STEVE OH RESPONDS TO “MOVING ON NEUTRAL?”
Goh Keat Peng’s provocative article Moving on Neutral? is timely.
There is a time and a season for every activity under heaven. Now is the time to stand in the gap and not expect others to do the hard work for us. Indeed faith is empty without deeds.
I quote Goh, “I, small fry though I am, dare say that in the main, today’s Christian churches keep silent because they fear to offend those who seemingly have power over them. I dare say that Christian churches keep silent not necessarily just through understandable prudence but that we have become cowards. I dare say that Christian churches no longer serve as conscience of the faith but may have tended to become pleasers of men.”
I agree. There is much we have to confess for our corporate inertia. God forgive us for it was never meant that his people should be silent witnesses and placate those who inflict injustice upon the people. God has always expected his people to provide the voice and the shelter for the unjustly treated and the needy, even if it is a murmur. When the cries of the harvesters reach God then he himself will step in.
Some may argue that churches are not established for the purpose of politics. This is not unreasonable. The primary function of the local church is to equip Christians not only to grow in knowledge and character but as Hebrews 10:24 says “...to stir up one another to love and good works..” The equipping of the saints always relates to Christian service and is never meant to be ingrown.
Cosy inward looking churches that function like social clubs are not pleasing to God. And surely good works must go beyond the narrow confines of charity and involve social justice. How churches juggle the priorities and respond calls for wisdom that God promises to provide. But indifference and apathy is not the solution.
God never intended Christianity to be an industry but sadly in a sense it has become that. There are Christians who never mix with non-Christians. Unwittingly the yeast has not worked through the dough. There are Christians who subsist on Christian charity and activities, hopping from one to another and have lost touch with the needs of those they are meant to serve. Sadly the Christian industry spawns a cultural cocoon, a sub-culture of society that plays no significant role in shaping society’s values. Thus they are marginalized.
Our seminaries and Christian leaders need to re-think how they lead and train new pastors and leaders for the 21st Century. They cannot avoid the reality that external factors will impose constraints and pose challenges to churches as a whole and Christians as individuals. Christianity is not a bunch of Christian franchises that function independently of others and need to provide unity in facing common problems. Love is the hallmark of Jesus’ disciples. How many pastors and leaders also care for the welfare of other churches let alone the needs of those outside God’s family? Christians badly need to be trained to respond in a Christ-like yet wise manner in an often hostile anti-Christian environment. They must develop a keen sense of being their brothers’ keepers and have a sense of ownership of their country’s destiny.
Sadly we have been conditioned to accept what we haven’t tried to change.
“Christian leadership is slow to lead and respond to our challenges because they have a tradition of hear nothing, see nothing and speak nothing. Worse still perhaps most of us even do nothing!” wrote brother Ramon Navaratnam in response to Goh’s article. I do agree.
We have become selective in our approach and responses. Our silence is not for want of capability for I have seen many politically astute and articulate Christians at church business meetings and how they gain power and control churches, not unlike the political cliques in the political arena. Regrettably they have been snared by the “fear of man” and become impotent outside the church, more specifically when it encroaches into the province of the administration. It is strange when these same outspoken ecclesiastical politicians metamorphosize into compliant creatures before the powers that be that run our country.
Many are obviously guilty of the sin mentioned in James of courting the favour of the rich and powerful and neglecting the needs of the poor and scorned. Some years ago a Christian leader lamented to me that his co-leaders were keener to take snapshots with Dr Mahathir when they met him than raising embarrassing questions that affected the Christian community. Then when I recently heard that such and such a Christian leader is working hard to get a ‘datukship’ I covered my ears.
It all boils down to mindset.
“Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will” is the Scriptural injunction. Whatever our cultural heritage and mindset when we become Christians we are to discard ideas that do not conform to God’s standards. We are not to be filled with pride and prejudice but humility and love.
Because I have lived in many different countries I have had the privilege of making observations about local cultures in these diverse communities. For example, in Australia there is a disdain for pomp and ceremony and authority, whereas in Malaysia it is the opposite. Our mindsets are influenced by our environments and it is time Malaysians stop being inordinately servile to the politicians.
We honour God by honouring all that is good not simply those who are rich and powerful. We are not to be mice but men and women of courage whom God has promised to make the head and not the tail. “If God is for us who can be against us?”
The Malaysian Church must come of age and move out of its self-imposed and self-censoring ways. It must come out of social hibernation and stick out its neck for the sake of the nation when there is a strong reason to do so. They must not be seen to prop up evil, to turn a blind eye, but to willingly and fearlessly speak out against corruption and its roots, the origin of sin.
Pastors and leaders don’t need to politicize their churches. In fact they should not. Churches must always remain politically neutral, not taking sides with any particular political party but will always be on the side of righteousness.
Just do what we are supposed to do by faithfully preaching God’s Word to those who need to hear it most. They must not be like Jonah who runs away but was then rebuked by God and told to return and tell Nineveh its sins. We are sinners ourselves saved by grace and have no reason for pride but much reason to bring the message of the Gospel and characterize it as much as we can in our society.
We must not quench the Spirit of God by our fear of man.
Related articles:
Moving on Neutral?Ramon Navaratnam Response
Steve Oh Response
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