Dear Sir,
‘Two million people in the world’s poorest countries are living and working among piles of rubbish and one person dies every 30 seconds from a waste-related disease’ (Tearfund). Yet the response to this tragedy by ‘Anon’ (en, October 2019, Letters) is a dismissive ‘Let the dead bury their dead’ (Matthew 8:22)!
More appropriate by far are Luke 10:31,32, about those who, seeing a man in grave need, ‘passed by on the other side of the road’; Galatians 6:10, ‘As we have opportunity, do good to everyone’; and the warning in Matthew 25:10: ‘Whatever you did not do … you did not do for me. Depart from me.’
More serious is his/her commendation of Matthew Henry’s ‘Let worldly offices be left to worldly people’ – imagine all we would have lost if Wilberforce and Shaftesbury had followed that advice! Given their wonderful heritage as champions of the poor and vulnerable, it is depressing to see the ‘knee-jerk’, reactionary attitudes which so often characterise Evangelicals encountering new challenges now. Anon speaks of being ‘side tracked’ as if spreading the gospel and speaking out for justice are mutually exclusive. Jesus saw things differently, applying himself diligently to both ‘preaching the gospel’ and to ‘binding up the broken-hearted, etc.’ (Luke 4:18).
Furthermore, most of my own opportunities for witness come about as a result of my campaigning activities!
Yours sincerely,
