This is a picture of Pastor Benjamin from up at Wamba in Kenya – I believe that he is now the General Secretary of the ELCK. The ELCK, LCMS and others are working very closely to make sure that project 24, a mercy project moves forward.
I thought of him as I was thinking of mercy work and how governments want to take it over. Government has horned into what was basically the churches domain for years. It was the church that took care of the poor and needy; the refugee and the immigrant etc. Governments slowly took those acts over and if you think they did it because they are better or more efficient then ask a Veteran how his appointments are going. Ask a welfare recipient how easy it is too game the system. Even when Government officials get out of the mercy business they want in. Everyone who thinks that the Clinton Global Initiative is so wonderful should ask a few questions of those who really do mercy work. When the CGI comes in it sucks all the donations away because local governments collude with the Initiative to see that ALL donations go through that fund and are subject to their rules. Their mercy is of course tied to birth control and “gender education” which means indoctrination, and environmental issues.
So I asked the question – why do we have problems with the powerful when we try and do mercy work –
Stanley Hauerwas – …….such work will be offensive to those in power who claim to rule as benefactors of the poor and hungry. A people shaped by the practice of the works of mercy will be a people capable of seeing through those who claim to need power to do good, but in fact just need power. Great injustice is perpetrated in the name of justice. Great evil is done because it is said that time is short and there needs to
be a response to this or that crisis. Christians live after the only crisis that matters, which means that Jesus has given us all the time in the world to visit him in the prisons of this world.
Food for thought……
