I just became aware of a very interesting site entitled Bloggers Unite – Blogging for Hope. This month, on this day, bloggers all over the world are writing about Human Rights. I am joining in that and joining with a group I synchroblog with once a month.
This is something that should be near and dear to all who follow Jesus, a man who set the world upside down to demonstrate what His Kingdom was all about.
Moreover, the prophets who foretold of Christ’s coming constantly called on the Israelites to repent of injustice. Look at the words of Amos as he cried out for repentance by the Israelites:
This is what the LORD says:
“For three sins of Israel,
even for four, I will not turn back {my wrath}.
They sell the righteous for silver,
and the needy for a pair of sandals.
They trample on the heads of the poor
as upon the dust of the ground
and deny justice to the oppressed.
Father and son use the same girl
and so profane my holy name.
Amos 2:6-7. The Israelites were to be judged because of the injustice that ruled under the leadership of their evil kings. They failed to feed the poor and allowed the rich to get richer. They worked injustice upon women and maintained a separation between those who had and those who had not. And then Amos’s prophecies bring the fire of God’s heart to life with these words in Amos 5:15, 21:
Hate evil; love good. Establish justice in the gates! . . . I hate, I despise your religious feasts; I cannot stand your assemblies. Even though you bring me burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them. Though you bring choice fellowship offerings, I will have no regard for them. Away with the noise of your songs! I will not listen to the music of your harps. But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!
Look at the words of Micah in Micah 2:1-2 where he cries out because those who have the power covet the houses and fields of the poor and take them. He cannot believe that they would defraud a fellow Israelite his inheritance. In chapter 3 he notes that it is great iniquity of the leaders of Israel who do not know justice and who strip the people of all that they are and have. This continues throughout his prophecy and crescendos to the famous verse in Micah 6:8 – “He has shown you, o man, what what is good and what the Lord requires of you – to do justice, to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”
Jesus came to feed the poor, to heal the sick, to free the oppressed, to seek and to save the lost. Jesus came to turn the world system on its head, defeating the rule of Satan, and to establish His rule and authority on earth. We pray for God’s Kingdom to come, but we often stand back and do nothing. James cried out against such absurd “faith.” He told us that faith without works is dead. He told us that knowledge about God without love for God is no more “faith” than the faith that the demons have. We can know all there is to know about the bible and what man might call “doctrine” but if we have not love, then it is all meaningless, vanity, and altogether worthless. From Genesis to Revelation we see that God is a God of righteousness and justice – a God who build His covenant with Abraham upon blessing all the nations and who desires all men to love Him and love others.
Does your heart cry out for the slaves around the world? Did you know that numerically there are more slaves today than there were in the 19th Century, some 27 million people? And this doesn’t even address the fact that there are about 218 million children between the ages of 5 and 17 working around the world.
Does your heart cry out for the women and little girls who are sold out into the sex trade? Did you know that about 10 million children worldwide are engaged in the sex industry??? In fact, nearly a million kids a year are sold into prostitution, often by their parents? This summer my family is going on outreach to South Africa. In that country there are approximately 40,000 child prostitutes!
Did you know that because of China’s one-child policy that there are predicted to be 40 Chinese million men who will be unable to find wives in the next decade?
Did you know that women in Pakistan have no rights and can be killed for “dishonoring” the family? Did you know that female literacy is less than 25% in Pakistan?
What will it take to awaken the Church of Jesus Christ to the plight of injustice around the world? How many more meals at Chili’s and McDonald’s and Pizza Hut do we need to have while billions don’t have three full meals a day? There is more than enough food on this planet for everyone. There is more than enough water on this planet for everyone. There is enough money in the U.S. for ice cream consumption alone to provide clean water for every child on the earth. Do you need another pair of $75 shoes while children run around on garbage dumps barefooted? (Amos 2:7 – “they sell the needy for a pair of sandals….”)
Oh, God, forgive us. Raise up a generation that will cry out for the voiceless. Change our hearts! May we rebuke the spirit of religion and poverty and take up Your cross for justice and righteousness, generosity and love.
Here are a few other blogs on the issue of human rights:
- Adam Gonnerman on Guantanamo Bay in the eyes of God.
- Julie Clawson on Human rights and Christian comfort.
- Steve Hayes on Human rights and Christian faith.
- Steve Hayes (again!) on Human Rights and Amnesty International.
- Alan Knox on My charade is the event of the season.
- Sally Coleman on If.
- Sonja Andrews on Human wrongs.
- Cobus van Wyngaard on Christianization and Humanization and our task in Zimbabwe.
- Janice Fowler on “Voice overs needed” (oe “Wake up — speak up”).
- Bryan Riley on Bloggers unite for human rights.
- Prof Carlos Z on A new examination of human rights.
- KW Leslie on For those who say Christians have no rights.
- Mike Bursell on Human rights (and Christian responsibilities).