Random thought #2: Social justice and the church

"These impious Galileans [Christians] not only feed their own poor, but ours also." - Julian the Apostate,

When people think of Christianity and the Church today, do they associate it with social justice? They certainly did early in the history of Christianity.

Julian the Apostate was a Roman emperor in the fourth century, given his rather impious title for his attempts to restore paganism to Rome, undoing the work of his Christian predecessors, and suppression of the development of Christianity. In other words, he despised the Christians, but nevertheless had to admit in his writing that under its church, Rome's impoverished were being looked after.

The early church was scoffed at for the demographic of its flock; the critics called it a religion for "the lower classes, the slaves, and the women." And little wonder - Christianity preached about hope for the future, the transient nature of present sufferings, equality of all men, and women as well. The Church fed the poor, looked after the widows and orphans, and preached that a man should love and honour his wife, and take up the cross for her if necessary. These were all very novel concepts to the ancient Romans. The pagan Romans were known for leaving unwanted newborn babies to die of exposure to the elements - this most often happened if the child was a girl. The church, on the other hand, were known to going out there and picking up these unwanted children, to be brought up and cared for. Though early Christianity was despised, it was also known for its love, justice, and mercy. No wonder Christianity flourished.

Christianity is inseparable from social justice, just as faith is inseparable from works (James 2:14-26). In the Old Testament, when God saw the oppression of the poor and the widows and orphans being forsaken by the nation of Israel, He seethed with anger, and refused to accept their fasts, feasts, or music (Isaiah 58; Amos 5).

What is the reaction of our churches today, when we look at modern injustices such as human trafficking, poverty, inequalities in access to education and medical care? What about the problems in our own backyard? Is our church complacent and sitting on its hands when looking at its global and local responsibilities? Or does the sight and thought of these injustices stir in us a Godly seething anger?

Random Thought on Church History

I've been doing some reading/study on Church History in the past few days, and, I must say, it has been interesting.

Over the next few days, I will present some of my random thoughts as I study this topic. They will be presented in no particular order.

A disclaimer: I'm a doctor of medicine, not a theologian nor a historian. The views presented here have a high chance of being incorrect. And pardon my poor prose; it has been a very long time since I last wrote something other than medical records and shopping lists.

Random Thought #1: Persecutions
"The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church; the Church has thrived on persecutions." - Tertullian (AD 116-225).

For the first nearly 300 years of Christianity, its followers were routinely persecuted and killed, its Scriptures and other writings sought out and burnt. How did it then thrive to become the widespread religion that it is today?

When we think of persecutions of Christians today, as it applies to us in the Western world, we think of somebody making fun of our faith. Not so for the early Christians: those persecutions were not mild. Roman citizens faced execution by sword, but non-Roman citizens (which was most of the Roman empire) were killed by various and rather creative means - fed to wild beasts in the gladiatorial arenas, seared with hot irons, crucifixion, as well as other forms of public torture. Christians who were not being tortured were forced to watch the proceedings of others. Knowing that the Christians believe in resurrection of the body, the Romans burnt the bodies of the martyrs and scattered the ashes into the rivers. No Christian that was caught was spared - irrespective of sex, status, wealth, or age. Polycarp was 86 when he was burnt alive; Agnes was 12 or 13.

Jesus said in Matthew 16:18 that He will build the Church on Peter the "rock" - and 'the gates of hell shall not overcome'. Certainly some of the executions the Romans thought up were quite hellish. There can be no doubt that something divine was moving amongst the believers in those first 300 years, and has continued to move in the church as Christians faced persecutions in Asia and Africa in later centuries, and even now as Christians are facing the unspeakable in the Middle East. It is heartening to know that, in this period of crashing economies and whole nations facing bankruptcy, there is one institution that will never fall.