Lent and Easter 2020: Christians in Politics Course
STARTS MONDAY 10TH FEBRUARY AT 7PM SIGN UP FOR A PLACE BELOW
“All over the UK the Church is doing an incredible job. We’re running foodbanks, mentoring at-risk teenagers, counselling those in debt, being friends to the elderly, sheltering the homeless, running parent-toddler groups, homework clubs, music/arts workshops, healing on the streets, sports camps, working with prisoners, community choirs. This is wonderful. But there is a danger.
Martin Luther King said that as Christians we enjoy being the Good Samaritan on life’s roadside. It often feels good to help someone and see the change up close. But he went on to ask, “Who is going back to the Jericho road?” In other words, who is making sure that no one else gets mugged. Do we need more street lighting? More CCTV cameras? More police on the beat? The thing is that those political decisions happen in fairly dull committees pouring over statistics and reports. Not as exciting as seeing that change right in your face. But if we don’t show up in those places, the Church may spend the next fifty years as the nation’s paramedic, treating the victims of a flawed system but failing to bring righteousness and justice to the system itself.
It’s good to be the Good Samaritan but it’s also good to give him the odd day off. Some of us need to be in the system. Might that be you? Don’t just vote. Show up.”
Martin Luther King said that as Christians we enjoy being the Good Samaritan on life’s roadside. It often feels good to help someone and see the change up close. But he went on to ask, “Who is going back to the Jericho road?” In other words, who is making sure that no one else gets mugged. Do we need more street lighting? More CCTV cameras? More police on the beat? The thing is that those political decisions happen in fairly dull committees pouring over statistics and reports. Not as exciting as seeing that change right in your face. But if we don’t show up in those places, the Church may spend the next fifty years as the nation’s paramedic, treating the victims of a flawed system but failing to bring righteousness and justice to the system itself.
It’s good to be the Good Samaritan but it’s also good to give him the odd day off. Some of us need to be in the system. Might that be you? Don’t just vote. Show up.”