by David Hilfiker
I’m proud to call myself both a follower of Jesus and a political leftist. I believe that many of my political beliefs—care for the poor, non-violence, social/political activism, etc.—spring directly from the Gospel. But I get tired of the jeremiads against Christian beliefs from my secular left-wing brothers and sisters.
Analyzing right-wing, reactionary politics, too many of the articles and columns in the progressive and radical magazines I read will at some point lambast the Christian Right. And then the lefty columnist can’t resist the temptation to lump together all those who call themselves Christians, as if everyone who believes in God and tries to follow Jesus cares only about preventing gay marriage and getting prayer into schools. I can take the occasional lampooning of Christianity but it makes me wonder whether those on the secular left, especially the intelligentsia, realize how many of the foot soldiers for justice and peace are Christians (and people of other religions) whose activism springs directly from their deeply held faith.
The first recorded words of the young man I do my best to follow are that he was sent to “proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free.” His is not just a liberal agenda, but a radical one.
I don’t have much in common with Dorothy Day, Martin Luther King, Jr., or Cesar Chavez. Except this: We are all Christians, and we’ve each spent much of our adult lives in the trenches of the movement for peace and justice. Most of those who have gone to prison for long sentences for hammering on nuclear warheads or stopping nuclear trains or crossing the line at military bases have been Christians, and they have submitted to those long sentences because they believed their faith gave them no other option and would sustain them through the dark months of prison.
Four members of the Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) were kidnapped early in the Iraq War—including one, Tom Fox, who was assassinated. When they went to Iraq they were fully cognizant of the dangers but believed that their faith called them to peacemaking. Not all religious people are imperialists or hold conquering missionary visions.
As a physician and writer, I’ve been working in the inner-city of Washington, DC, for almost three decades as part of a network of institutions created by people from a faith community with fewer than 150 members:
- Jubilee Housing has offered affordable housing to thousands of low-income residents for over 30 years.
- Columbia Road Health Services has provided medical care for homeless people and other impoverished people for 30 years.
- Jubilee Jobs helps place over 1,000 people a year in entry-level jobs and later assists them in obtaining living-wage jobs.
- Christ House is a 34-bed infirmary for homeless men and women too sick to be on the streets yet not sick enough to be in the hospital.
- Joseph’s House offers home, community, and hospice care to homeless men and women with AIDS and cancer.
- Samaritan Inns provides intensive in-patient recovery for men and women with addictions and then 6-month follow-up programs and long-term housing for hundreds.
- Manna has built more than 1,000 houses for very low-income people to purchase.
- Academy of Hope is one of the largest adult education programs in the city.
None of these organizations discriminate on the basis of religion; all began well before anyone talked about “faith-based initiatives.” And they are only a partial list. From only one faith community. Indeed, take away the institutions in Washington, DC, that have been initiated and largely maintained by people of faith—inspired specifically by their faith—and there’s not much left in the way of non-governmental services specifically for the poor. I doubt it’s strikingly different in other cities around the country.
And it’s not only charity work; it’s activism for justice and peace, too. Bread for the World organizes churches politically to speak out on issues of world hunger. The founder and director of the Children’s Defense Fund, Marian Wright Edelman, is a deeply spiritual Christian as are many of her colleagues in that institution. Most of the liberal religious denominations have offices in Washington that lobby for peace and justice.
Most of us don’t proselytize for our faith. We hope to be the body of Jesus, not talk about it. And we aren’t out to convert others to our religion, although we will try to convert others to our work for the poor and the oppressed. In fact, the only time Jesus is recorded as having said anything about who is going to be rewarded and who punished, he gave the good word to anyone who saw the hungry and gave them something to eat, the thirsty and gave them something to drink, the stranger and invited them in, the naked and clothed them, the sick and looked after them, the prisoner and visited them. It seems it doesn’t really matter what we say about what we believe. What counts is what we do for the poor and oppressed.
I, too, am frustrated by what is called the Christian Right. Any Christian who believes that homosexuality is a more important issue than justice for the poor just hasn’t read his Bible straight. But religion (of any stripe) has always been hijacked to support the Establishment, God has always been made captive to the King, and the poor have always had to approach God on the King’s terms. But that’s not the faith that Jesus proclaimed.
David Hilfiker is a member of the Eighth Day Faith Community whose blog is capturing attention.
