Where’s Your Outrage?

Only 14 percent of evangelicals in the United States believe poverty is something that churches should take the lead in addressing. That’s still more than triple the rate of the average population (4 percent).

Barna.org (June, 2007)

Are you ever surprised about what prompts outrage in the world today?

• How much money John Edwards spends on his hair?
• Paris Hilton’s jail time?
• Michael Vick’s participation in dogfighting?

[Note, this is an Official Threads disclaimer. I am a dog person and watching some of the video about this recently has made me sick to my stomach. So, please don’t post here and tell me I am unfeeling animal-hating scourge of society.]

While politicians plunking down hundreds at the beauty shop, starlets driving illegally and an NFL quarterback abusing helpless animals can make your blood boil to varying degrees, I’m wondering how much emotional and intellectual energy God would want us spending on any of these issues.

If you read the Bible regularly, there’s no need to wonder about how much emphasis God places on taking care of the downtrodden in our world or protecting helpless people from injustice. My friend Todd Phillips, the teaching pastor at Frontline in McLean, Va., cites in his Threads study Get Uncomfortable that there are more than 2,000 verses in Scripture that command us to take care of His people in need.

Start at Romans 12 and fan out all over Scripture. The commands are everywhere and extremely obvious.

Yet, only 14 percent of the church really believes He’s serious about it. Now, that’s truly outrageous. That’s something to get angry about.

In many places in the United States you can drive 30 minutes or less from your home and find someone living in sub-standard housing. Several years ago, while planning for a ministry project, I was horrified to find a family living about that distance from me. They lived in a tar paper shack without indoor plumbing. You don’t have to go very far to find children who don’t have enough to eat on a regular basis, either.

Once you get outside the U.S., the statistics really can knock your legs out from under you: two billion people live on less than $2 a day.

So, whose responsibility is it to help the needy and the victimized? Surely, after watching what happened with those affected by Hurricane Katrina, your answer cannot be the government - any government - not just ours. It doesn’t matter what party you are affiliated with, government will never be the tool God uses to repair this damage.

God’s answer is the all-powerful New Testament Bride of Christ, His Church. And it really doesn’t matter whether we believe it or not, He has given us the charge.

Fortunately, the 14 percent who have accepted the assignment are doing a pretty good job. One example has been the Southern Baptist Disaster Relief effort in Mississippi and Louisiana post-Katrina. The short-term feeding effort and the long-term commitment to rebuilding homes in those areas have been nothing short of amazing. Thousands of believers have answered the call to help those ravaged by the tsunami in Thailand and Sri Lanka.

We just need to add to those 14 percent who believe in making an impact in the world.

If you’re looking for something truly to be outraged about today, start looking around your community for problems in need of repair. It won’t take you long to find them. Then gather God’s people together in your church and come up with a plan to attack the problems. Make sure you always do it in the name of Jesus Christ, not in the name of making yourself or your church feel good.

This our responsibility left to us by our Creator and Lord. Don’t waste your life on things that don’t matter.