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GUEST POST: Humanitarian Jesus
This year alone Corporate America will spend 1.6 billion – yes billion – on marketing programs all designed to convince you and I that they care about cause. Pepsi pulled their Super Bowl ads this year and invested the money in the Refresh campaign. Chase and Target ask their consumers to help allocate millions of dollars each month to charity. Virtually every brand you use has some charity affiliation – all because now more than ever – cause matters. Teams, bands, clothing, restaurants, movies, and stars all align themselves with causes hoping that we will do that same. Whether you know it or not Cause is Calling You.
Right now if I asked you what a white or yellow wrist band meant, I bet most of you would answer ONE and LIVESTRONG. Not so many years ago it was WWJD that banded our wrists, but if popular behavior is any answer, these days What Jesus Would be Doing is wearing a wrist band or a lapel pin or a facebook badge. We are living in an era when “doing good” isn’t just something for the few social activists in the crowd or the people looking to bolster their college applications or resumes – it is the expectation of everyone – everywhere – including the church.
When Ryan Dobson and I set out to explore the topic of the modern day social gospel in Humanitarian Jesus, we wanted to see just how widespread the gospel of doing good really was and how much it offended conservative “reformed” types. What we discovered is that to a person, church and ministry leaders all had concerns about not doing enough, doing too much, doing good for the wrong reasons or simply just being confused.
That confusion has led many to do everything and nothing all at the same time and frankly look impotent in the face of great global suffering. While noted liberal Sean Penn rolled up his sleeves and practically moved to Haiti to help the Haitians, Pat Robertson claimed the Island was cursed, instantaneously making Christian students all over America dive under their desks. While noted Christian pundits claimed Hurricane Katrina as the wrath of God, noted liberal atheists got in boats and rowed people to safety.
Christians are often portrayed in the media as caring more about the morality of people than the people themselves, waiting in some holy huddle to go to heaven while hoping the world goes to hell in a hand basket. We don’t deserve the image, but you gotta ask yourself – if you were a teen or college age student – would you want that label?
And so – you can feel the tables turning. New generations of evangelicals are growing up with a potentially different definition of what it means to be a Christian — a different version of Jesus. New generations of Christians are responding to the call to care for the sick and oppressed, to define themselves and their faith by what they are for – not what they are against. Strong Christian leaders are engaging need in new ways and there is no question that we want to follow. The only question is – Where are we going? Where is the average Christian teen going? Are they responding to the call of cause or the call of Christ?
The message of Humanitarian Jesus is actually pretty simple – Get off the bench and step up to the plate – but don’t forget to take the bat and don’t forget the point of swinging it. It isn’t enough the get to the plate and make a great swing if you don’t take the bat and the point of the game isn’t to do your best – it is to get a hit.
Do Christians need to get off the bench and get in the game? For sure. Do we need to step up to the plate and take seriously the social and philanthropic issues that face our world. You bet. Should be we be answering the call to cause? Yes. But we should also remember that the Gospel is our bat and eternity is the ball game.
Christ spent his entire public ministry in the game – touching and meeting needs. He walked in the world and loved the broken people that He met. He stepped up to the plat every day. But he didn’t forget to bring His bat and He didn’t forget that eternity hung in the balance — every physical need reflected a deeper spiritual need.
The call to cause is real and it is not going anywhere, but the call to Christ is eternal and it has never been more important. And one more thing, the greatest part of the call to cause is that the brokenness those causes represent are part of Christ’s call to Himself.
Christian Buckley is the co-author of Humanitarian Jesus and the co-founder of The Glue Network, a social media based humanitarian project funding platform. As an attorney he has represented death row inmates and CEO’s. As a business leader he has helped shape both non-profits and action sports companies. Find out more at thinkmoretruth.com.
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I agree with your statement that we need to help people. But I will be honest, I get tired of those that set up a straw-man of Christianity by pointing to a few idiots and ignoring the untold mass of believers who “roll up their sleeves and get to work.” I’ve been to New Orleans. I talked to many people down there, and everyone I came into contact said that the Church was the only organization that made a difference. The government, the celebrities, they all got bored and left. But the church stayed and worked. I have many friends who have been to Haiti and say the same thing. While the government was bottled up in the harbor, believers were already at work. Its a good enough argument that we should serve one another without making the Church look impotent or self-centered. The Church is doing good work. Can and should it do more? Of course, we should always issue the challenge, but couched in encouragement not condemnation.