things happen in the "Christian" world? There was a story about Mercy Corp in the 80's and how much of every dollar was wasted.
When I lived in an urban area, my neighbor was on her back porch trying to catch someone stealing her lawn chairs, pool equipment and so forth. It happened. There are stores in Latin American countries who have guards that carry weapons because they are armed security guards. It isn't how much money you pump into these places but how much you have to protect because the attitudes aren't changing.
I belonged to a church and they would spend money on Sunday School materials. They would tell me how much they were struggling but they wouldn't write the material themselves. We're supposed to send money to Africa but how many of them are lifting a finger themselves? That is what I want to know.
What I've heard and I don't have a lot of experience with overseas missions but what I've heard is that they don't want to give people handouts. They want people to change with the Bible's help because that is the problem they are experiencing.
When I gave money to Compassion International, all correspondence had a code number and it all went through the organization for the children's and the contributor's safety. I got back little in terms of spiritual correspondence though I didn't request it.
2 Thessalonians 3:10 For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat.