When dealing with questions about hunger and poverty in the world, particularly overseas, so much time is spent figuring out who is to blame, whether the American government has poor economic practices overseas, whether it is just their governments who have wronged them or their economically deficient practices as a culture.  People can wax poetic about the issues of global crisis.  I know I’ve personally read tons of blogs on the subject.

I recently had a conversation with my friend Jeremy as he was trying to prepare a sermon on James 4.13-5.6.  We were talking about the question of who was to blame for some of the global crises.  We discussed some of the roles America has played amongst other possible root causes, but then it dawned on my to bring up a point.  Jesus seemed to care little about who caused the poverty and sickness around him… he only asked his followers what they were going to do about it.  The Jews were blaming the Romans or their own poor leadership for the problems, the Romans were controlling the Jews because they probably saw them as a problem, and you have the Zealots and others out their blaming different establishments for all the issues of the world.  Yet Jesus came and said… do something about the poor or the disenfranchised.  Don’t wait in the wings and point fingers.  We are to care.

I have promoted Land of a Thousand Hills Coffee on the blog before, and I still wholeheartedly endorse them because they are not part of the economic cycle that Tony Payne discusses since it is simply a way of connecting smaller growers with the larger economy, not price fixing.  I encourage you to get involved in purchasing and supporting businesses like that.

All of this is in conjunction with the upcoming Olympics taking place in China, where many perceive China as violating human rights in the Tibet region, something that is fairly well documented and known about. World Vision has a report about some of the problems and the protests they have caused. All this led me to one question:

Why is the world better activists than Christians?

The human-rights issues in Tibet (and Darfur, Sudan, etc) are something every Christian should have awareness and conviction about. Yet, it seems like Christians are one of the most silent voices on the issue. Obviously there are some Christian groups doing something about it, but by-and-large it hardly feels like a hot button issue. I can understand why Christians don’t hold the same banners as groups like Peta or the Sierra Club (thought sometimes we should), but human-rights issues we should be as passionate, if not more, than those in the world. I understand too the difference between peaceful protest and those that cause civil unrest, and I definitely think Christians should opt for the peaceful form.

What was even more amazing to me, as I flipped through the news today, was two separate interviews that were the only “Christian” related subjects today. The first was a woman who was asked why she wanted McCain to remove Mit Romney from the list of possible vice-presidential candidates. Her reasoning is that he has allowed same-sex marriages in his state as well as waffles on abortion even after his conversion. She said as a Christian, those are not values we can stand for. Secondly, in a separate interview, a school in the midwest was having some ‘wacky clothing’ week, and one of the days was a cross-dressing day. There was an old curmudgeon from the Christian media world talking about how it was some sort of abomination that this was taking place, even though little to no parents or students really saw it as a problem.

That’s what Christians stand for in America? Has it really gotten this bad? Why has evangelism become so difficult and been met with so much resistance? Because the world has sometimes come to represent Christ better than Christians. Obviously that is not a universal statement in all social and moral areas, but when the non-Christians of the world are concerned about a lot of these global issues and Christians have essentially remained mute, what appeal is that?

A lot of this was summed up in what went down with Joel Hunter. Joel was a Theology of Ministry professor of mine at Reformed Theological Seminary and is currently the lead pastor at Northland Church in Orlando. When I had heard he was elected to head to Christian Coalition (founded by Pat Robertson), I was rather surprised, but hoped he would bring much vision to the organization, which he did attempt to do. He offered a broader vision to the group, including ‘compassion issues’ such as human rights. He was quickly asked to step down from his position, because they were worried that they would lose focus on what the Coalition stands for? If the Christian Coalition doesn’t stand for compassion, I think they need to remove the word Christian from their title.

Why don’t Christians stand for compassion anymore?

One of the issues that is often at the forefront of a lot of Christian political talk is gay marriage. Now, I hardly believe this is a crucial issue in ANY election, while wars, social injustices, famine, human trafficing, violence, and many other crises face our world every day, not to mention the current economy, but nonetheless, it is still a debate that exists essentially because of Christians. But, alas, it has been a stalemate. Unless…

We remove marriage from the government.

Why not? Why not just call every contract between two individuals similar to marriage a ‘civil union.’ That’s all it really is in the eyes of government anyways. In marriage, the government grants you rights such as inheritances, family access in hospitals and crises situations, and a few other perks because of the current identification of marriage. Taxes are another issue, but that can be wrestled with by people who understand taxes more than I do. TurboTax is my friend.

We don’t live in a theocracy. There is a great difference between moral standards that should be shared and respected for citizens to act in peace and moral standards that exist separately for Christians. Dictating morality through legislation never works, and also confuses the whole separation of Church and state in a very detrimental way. How do we expect people to act sexually pure without the empowering of the Holy Spirit? If morality were dictated by laws, why not just imprison everyone for having premarital sex? Its a slippery slope when you start saying how other people should act in their own privacy that does not violate the rights of a consenting adult individual.

If we want to restore the sanctity of marriage in this country, why not give marriage back to the church and other religious institutions. Allow them to define what marriage is, and not the government, so that they may uphold their own standards of sanctity.

World Water Day is a day of activism and awareness on March 22nd, focused on the plight of water crises around the globe. Jesus himself constantly used water as analogies to himself, the Spirit, and more, and how difficult to understand that Jesus offers living water, when water often leads to death and distruction.

4:10 Bridge and BigStuf camps have partnered together to sell Water 4 Kenya (H2O4K). They asked individual churches to commit to help raise money for water relieve in their mission villages in Kenya. Here’s a promotional video they played during the camps:

They also sold H2O4K water bottles during the camp sessions which also went towards the fund. For church leaders, I urge you to find more information about the water crisis around the globe and how you can get involved, and church members, talk to your leadership about it, and see what you can do. If you don’t partner with one of the organizations above, maybe seek ways to raise funds, through selling water during services or other creative methods.

“Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” - John 4.13-14

Its that time again. Time to read countless blogs and articles scrutinizing every word and mundane detail of multiple political candidates that are all at once similar, yet have their little nuances that can make or break them in the public eye. As a Christian, the political world is collectively messy yet vital. But lately, I have become overly curious at the quietness of the Christian voice to speak up against war.

I don’t really have doubts about whether or not what we are fighting against is evil, but in searching through Scripture, I am not sure if support of war is the appropriate biblical response. Yet, the general perception of Christians (predominately Republican Christians) is that we are pro-war. So, the things that the public sphere knows us by is that we are anti-abortion, anti-gay marriage, and pro-war. Not exactly known by our love as of late.

Through the Old Testament, God certainly commanded Israel to use violence and warfare in the face of those around them in order to establish Israel as a holy and chosen nation. Its important to note that God had a political connection with the people of Israel, establishing them as a separate nation, chosen differently from all others (even though they were still to be a light to other nations). God’s constant urging is for them to be a special political/spiritual nation that has a chosen place and that shares the message of God with others. Yet, we find them constantly failing, a common Old Testament theme.

Into the scene breaks Jesus, the chosen Son of God, to basically point out to them that they can’t live up to the law. He did not come to abolish the law but to fulfill it (Matt 5.17), being the one who lives up to the burden of the law, sinless, and then becomes the human sacrifice. Jesus, in doing so, also seems to perform a transfer of power, from the political-socio power of Israel, into the equality of all who accept him as Savior, no matter what country, race, or sex (Gal 3.28). But now, we who are saved, are the holy nation and the royal priesthood (1 Pet 2.9), terms that were previously exclusively reserved for Israel.

So, if Jesus came to change the nature of God dealing with the political nation of Isreal, how does he prescribe us to live in the face of evil and warfare? Let’s see:

“Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” (Matt 5.44 ESV, cf. Luke 6.3, 27;)

“Do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also” (Matt 5.39 ESV)

“For all who take the sword will perish by the sword” (Matt 26.52 ESV)

“Whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them” (Matt 7.12 ESV)

“Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless, for to this you were called, that you may obtain a blessing” (1 Peter 3.9 ESV, cf. Rom 12.17, 21; 1 Thess 5.15)

We are the ones who are called to love peace (Zech 8.19), and to bear the fruit of the spirit. With all of that, I stand convicted that I need to stand up and say no to war. That is not to say that the threat of Islam is not real or dangerous. The threat of the Roman Empire in the early church was real and dangerous, leading to persecution after persecution, but we do not find the leaders of the early church fighting back with violence.

In our Christian walk and our sanctification, our desire is to be like Jesus, to reflect his life so that our lives may glorify God. Jesus, when confronted by military authority, chose to submit to the point and death and commanded his followers not to fight back, at least not with the sword. And how did Jesus respond to his persecutors? By forgiving them on the cross.

I certainly enjoy the freedoms I have in this country. I am glad I have the ability to worship without hiding, to share my faith, and write this blog. But they are luxuries for us as Americans. We are commanded to pray, share our faith, etc, but never promised that we would not be persecuted for them. Yet, we have grown so in love with personal freedoms, that we feel like that is the ‘good’ that God commands and we must always fight back with violence to maintain those rights. Evil will always exist in this world until the return of Christ. Combating it by force will not put an end to it, but combating it through the spirit is the only way to make progress. Satan is not bound by the amount of evil people we kill or keep out of our borders, but is bound by evangelists who spread the gospel throughout the world.

Let’s no longer let the hippies and far-left politicians be known as the peacemakers. Let us be marked with that brand, as those who love peace so that they may know us by this love.