Monday, March 17, 2008

Christian Choices : How Different Are They ?

Forty-eight students from an elite Christian school in Delhi who recently failed in one or more exams in the Class XI finals were recently asked to leave the school and seek admission else where in the middle of the academic year. The decision created enough fear and panic among the parents for the news to make it to the pages of at least one prominent news paper. Such a piece of news and comments in the press provides an opportunity to introspect on the long journey that Christian institutions have made in India to arrive at this juncture.

The early history of the Christian institutions in India is tied up with the so called civilizing mission of both the East India Company and subsequently, the church. Eventually as the colonial regime stabilized and thinking evolved, this mission got subsumed into the church turning into the quasi official social sector arm of the state developing services – primarily education and health care to areas where the State did not or would not go. To aid this process, church related institutions were often given land on perpetual leases at nominal rates – a privilege which makes church a large owner of property even today cutting across denominations.

Although a large emphasis of Christian institutions today purports to be the poor, this was not always the case. The typical Church run institution catered to the elite of the day, an image that has persisted to this day. “Civilizing” the ruling classes was always a primary agenda of the state and the church apparatus was not the only the instrument available to pursue this goal.

The Mayo Colleges and the Lawrence Schools were set up with a similar purpose. Contrary to popular perception although exposure to Christian values and truths was a part of the church curriculum, proselytizing was not a major piece on the agenda. This was partly the result of experience – a short period in the early nineteenth century when missionaries were indeed active produced a kind of native Christian that were so alienated from their own community that most were too worthless to be even used as pawns- some from the aristocracy turned to drink and debauchery and others had to be accommodated in artificial townships called “mission compounds”

But Church run institutions were and are known for promoting excellence. Part of the “civilizing mission” was about taking “barbarians” and turning them into “gentlemen” and “ladies”. Although the italicized terms have now become archaic and now evoke nothing but revulsion and images of arrogant imperialists, there was a certain beauty in picking up some thing raw and then molding them into products of merit. It also blended well with the teaching of the church and Jesus Christ who chose people to be his disciples such people “not many of whom were wise according to worldly standards”, “God chose what is weak in the world” and “God chose what is low and despised in the world”

Look at Jesus’ 12 disciples—mostly poor and despised people: fishermen and tax-collectors. An interesting thing is that God usually calls the poor, lowly, and despised to do His great work. Look at Jesus’ 12 disciples—mostly poor and despised people: fishermen and tax-collectors. The only one who had a very high education and prestigious occupation was the Apostle Paul. But Paul himself noted that it is not the high and mighty that are called.

The world thinks that we need to go after the gifted people, the talented people, the wealthy people, and the important people. If we plan to really accomplish great things, then we need the powerful people, the educated people, and the respected and influential people. This is the way we think, and it is very logical in terms of how things work in this world.

Hidden behind the curtains, we Christians think that way too. Most often we think that God could do great things with people who have something special to offer him. We think that God could do greater things through them than he can do through "ordinary" people, who do not have the fame or money or recognition. ".While this may be the thinking of the world and even the thinking of many Christians, it is not the thinking of God. In fact, the wisdom of God is entirely the opposite of the wisdom of the world. The wisdom of the world is centered on what people can do. It is humanistic at its core. In other words, it only considers what can be done through our human resources. And it even looks at spiritual enterprises, like the church, in human terms. The church is seen much like a business, and decisions are made according to the acceptable business practices of the culture without necessarily factoring in any of the spiritual resources that God indicates we have in Christ. We even live our lives based on the wisdom of the world.

But does God really need those who are impressive in terms of the respect and adoration of the world? Are they necessary for God to accomplish great and mighty things? Does God pick the best, the most talented, the most influential, the most wealthy, the beautiful people, because he desperately needs their gifts, talents, connections, prestige and power ? There is a simple answer to this. It is NO!!!

So let us not measure a person by his profession or occupation or academic achievements alone though these things certainly have their value and importance and by no means do we demean them in any way. . I guess that the bright students whom the bright and elitist schools would like to retain are capable of doing pretty well on their own and the school’s assistance might only make them do better. But the ones who are failing, falling behind and unable to cope are the ones who might have crossed over the line had the school chosen not just to keep them on their rolls but pay extra attention to them to help them cross the threshold , they might have had another, better life. The wonderful truth is that God uses ordinary people just like you and me. In fact, he delights to use ordinary people like you and me. God is able to take us and do great and mighty things through us because it does not depend upon us; it depends upon him. That is the great Christian witness to the world and once that has been discarded, there is not much to choose between a so called Christian school and any other

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