Confusion About Christian Social Responsibility

We need some biblical clarity about these important matters:

Sadly there is never a shortage of fuzzy thinking and confusion among Christians on various issues. One such area where I have likely penned dozens, if not hundreds, of articles is on the issue of whether Christians should be involved in social issues. Some believers think we should have nothing to do with the so-called culture wars and just stick to preaching the gospel – whatever that means. Consider what one believer recently told me online:

Political arguments, debates and even engagement at national level in our country are ultimately a distraction from the Gospel work of local churches, and always divisive in our relationships and communities in ways not meant to be! Both sides see and experience this! Beware! Christians can certainly be light and salt at local levels where they can interact with people directly – school boards, etc. But Jesus never called us to involved in what we call culture wars – our mission is one of rescue from the world, not conquest of it. Local is best instead of long range national sniping in order to score points against someone you never meet and only see online.

Oh dear, this is just so wrong on so many levels. Let me begin by pointing out one thing: I have never met this particular person, and yet here he is, sniping with me online – the very thing he insisted Christians should not be doing!

But let me again try to make a bit of biblical and theological sense here. And as always, appealing to the great Christian abolitionist William Wilberforce is a good way to proceed. Was he wrong to seek to deal with the international slave trade (Africa is hardly local to London)? He was not spending all his time sitting in some African hut having one on one chats with those running the slave trade there.

Thankfully he never foolishly thought that unless he went out for a cup of coffee with slave traders and had a personal encounter with them, he should just shut up about abolition work.

Thankfully he never foolishly said, ‘This abolitionism is just culture war stuff which I should not be involved in’!

Thankfully he never thought that trying to free the slaves from this evil trade was somehow an impediment to the gospel and a waste of time.

Thankfully he ignored the advice of the armchair critics and instead devoted his life to both the slave trade and dozens of other social causes (culture war stuff) as well as proclaiming the gospel.

Thankfully he disregarded the foolish claims of these critics who were always carping at him back then. He did not buy for a moment that he was wasting his time and just trying to “conquer the world” and so on.

Thankfully he never fell for the unbiblical and dangerous view that he had to make a choice between evangelism and helping those in need. He was fully aware that both had to go together and not be ripped apart.

In addition to being a full-orbed biblical Christian who was never shy about the gospel of Jesus Christ, he was also involved his whole adult life in fighting for the basic human rights of Black people, AND was involved in some 70 different voluntary societies dealing with everything from helping women and children to even working to treat animals humanely.

Ever hear of the RSPCA? Yes, that was just one of the many organisations Wilberforce helped to found as he sought to be salt and light in every area of society. He rightly believed the Lordship of Christ extends to every area of life, and not just to getting ethereal souls into heaven. He knew that both body and soul had to be ministered to.

We can all be so very thankful that his was a wholistic gospel, and not a truncated and unbiblical one. Millions of Blacks today can thank Wilberforce for ignoring the critics and getting involved in the whole gospel for the whole person.

The state, the church, and the individual

Part of the problem with this fellow and what he had said involved confusion about who should do what. In one sense it is true that the church is involved in “spiritual” things – rightly understood – while the state is involved in “political” things – rightly understood.

But there is clearly overlap here, certainly for the individual Christian. He is a part of the church and he is part of the state. He has a heavenly passport and an earthly. He has spiritual responsibilities and he has political responsibilities. Pretending these can somehow be kept surgically distinct is quite foolish.

All Christians for example SHOULD be very concerned about the millions and millions of unborn babies being slaughtered every year. To suggest the believer should not be concerned about this or involved in working against because it is just ‘wasteful culture war stuff’ is absurd.

So is the notion that only local action can be engaged in. If laws about things like abortion are made by states, or by the federal government, or by international bodies, then to seek to protect the unborn of necessity means moving beyond our own local neighborhood and reaching into much wider arenas. How can we avoid these obvious activities?

If you write a letter to a state politician, or send an email to a federal politician, chances are good you NEVER had a close personal relationship with them. So what! They are paid to represent you and your views, and by all means you should tell them what you think about vitally important issues such as the wholesale carnage of the unborn.

Sure, if you can make an appointment with a local politician and have a personal chat with him – something I have often done – that is terrif. But that does NOT mean you cannot deal with those far away that you have never met. That is just unhelpful thinking.

Indeed, the 53^rd annual March for Life was just held in Washington DC. Vice-President Vance was one of the speakers at the event, and many international marchers attended, including our own Lyle Shelton of Family First. As he just said: “This is the world’s biggest annual human rights event. Life is winning here, and it will in Australia too if we persist.” Quite right. This is a global battle that must be fought on ALL levels.

As to the mention of local school boards, yes believers should engage there – but even much further! Most school policies are state and federal matters, including national groups like the hyper-left National Education Association. See this shocking recent report of the NEA: https://www.foxnews.com/politics/nea-insider-blows-whistle-on-toxic-culture-and-far-left-politics-inside-teachers-union-its-a-cult

These sorts of massive problems which impact ALL American children can NOT be solved by just a few personal visits with a local schoolteacher. This must be fought on state and national levels. And yes it is a culture war issue – a vitally important one for any caring American – Christian or otherwise.

Consider another matter: If you are aware of brothers and sisters being persecuted and slaughtered for their faith – as is taking place right now in Nigeria – you personally can do little or nothing directly about it. But that does not let you off the hook. You still can and must engage.

For example, you can organise local, state-wide and nation-wide prayer vigils about this. You can contact your elected representatives to seek to get them to do something about this, and so on. Global issues demand global responses. And all this has nothing to do with ‘scoring points’ with someone you have never met!

In sum:
-Seeking to see Blacks as made in God’s image is not a culture war issue, but a gospel issue.
-Seeking to see babies as made in God’s image is not a culture war issue, but a gospel issue.
-Seeking to protect our vulnerable children from the activists is not a culture war issue, but a gospel issue.
-Seeking to get global action on persecuted Christians is not a culture war issue, but a gospel issue.

The truth is, I and millions of other followers of Christ have spent our lives both sharing the gospel and evangelising, AND being fully engaged in urgently-needed social action. We have been called by God to do both. If the critics do not like that, I don’t really care.

All I really need to care about is if I am doing what God wants me to do, and doing it faithfully. I am SO very thankful that people like Wilberforce had this attitude. He ignored the critics and did exactly what the Lord called him to do. Because of that the evil slave trade is in many ways now a thing of the past.

And one day as faithful Christians keep engaging in a very similar work, that of abolishing the evil abortion industry, we hopefully will also soon see this as being a thing of the past. Working to save the lives of millions of innocent babies is not just some ‘culture war’ activity, but a vitally important component of being a biblical Christian – of being salt and light as Jesus commanded us to be.

So those involved in these activities for Christ and his glory should just keep on keeping on. Do not worry about what others are saying. Worry instead about making sure you are fighting the good fight in the areas God has directed you to.

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