I’ve been reading a lot lately on the issue of human trafficking in
our world. It is rampant. I want to help. I want our church to help,
too.
But how?
Is it just to be a Good Samaritan when I come across someone in my
path? Or is it, as I seems it should be, a chance to be involved in a
deeper way, like the late John Stott seems to indicate:
Good Samaritans will always be needed to succor those who are assaulted and robbed; yet it would be even better to rid the Jerusalem-Jericho road of brigands… Just so Christian philanthropy in terms of relief and aid is necessary, but long-term development is better, and we cannot evade our political responsibility to share in changing the structures that inhibit development. Christians cannot regard with equanimity the injustices that spoil God’s world and demean his creatures. John Stott in The Cross of Christ via
I love his sentiment. I believe it and want to engage.
I get compassion. I get long-term development. I seek to participate
in both already. But in the end I’m at a loss to figure out a way to
engage the power structures in our world without also being caught up
in the quagmire of the culture wars that defined the political
activity of a previous generation of Christian leaders.
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