When it comes to politics and faith I find a lot of Christians fall into one of two categories particularly when it comes to social issues: The church should care for the needs of the people (more republican leaning) or The church should influence the government to care for the needs of the people (more democrat leaning). Generally speaking, in theory, many agree that it’s a Christian thing to care for those in need, Christians just differ on how. But, then here is the crazy thing to me: both sides think something should be done AND both think the church should be a part of it. So, why aren’t we coming together to do these things?
In my experience, more liberal leaning Christians, in talk, are all about the social justice issues: feed the poor, care for the needy; and more conservative leaning Christians in political discussions are all about the church doing those very same things: feed the poor, care for the needy. Yet these two groups of folks, who are supposedly part of a unified spiritual body, seem to constantly be at odds, and mean while the poor starve and needs go unmet. Actions speak louder then words.
My guess is that in actuality neither side really cares about the needs of their neighbors. We all love a good debate and getting fired up and passionate and waxing eloquently about philosophical issues and how to solve world hunger, but we don’t really love our neighbors.
Good questions and very relevant points. I become frustrated with the way the church seems to avoid political debate and involvement. We try to address needs -and some churches do a great job at addressing needs- but its a different story when it comes to actually addressing the root cause of the need.
I think this is the case for two reasons. First, to change the root cause often requires us to change our own lifestyle. Its not easy to fight against the causes of poverty and urban-slavery without adjusting the suburban (or suburban within the urban) culture that many in the church belong to. Second, the church seems to view resorting to political fight as rejecting the "spiritual" side of the issue. As if enacting change on a political level is responding without God. Its not prayer v. politics. The two can go hand-in-hand.
I think people do love their neighbors but tend to get overwhelmed at the scope and cost. It's one thing to feed a hungry person once and quite another to feed 100 people over and over. Pastor Marque Jensen had an awesome sermon about this a few months ago. It was the start of Becoming Belove Community and spoke about how we all need each other. The reason so many resist reaching out is because they've been burned in the past, they are afraid, the scope is so vast.
I’ve noticed that ther are plenty of Christian organizations (such as my friend Milan’s Comapsion Connect) and individual Christians who actively work of justice.
But you’re right. As the collective body of Christ, we’ve largely dropped the ball. In my opinion, this is because American church culture, and more broadly, American spiritual culture, have become about narccissism. When “church”=”spiritual consumption”, there’s a huge disconnect between what the gospel says and what many believers hope for from the church.
I would tend to agree with you. For the most part they really only care about being right and not doing right.
I have been getting increasingly interested in the planet, being a christian and seeing so many alignments between events like solar flares, tsunamis, pollution and how they correlate with prophecy.
I am writing about these on my blog at http://chasong.blogspot.com
I used to be atheist and I am still sceptical. I will go to a church (denominational) service with my thinking cap on – BUT maybe its apophenia or maybe I’m just a looney, but I really think things are winding down for our green planet.
I’d be really honoured if you come by and drop your thoughts – and rants on my blog at: http://chasong.blogspot.com
Thanks for your time
Here is an excerpt as it relates to your blog:
I know many Christians belong to denominational organizations (these things we have come to call churches)that are making a lot of money. Heck, it’s tax free, and all sort of marketing ruses are used to collect money in the name of God – and unlike the early churches, it’s only in few settings you see a breakdown of how these monies are allocated. I was once a member of a denomination in the UK and you can imagine my shock when one of the elders came forward and explained how much had been collected and used precise figures and pie charts to show how the collections had been spent. I was crazy impressed.
He went on to talk about a program called a gift day for the less-privileged and MAN, was I happy to give!! Reason being, you hardly see any sort of breakdown in many denomination, you know the ‘man-of-God’ is living large, the denomination has purchased its 12th keyboard for “worship” (which is actually a life style NOT a live jam), there are plans for expanding the house of GOD (I thought the house of God was our bodies and not the building – which gives a twist to where the tithe should be going, INNIT?!)
What I am getting at is, many Christians have reached a point of being settled in the world, have taken on its practices, and like someone said, feel a lot better when they have a famous person’s name on their pants!
My recent post Staring at the world through my rearview- The Countdown has begun Part 1 of 2
I have come to realize that at table of justice, the church is not the part that feeds others. It is not even the part that serves the food. It is the appetite that consumes all the resources. The church is a house of religion, and it does that very well. God is a God of Justice, and He does that very well.
The correlation is that sometimes are invited to the same dinner parties.
I realize now that I left out the word "the" and "they" in some of my sentences. Sorry about that, my point is the same, though not so well articulated.