Suggestion Seven: When Out of Power, Show Courage

   Here is an ancient aphorism:

   If the test of tolerance is when you are in the majority, the test of courage is when you are in the minority.

   To be in the minority does not mean there are fewer people who think as you than there are of those who think otherwise. To be in the minority may mean only this; you are not in power.

   Power protects itself in the same way water seeks its own level. Obscure parliamentary rulings, tacit agreements made behind the scene, simple acts of raw strength; all of these can blunt the thrust of reform.

   The modern rewriting of history holds the American Civil War was unnecessary, for African slavery would have disappeared within fifty to one hundred years as industrialization took over labor's tasks. One wonder what a further three generations of persons held in forced servitude  would have voted about their race's inevitable emancipation.

   By this rationale, the European Holocaust would have ended if everyone had just held their place until Germany ran out of Jews.

   Simply put, nothing is inevitable until it occurs. People can still hurt while the sands of time pour through the eye of the hour glass. More cunningly said, the stance of Christianity on the matter of evil is this; evil must be actively opposed. The Christian answer to the problem of innocent suffering is to act against innocent suffering, which in turn implies, on occasion, the need to resist the prosperous wicked.

   No organization may have or hold power simply because it had the power to do so.

   When out of power, it is not necessary to unfold a detailed plan of opposition. It is enough to point out the foibles of the powerful party, to work within the system if one can and to smash it when necessary. If one is shut out of power for a generation the result is a permanent under class, with those in force expressing their feelings of permanent entitlement. The faces in power may change but the cause remains the same; protect the public trough for one's own use. Share it with as few as possible.

   Courage is required to say no, when no is a socially unacceptable reply.

   The source of courage might be civility, or the desire for civility. Courage to quest for civility often springs from deep feelings of social responsibility. The Church is not a bad place to inculcate ideals of social responsibility but it is too often (and too sadly) the last place where reform might take hold. The Church often holds itself up as "an assembly of the elite of the just," (Bonhoeffer).

   If the Church cannot identify with the sufferings of the sufferer to oppose those who bring on suffering the Church fails to identify with its own Savior. The Church ceases to be Christian or even truly religious.

   The failure is not one of faith, often, but of courage. Without courage, faith does not matter much.

  

Comments

[doug]

We to often know what we stand against but no idea what we stand for.
I want to hear something I can encourage my church family to stand with another body of believers for. We are called to not be unequally yoked, when or where is there a corporate entity focused on something great??

[aintsobad]

It will have to be us.

[doug]

Here is and excellent ministry I have helped developed that is just beginning. Go see www.workforlifeafrica.com I am available to come speak any time at any church and answer all questions. If you want to do more than send beans and rice this one is good.

I know there are other ministries this one is well researched and and has great potential.