does the church only look like me?
In the account of the formation of the early Christian church in Acts 11, persecution in Jerusalem has scattered and dispersed the new Christians to the wider world. They go proclaiming the Lord Jesus, first to the Jews, but eventually to the Greeks and other Gentiles as well. God had made it clear to Peter, the head of the church, that He was including controversial people in His kingdom, people who didn’t keep kosher, people who were uncircumcised. God was saying that His tent was wide.
There is a dispersion going on right now. I am praying for those expelled and deported from our country by a xenophobic policy that allows white South Africans to come in because they might be facing persecution (and, incidentally, they’re white), but kicks out South and Central Americans, Venezuelans among others, who will most definitely return to terrible situations. I’m praying that the faithful Christians being deported, and there are many, will find places where they can talk about God’s goodness in their dispersion.
One thing they are not likely to talk about is the goodness of the United States of America. And we could desperately use some good PR right now. When USAID was defunded, already apportioned funds that improved agriculture practices and strengthened the resilience of food-insecure countries was stopped, pushing more desperate people around the world into poverty and hunger. These are people that our president does not want coming here. So, it seems an unwise strategy to push them further into desperation.
I have a second-cousin who is more immediately affected by the defunding of the NIH. His work received grants by the health organization to look at how climate-related disasters impact health in developing countries. He also strategizes about what interventions might be effective to improve childhood diarrhea in India and Africa and does research on antibiotic resistance from over prescribing. All this defunding has meant that my cousin might have to find a new career, and he would just be one among so many talented and altruistic young adults.
To strip these funds from areas of such great need seems to be a big step back from being global leaders in the area of compassion. Is this going to make the United States more respected? I’m not sure that the president cares. He seems to be more in love with his big, beautiful tariffs. To me it looks like he wants to be either adored or feared, possibly even hated. But he certainly doesn’t care about being respected.
We can take the gospel into the world, but if you come with an American accent right now, you better plan on apologizing first.
Love, Liz
God’s “wisdom leads us to do justice, to love kindness and to walk humbly” with our God.
Lectio 365 prayer, adapted from Micah 6:8
