Prophetic Activism
With the 40th anniversary of Martin Luther Kings death a number of news media printed reports and opinions on his work during the 60’s and 70’s. One such article, published by CNN on Monday, was a particularly interesting read as it contrasted the Prophetic Gospel of King with the Prosperity gospel of the modern church. Here is some of what the article had to say:
Forty years after his death, King remains a prophet without honor in the institution that nurtured him, some black preachers and scholars say.
They also say King’s “prophetic” model of ministry — one that confronted political and economic institutions of power — has been sidelined by the prosperity gospel.
“It’s dangerous to be prophetic,” said Wheeler, who is also president of the Christian Theological Seminary in Indianapolis, Indiana.
“I don’t know many prophetic preachers who are driving big cars and living very comfortably. You don’t generally build huge churches by making folks uncomfortable on Sunday morning,” he said.
The Rev. Raphael Warnock, senior pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, where King preached, says that prosperity preaching is not just a distortion of Jesus’ message but a betrayal of the black church’s heritage. The black church was formed by slaves who saw Jesus’ message as a tool for social justice.
You can read the full article here or (if it is deleted) download a PDF version here.
This article brings to the fore a lot of issues I currently see in the church. I have a Pentecostal background and thus have experienced my fair share of preachers offering fantastic blessings if only I would give them some money. I also think that the ’self help’ gospel is entirely prevalent in Christianity today - where Jesus died primarily to heal our inner being and make us emotionally stable. Whilst I have seen many people whose lives have changed from this self help teaching (certainly God has done much to heal the holes in my life) I think it has this tendency to make us “victims” and “victors” instead of “sinners” and “saints”. It makes our religion about us instead of about God.
Yet there is another gospel that has also become common: the social justice gospel. In this gospel it appears as though God came only to make the world a better place and to bring compassion instead of justice. Sin is of no real consequence and perhaps everyone may go to heaven. Christ becomes an activist.
Neither of these ‘gospels’ inspire me. From my limited perspective the gospel is about how Jesus came to essentially stop us from sinning (which is a long journey to be sure). To put him back on the rightful place in our lives. To get us to repent - an action where by we reverse our actions and make amends for what we have done.
I don’t think I am explaining myself as well as usual so allow me to post an exert from an email I wrote that had to do with how we ‘deal with’ the poor:
A lot of people try to blame the unfortunate situations of people on their own choices and therefore do nothing about it. Other people place all the blame on society as though the person has no control over their situation. This is where I think Christianity has the ultimate solution: Christianity pins the blame for all that is wrong in this world on sin. My sins and their sins. Ultimately the solution is to eradicate sin - for me to stop exploiting the poor, and for them to make good life choices. You need both for real societal change.
However, admitting that our personal sin contributes the the social sins and the climate of sin in our culture is a hard thing to do. It is much easier to give our money or our criticism towards these social problems than it is to give ourselves to the worship of God and the service of others. This is an easy trap to fall into: to give money and feel charitable, or to condemn other’s sin and feel righteous. But the ultimately prophetic thing to do is to confess and expose sin in ourselves and society. This is what makes me exited about following God.
My sin is in being a wilful participant rather than a contentious objector to the system that creates poor people, and to repent I need to turn a leaf by lovingly serving the people I have hurt. Their sin may be getting addicted to drugs, and to repent they need to genuinely fight this addiction. God really is a genius.
Faith is an action word. In Western Christianity we have created a ‘Gnostic Dualism’ where what we believe is divorced from how we act. Salvation (which we are taught has to do with life after death and not life before it) is gained by intellectual belief alone. But it seems to me that ‘faith’ in the New Testament is an action word. That it means allegiance to Christ. That it means obedience and dedication to his way. Action does not merely follow faith - action is faith! It is this allegiance to a new king that changes everything about our lives. Not a set standard of works we must live up to but a new orientation and direction for our lives. A God who is concerned with what direction you are heading in over what location you have reached. I think Martin Luther King would agree.
I had a conversation with a work mate about politics shortly after reading this. He suggested that the right wing should be about increasing everybody’s wealth, and the left wing should be about increasing everybody’s equality. However, in recent years the right has pandered to a very small portion of the population - business. Meanwhile, the left has advocated all sorts of strange, progressive ideas that go far beyond making everyone equal. When this shift in politics is combined with the shift in Christianity towards a self-help gospel perhaps it is no wonder it has become associated with the right wing (also left wing policies like those on abortion and homosexuality have served to push Christians away). Perhaps this conversation would be better fleshed out in another post.
I apologise that this is a bit of a rabble and that I neglected to post last week. These are just some of the thoughts and questions which this CNN article raises for me.
Filed under: Christian, Christianity, Faith, Religion, Salvation |
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