Friday, December 12, 2008
Imagine That
Kruse Kronicle reprints and article from the very left-leaning Guardian paper of the UK.
Let's ask ourselves something for just a minute. Why do we have to lobby governments to "their responsibilities"? Why can't we just meet them? No, the church probably does not need to be building roads or providing for the national defense, but everything else? Absolutely, and probably, the church should build roads if that is what it take to get food to the people.
Recently heard a sermon preached in which we were chastised for not aiding the Burmese enough. You remember Burma. After a natural disaster, billions in aid poured in only to be absconded by the government. I tracked down the preacher afterward and asked him if the correct response was to write another check or overthrow the Burmese government?
Now here is a genuine church/state issue! Can the church be in the business of overthrowing corrupt governments for the sake of aiding the poor? One would have to argue, I think, that under the current governmental systems we have, lobbying would be the correct response - get our government to overthrow the corrupt government. But even our government could not do that on every front throughout the world, and we would do so at the risk of becoming dictatorial ourselves.
Here's what I wonder - if submission is the key to personal discipleship, maybe that means sometimes, just sometimes, we have to look at awful situations and admit there is nothing to be done. Maybe we have to submit our desire to do something?
Technorati Tags:church, poverty, action
Generated By Technorati Tag Generator
It's here – at the epicentre of food security, famine or flood disasters, at the heart of the Aids pandemic – that the church is having the greatest impact. It is here that the church offers the greatest potential in helping to scale up wider efforts for poverty reduction.If it was not for that last sentence, I would think we had hit upon the perfect description of the church in the world.
The church is one of the few movements that is both local and global. It draws from an impressive portfolio of highly professional church-based organisations and denominational structures robust enough to fill the gap when states fail in their duty to provide vital services for the marginalised and poorest in society. As an international network it also has the ability to mobilise hundreds of thousands of people worldwide to lobby policy makers to take up their responsibilities to eliminate poverty and provide those basic rights and services for all.
Let's ask ourselves something for just a minute. Why do we have to lobby governments to "their responsibilities"? Why can't we just meet them? No, the church probably does not need to be building roads or providing for the national defense, but everything else? Absolutely, and probably, the church should build roads if that is what it take to get food to the people.
Recently heard a sermon preached in which we were chastised for not aiding the Burmese enough. You remember Burma. After a natural disaster, billions in aid poured in only to be absconded by the government. I tracked down the preacher afterward and asked him if the correct response was to write another check or overthrow the Burmese government?
Now here is a genuine church/state issue! Can the church be in the business of overthrowing corrupt governments for the sake of aiding the poor? One would have to argue, I think, that under the current governmental systems we have, lobbying would be the correct response - get our government to overthrow the corrupt government. But even our government could not do that on every front throughout the world, and we would do so at the risk of becoming dictatorial ourselves.
Here's what I wonder - if submission is the key to personal discipleship, maybe that means sometimes, just sometimes, we have to look at awful situations and admit there is nothing to be done. Maybe we have to submit our desire to do something?
Technorati Tags:church, poverty, action
Generated By Technorati Tag Generator
