Continued from Part 1:

…. Reverend Marsh [then] focused his attention and energies, not on fighting the Ku Klux Klan, but on the lack of personal piety and unbelief of some of the civil rights workers. This culminated in his writing a famous sermon, “The Sorrow of Selma,” in which he lambasted the civil rights workers, calling them “unbathed beatniks,” “immoral kooks,” and “sign-carrying degenerates” who were hypocrites for not believing in God.

In one sense, Reverend Marsh was right. Many of the civil rights protestors longed for the peace, justice, and righteousness of the kingdom, but they did not want to bend the knee to the King Himself, which is a prerequisite for enjoying the full benefits of the kingdom. In contrast, Reverend Marsh embraced King Jesus, but he did not understand the fullness of Christ’s kingdom and its implications for the injustices in his community. Both Reverend Marsh and the civil rights workers were wrong, but in different ways. Reverend Marsh sought the King without the kingdom. The civil rights workers sought the kingdom without the King. The church needs a Christ-centered, fully orbed, kingdom perspective to correctly answer the question, “What would Jesus do?”

[TY]

How did Reverend Marsh, the model Christian, respond to this situation? Charles explains:

There is no doubt my father loathed the Klan when he thought about them at all. In his heart of hearts, he considered slavery a sin, racisms like Germany’s or South Africa’s an offense to the faith, and he taught me as much in occasional pronouncements on Southern history over homework assignments. “There is no justification for what we did to the Negro. It was an evil thing and we were wrong.” Nevertheless, the work of the Lord lay elsewhere. “Be faithful in church attendance, for your presence can, if nothing else, show that you are on God’s side when the doors of the Church are opened,” he advised in the church bulletin. Of course, packing the pews is one of any minister’s fantasies—there’s always the wish to grow, grow, grow. But the daily installments of Mississippi burning, the crushing poverty of the town’s Negro inhabitants, the rituals of white supremacy, the smell of terror pervading the streets like Masonite’s stench, did not figure into his sermons or in our dinner-table conversations or in the talk of the church. These were, to a good Baptist preacher like him, finally matters of politics, having little or nothing to do with the spiritual geography of a pilgrim’s journey to paradise. Unwanted annoyances? Yes. Sad evidences of our human failings? Certainly. But all of these would be rectified in some eschatological future—“when we all get to Heaven, what a day of rejoicing that will be.”

Like many Christians then and now, Reverend Marsh’s Christianity rightly emphasized personal piety but failed to embrace the social concern that should emanate from a kingdom perspective. He believed Christianity largely consisted in keeping one’s soul pure by avoiding alcohol, drugs, and sexual impurity, and by helping others to keep their souls pure too. There was little “now” of the kingdom for Reverend Marsh, apart from the saving of souls…

While Reverend Marsh preached personal piety and the hope of heaven, African Americans were being lynched in Mississippi through the plotting of Sam Bowers. Less dramatic but even more pervasive was the entire social, political, and economic system designed to keep African Americans in their place. What would King Jesus do in this situation? Would He simply evangelize the African Americans, saying, “I have heard your cries for help, but your earthly plight is of no concern to Me. Believe in Me, and I will transport your soul to heaven someday. In the meantime, abstain from alcohol, drugs, and sexual impurity”? Is this how Jesus responded to the blind beggar who pleaded for mercy?

The Gospel of John is extremely relevant when it comes to studying the character of Jesus and how He worked for 'true' social good.  To what end did Jesus perform miracles before the masses?  To heal the sick and fill empty stomachs?

The crowds certainly thought so (for example, see John 6:26).  And not only in this instance, but groupies of Jesus's time were often found to be making Jesus who they wanted him to be, whether it was teacher, healer, food provider.  All these He could do (and He did teach, heal, feed, in specific instances), but not all the time. Why?  Perhaps His primary ministry was not to meet peoples' immediate needs, all the time.  Indeed, He went far beyond that.  Jesus knew that stomachs would become empty again and the healed would eventually perish; so after the barley loaves (John 6:11) He offered the Bread that never fails (John 6:35).

There is grave danger in equating the gospel with food, or health, or any other temporary provision.  In fact, to do so is ultimately evil and deceiving because, though these things will satisfy for a season, they will inevitably expire.  The temporal should never, nor could it ever, stand in for the eternal.  Let the lopsided social gospel movement of the 19th century serve as a lesson from history.  Washington Gladden was a liberal pastor and social hero of his time, because he pointed to Jesus's concern for people as the basis for his social reform work.  Honestly, it sounds respectable and almost legitimate.  But the problem is that the social gospel reduced Jesus to a good example to follow, rather than elevate Him as the sole giver of eternal life.  A social agenda was allowed to eclipse the true gospel.

If Jesus had been primarily concerned with peoples' hunger, he would have opened a food pantry; and if peoples' health, a hospital.  But Jesus didn't do those things.  Why?  Because He loved too much.

[JE]

[TY]

The amazing speed with which someone/something can suddenly "go viral" on the internet is matched only by the equally expeditious response/praise/backlash (i.e. Rob Bell, Tebowmania, Linsanity, "Why I Hate Religion," etc.). Regarding the recent Kony 2012 video, this is a pretty comprehensive summary, I'd say.

Out of the different opinions I've read, two posts—by Robin Dixon, and Cord Jefferson—probably resonate with me most. I want to say yeah, it really isn't that simple and indeed, the "more you read, the more you realize everything is a gray area."

[TY]

"Idealism increases in direct proportion to one's distance from the problem."

Ms. LT is a single mother of four who perpetually struggles to manage her income that comes from a monthly welfare check, and also suffers from chronic asthma and occasional seizures. I've been meeting her more or less weekly, on and off, for the past several months.

The initial idealism (and naiveté) with which I wanted to help have faded over time–I am older and grumpier now, ha. That idealism has been replaced by a more realistic, nuanced understanding of the complex nature and effects of poverty. It's great to study organizations and read books on helping the poor and vulnerable, but it starts getting messy once I, flawed and inadequate, start to directly involve myself in the life of a real person with real needs. She actually would be quite content each time with a few bucks please, no questions asked; she would rather not be asked to think honestly about ways to break her habits or change her lifestyle. I think about the above quote every time she lies to me or every time I'm compelled to yell at my own self: what are you doing?! I guess I'm just going to have to keep learning as I go.

It was actually her birthday a couple days ago, and I know she likely will never read this – but HAPPY BIRTHDAY. She turned 38.

[TY]

Claude Hickman, Steven Hawthorne and Todd Ahrend write:

Forgotten New Year's resolutions should be enough to tell us that we don't have auto-pilot settings to carry out our intentions, no matter how good our intentions may be. We all tend to drift. No one sets out aiming for smallness. We've all let life and the waves of social pressure carry us along. It's easy to get caught up in the mainstream and find ourselves too weak to fight the current. Passive defaulting to the world's crosscurrents in the everydayness of life produces small people living for small things.

[TY]

CityTeam International (formerly CityTeam Ministries) serves the poor and homeless at different locations over the country, including Oakland. Some of us (heyyy that's JE in the picture above) have been involved in partnering with their Rescue Mission Program for the past few years, helping with their chapel and dinner service on the fourth Tuesday of each month. We want to continue to do so, come join us!

There are many different ways for individuals to volunteer, and we also would love—and are trying to think about ways—to be able to do more as a group. But we've found it difficult at times to be faithful even with our one evening a month, so we want to start with that, and establish a consistent group, for that matter. It's been great to be able to start building relationships with a few of the men at the shelter, and that can only come, I've personally found, if I am consistent in showing up even just once a month.

We visit CityTeam every fourth Tuesday of each month @ 7pm, at 722 Washington St. in Oakland.

[TY]

A post about "gleaner tech" features a project that I'm sure many have already known about. A couple articles address nutritional and mental health in poorer countries, while another couple articles present economists' views on "best" and "cost-effective" ways to alleviate poverty. 

[TY]

Here's an organization that my friend recently let me know about -- Wheels of Hope, a work training program and partnership between Rolling Hills Covenant Church, Fred Jordan Missions and Zambikes of Africa. Their tag line: Changing lives here. Saving lives there. Skid Row in Los Angeles is the here, and Africa is the there. From their brochure:

"[It] is a program in which men, many of them homeless, are being trained in skills of welding and metal fabrication along with discipleship. Their training comes through the building of bicycles, bicycle cargo trailers, and bicycle ambulances. Once built, these products are shipped to Africa where the bicycles and trailers have a positive financial impact on some of the poorest people on earth and where the ambulances literally save lives."

[TY]