America on the Brink

Christians Can Be Bad Neighbors As strange as this sounds, I want you to consider the possibility that some, not all, of our churches and sisters and brothers in Christ, are bad neighbors to billions of people. Much of it is unintentional but still nonetheless true. Like the Priest and Levite, we pass by neighbors in need. We might look at their suffering for a moment before departing to do something “more important.” Often, we pretend not to see destitute and dying people around us or we are a part of congregations and organizations that are oblivious of the work being done in their communities and around the world. I have become increasingly concerned with the blindness and isolationism in which too many Christians are trapped by their involvement with the busyness of American life and congregational life (the former issue I will take up in a later piece). American churchgoers are so busy attending worship services and activities that there is no time to engage broader issues affecting the world, especially the pressing human rights issue? taken up by entities such as the United Nations or its specialized agency UNESCO. Many are busy going to church, not in being the church in the world. While church attendance and worship are important parts of Christian faith, they are not the ONLY parts, not even the main part. I am not the only one concerned. More Christians are growing tired of churches, leaders, and institutions that are socially disengaged, content to leave Jesus sleeping under bridges, starving to death, or languishing in refugee camps while we go to worship services, small group meetings, and cookouts. American congregations are being challenged to do more than provide spaces for religious activities like worship, prayer and preaching. They are expected to effect change in communities in decline and in the world as a whole, but doing this will require pastors and churches to venture outside the “insular” world of congregational life. Re-Situating American Christians in the Story of the Good Samaritan In the story of the Good Samaritan, the priest and Levite had to go somewhere. There was some place more important to be, something more important to do than help this person in need. What was it? Where was it? We have the same problem today. There is always some place we have to be, something more important to do than helping neighbors in need. We see suffering that we do not act to disrupt. We use busyness as an excuse not to understand why so many of God’s children are trapped in oppressive cycles that produce misery and death. We go to church and let preachers justify our continued participation in “hating” our neighbors (because if I were working in the mines in the Congo, neglect would feel like hate). Our scandal (mine included) are the institutions, structures, and processes that have gotten in the way of people created in the divine image. In fact, in the coming months and years, we need a radical reimagining of how we do life and its relation to society, so we can begin to open our eyes to human suffering and to love our neighbors, by doing something about the violence that produces human suffering. Our churches and theological institutions will play a pivotal part in this.

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