I was channel surfing, mindlessly flipping through scores of TV programs to pass the time. I landed on a show where a British journalist was saying that Christians believe that many of their members being in a community will affect that community for good. The greater the Christian presence then, the greater the benefit to the society at large. I agreed with the commentator. That is what we teach.
The TV journalist went on to propose that we look at the most Christianized city in America and see how this influence works out practically. He said the definition of "Christianized" he would use would be the community with the largest percentage of believers actually attending church regularly. This is a good conservative working definition of "Christianized."
He said that by that definition, Dallas, Texas was the most Christianized city in America at that time. More people per capita were in church on any given Sunday than in any other community in the country. Churches abound in Dallas and a large number boost full pews. Our journalist proposed that we look at the social demographics of Dallas and see how this "Christian blessing" worked out practically within that community.
We looked at various statistics and studies, including crime, safety on the streets, police enforcement, and the justice and penal system. We looked at health care, hospitals, emergency care, contagious diseases, infant mortality rate, and the distribution of care givers. We reviewed education, equality of schools, safety, test scores and graduation statistics. Jobs, housing, and general economics were evaluated. Could you get a job? Could you get housing? Did potential income match available housing? We looked at homelessness and programs for those unable to care for themselves. Each of these categories was evaluated using racial and economic factors. Was there equity regardless of color, creed or income? And so on.
The TV host had chosen the kind of statistics and information you would be concerned about if you where going to raise your children in a community. As Christians we want to be ready to go wherever God sends us. However, we also know that there are some places we would rather live than others, for obvious reasons. Will my children be safe on the streets? Can they get a respectable, safe education? Will I be able to house, clothe and feed my family? Will my children have blatant exposure to drugs and other destructive influences? Can my family be relatively safe from disease? Is adequate medical attention available if they get sick? Can I get legal help and a fair hand from the judicial system? Are the police equally interested in our protection, and, is all of this true regardless of my color, nationality or creed?
The program was, perhaps, an hour long and I watched it alone. By the time my English host was done with the Dallas study I was devastated. No one would want to live in a city in that condition. The crime, the decrepit social systems, the disease, the economic discrepancies, the racial injustice all disqualified this community from having an adequate quality of life. And this was the "most Christianized" city in America. I wanted to weep.
The program was not finished. The host now would take this devastating picture of a broken community to the Christian leaders and ask for their observations. He chose leaders of status and integrity. He chose the kind of Christian leaders other Christians would respect. One by one, each pastor viewed the same facts about the condition of his city that I had just seen. With simplicity, the narrator asked each minister, "As a Christian leader what is your response to the condition of your community?". Without exception, in various ways, they all said the same thing, "This is not our concern... we are spiritual leaders."
The program finished, the room was silent, and my world began to crumble. Many years of my work as a missionary had been spent addressing Christianity's critics, specifically those in the media. (This is not generally very difficult as their accusations are often ill informed or poorly formulated.) If this journalist had turned the microphone to me for comment at the closing of his program I would have been silent. A rare occurrence. I was shocked to silence... by the facts.
I had no argument against the case this journalist had built. As Christians, we do say our faith, lived out, will influence a society toward good. We go beyond this. I have heard it said, and have taught, that it only takes 20% of a society believing anything to influence, even lead, the other 80% in a given direction. We teach that the gospel is good for a society, that its values will bless those beyond the members of faith! But the facts about Dallas do not support this notion. We must look at the facts! Dallas has many more than 20% professing Christians. Can we say that this city is the legacy of Christian influence?
I was reeling over implications and questions. Why had I not been honest enough to see the discrepancy between my teaching and the visible results? Why had it taken a non-Christian to point these things out to me? How could we as Christian leaders say "quality of life issues" are not our concern? If the Gospel does influence all of society, how could America, with more Christians per capita, possibly, than any other time in its history, be slipping from Biblical values in virtually every arena? Slipping in crime, immorality, poverty, corruption, justice, disease, drugs, homelessness, literacy and more? How was it that I, and the myriad of committed Christians I know, had never put this all together? Why had we not judged ourselves? And... found ourselves wanting!
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