Get some Christians talking about their faith and sooner or later the question is raised: how do I live out my faith in the world? What can I do to make a difference? It's a way of talking about Christian mission—knowing we are loved by God and proclaiming that love to the world.
There are many ways to answer the question, from joining a church outreach program (or starting one if your church doesn't have one) to getting involved in a community support program, such as Big Sisters, or building a home with Habitat for Humanity.
It needn't be complex: in Jesus' parable offering a glass of water where it is needed is as much a sign of faith as anything. But for those still looking, two recent international stories might provide some ideas. One was a good story, one not.
The good story was the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to Bangladesh's Muhammad Yunus and the Grameen Bank he founded in 1976. Unlike the big banks, the Grameen Bank lends small sums of money to the poorest people in poorest Bangladesh.
No one born in the sixties or earlier can forget the famine in Bangladesh in 1974. Like the Vietnam War, the photographs are etched in our mind.
Yunus was a freshly minted economics PhD teaching in his hometown university of Chittagong. Seeing people crushed by tireless work but unable to lift themselves out of their poverty because money lenders charged insane interest rates of “10 per cent a month, some 10 per cent a week” as he said in an interview, he dreamt up the concept of microcredit.
The principle is simple. The interest charged can never exceed the amount of the loan. Yunus's first loan was for about $30 to a bamboo stool-maker and 41 villagers.
Today, the Grameen Bank has more than 6.6 million borrowers (97 per cent are women). Although that's just a little over 10 per cent of the 63 million Bangladeshis, nearly half the country's population of 133 million, who live in deprivation, two-thirds of them in extreme poverty, according to the World Bank.
But the bank says microcredit is helping to reduce the poverty. Christians have also slowly picked up on the microcredit success story. A decade ago, few projects involved this kind of support. Now, Presbyterian World Service and Development, for example, is involved in about 20 microcredit projects around the world.
So, initiate a freewill offering or fundraising campaign and give generously. The return on investment in such proverbial talents will be manifold as people are able to help themselves and their community.
The sad, heartache story was the release of the UN secretary-general's report into child abuse. Among other things, the four-year study found that 275 million children witness domestic violence each year, including more than 360,000 in Canada.
The report also notes that girls in some immigrant communities in Canada are still subjected to genital mutilation. It also refers to a 2002 Canadian study that showed children to be the victims in more than 60 per cent of sexual assaults, while making up less than a quarter of the population.
And, the report also notes, teachers can still inflict corporal punishment on children in more than 100 countries, not to mention that parents can do the same in even more countries.
Canada, in this respect, still doesn't have it quite right, although things have improved in recent years. However, a 2004 Supreme Court ruling still permits parents to use force if it “is part of a genuine effort to educate the child, poses no reasonable risk of harm that is more than transitory and trifling, and is reasonable under the circumstances.”
The court agreed the law “permits conduct toward children that would be criminal in the case of adult victims.” No one, for instance, tries “correctively” swatting an employee for repeatedly stealing company pens. Why then is it permissible with children? (canlii.org/en/ca/scc/doc/2004/2004scc4/2004scc4.html)
European studies have shown there are fewer court cases involving alleged parental discipline when the law is clear (in outlawing any physical force) then when there is wiggle room, as in Canada.
Christmas will soon be here and many people will tritely refer to it as a time for children. Christians know the message is more profound than that, but it is a time when we are more aware of the vulnerability of children. Lobbying on their behalf might also be seen as Christian mission.
Mission means being sent (from the Latin missio) by the Spirit to proclaim God's love just as Jesus sent the disciples. So however we choose to live out our faith in the world, mission is the message.
