On Justice
"I'm tired of Christians -- ministers! -- allowing themselves to get pushed around by politicians who have reduced the idea of moral values down to abortion and gay marriage. Why do they find it acceptable to ignore thousands of verses about poverty, protecting God's creation the environment, and war? Is anyone actually reading the New Testament??" - from Blog-O-Baker
Amen! I think there are other Christians out there who are tired of being pigeon holed by the religious right. I am. God isn't going to ask me, "how much sin did you stop from happening?" Rather I believe he will say "when you saw the sick...did you care for them? Did you defend the defenseless? Did you bring healing and justice in my name?"
Cedar Ridge Community Church in Maryland has decided to bring attention not to judges, gay marriage, or "welfare queens" but to the horror that is happening in Darfur. After 800,000 people were hacked to death in Rawanda people said "never again." Well it's happening again and the President, congress, the media, and some prominent Christians have been shamefully quite about it.
Starting next Sunday and every Sunday after that for five weeks CRC is holding church services targeting the entities of power in Washington D.C. They will meet in front of the Capitol, the Sudanese Embassy, media headquarters, and the White House all in hopes of calling those in power to do something about the genocide in Darfur. You can read about the specifics here and here.
For my part, I am teaching four lessons on Justice to my youth group, and on July 10th we are going down to D.C. to take part in the final worship service in front of the White House. I am thankful for people and places of faith who can recognize the tragedies of our time and are moved to do something about it both in the local context and the global context. What I love about this event is that the organizers are calling all people of faith, not just Christians, to come and take part in this service. I pray that these types of justice issues become the moral force that drives the Christian church into action instead of political issues like "activist judges" and other such non-sense.
3 comments:
Truth. It is the hardest to hear. The hardest to digest. The hardest to practice.
The O.T. prophets and Jesus not only spoke truth, but they lived the truth.
And how did the people respond? By persecuting the prophets and by killing the ultimate truth teller in Jesus Christ.
Should we be suprised by the crowd's reaction? Not at all. Because when your spiritual diet has consisted of nothing but lies and falsehood, the truth can be a very unwelcomed new dish that none of us wish to try. Like a plate of rotten sushi, the truth can convict so much that it turns our stomach.
A reason why the truth is so hard to take is that the truth cannot be compromised, it cannot be bought, it cannot be sold. The reason why the truth is so offensive because most times it is contrary to what we believe and the way we live. Nobody wants to be told they have done or are doing wrong, but all of us need to hear it.
What is a truth facing Christians here in America in the 21st century?
The truth is that while you continue to gain bigger cars, bigger houses and bigger incomes; the rest of the world continues to lose food, clean drinking water and family members.
The truth is that the Church must attend to the world's suffering, and not just of those who look like us and talk like us.
The public worship for Darfur in D.C. is just the first step. Thanks J for raising the awareness and thank you for speaking the truth.
CJE
Kristof writes another piece about the injustice happening over there. The best part is the last paragraph:
"Mr. Bush values a frozen embryo. But he hasn't mustered much compassion for an entire population of terrorized widows and orphans. And he is cementing in place the very hopelessness he dreads, by continuing to avert his eyes from the first genocide of the 21st century."
Amen and may justice and mercy roll.
Amen, Jason! You speak truth.
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