Transparency : Living in the light

Many of us might have been following the news pertaining to the members of the judicial community in India trying for a long time; not to make their financial assets public in spite of an increasing demand to do so. That they eventually agreed was not so much a voluntary act in the usually understood sense of the term; rather it was more of a capitulation to a growing chorus of public opinion. Though a large number of the establishment seemed to side with the judges – the government tied to introduce a bill that would make it unnecessary for the judges to disclose their worth.

The wide acclaim with which the Supreme Court’s final decision that the judges would up details about their assets on the Supreme Court website shows one thing very clearly; we love transparency. Whether it is in public life, or insurance forms, or anything else. We like things out in the open. No secrets hid. In broad daylight. We dislike darkness and those things that limit our vision.

As Christians, I often wonder as to how transparent are we? How transparent am I? I wonder how we can expect to reach the world - to give our light to the world - without being transparent. Jesus was transparent. He lived a transparent life. He did not gloss over things; He did not shy away from confrontation. He talked about the hard stuff, and He took the challenges presented Him without a second thought.

The Apostle Paul was able to say:

“Rather, we have renounced secret and shameful ways; we do not use deception, nor do we distort the word of God. On the contrary, by setting forth the truth plainly we commend ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.” 2 Corinthians 4:2

Essentially Paul is saying that he has chosen to live a transparent life—to practice a transparent ministry. Transparency is the watch word for anyone in leadership today. Whether he or she is a CEO, a politician or a judge there is a cry from the bottom to the top for transparency. We do our ministry in the world of blogs and Facebook. Long before the high tech transparency was foisted upon us, Paul taught us that the only truly legitimate way to conduct one’s ministry is with transparency in your life. Our lives and ministry should be an open statement of the truth. How else, as he writes in verse 2, could we “commend ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.”? This is the ultimate transparency — that we practice our ministry in the presence of God.

A part of the whole struggle with transparency is the struggle that we have in admitting or hiding our own weaknesses and struggles. This is of course a very real battle. I am of course very aware of my brokenness, but I am also aware that there’s nothing in me that commands the admiration of the world. But that does not mean going around with a low self esteem. There’s a difference between a low self esteem which comes from an inferiority complex, some sort of neurosis and a true understanding of who we are, that then allows God to work through us and shows to the world the face of brokenness, of holiness lived in brokenness, transparency enables ,me to say that God has shown me, I cannot do it by myself, but his light in me manifests itself and I give him all the glory.

To live a transparent life is to be as completely real as possible. It is to truly be “in the world but not of it”. It is to meet people where they are at, instead of expecting them to somehow find their way to where we are. To connect with others on their terms, in a real way. To be yourself, instead of wearing the masks we put on as often as we seek our place in the world. To not be afraid of others seeing our flaws. For nobody is perfect.

To live a transparent life means that not everyone will like us. In fact, some people will hate us outright. We may lose our lives. But transparent lives are passionate lives, full of movement, and they are worth whatever time we are given on this earth.

Change, Apathy and Us

About ten years ago, the relief and development agency that I worked for sponsored a young man from leading evangelical congregation on a tour around the world along with a few others chosen from all over the globe. The intention was that as they went around and saw the relief and development activities being done in the name of Jesus Christ in many difficult places in the world and how lives of people and communities were being transformed as a result, they would develop a perspective. That when they returned back to their lands and to their church, they would speak for what we today call “integral mission” , that the gospel is all about transforming lives in all dimensions : body, mind and soul.

One Sunday morning, pinned on the church notice board was a picture postcard written by this young, man from some picturesque location in Europe. He narrated briefly all that he had seen and experience d in his travels, and ended by saying that for all that the trip was really a waste because they weren’t doing any evangelism on the trip and so the whole trip was a big waste . I remember cringing inwardly seeing that letter; but shouldn’t have – evangelicals were like that only.

Around the same time, we tried to influence a VBS class in the city to include at least one session on a Christian’s responsibility in society; in looking at events around us through heaven’s eyes as Jesus would and then respond to them according to the teaching and ethos of scripture. The stony look that the organizers and teachers gave was unforgettable. Similarly, when I tried to talk about my experiences with the Catholic Church (mostly positive), my doctrine conscious evangelical friends reached for their Bibles and sneered at me disdainfully, if not snobbishly. It is difficult to exactly pin point when things began to change and evangelicals began to be accommodating and how this happened. But today, if you walk into that church, you are unlikely to recognize the church from what it was back then and what it has become now.

The general thinking of a section of the evangelical community is that because Jesus’ kingdom is not of this world (John 18v 36), so too our concerns ought not to be of this world. In our terms, it means that we should be having a perspective of eternity and all our efforts and interests ought to be directed towards that one end – that we witness to and testify among as many university students as possible so that through all our stratagems and programs should be directed to that end so that “by all possible means we might save some” (1 Corinthians 9:22). The harvest is plentiful; the laborers are few and more so, life is short, and so let us not get distracted by the other demands that may be made on our time and energy. So far so good.

But the counter argument that I would make is that such a view is an incomplete and even a distorted view of the gospel. After all it said of Jesus that He “went about doing good."- (-Acts, 10:38) and it can be nobody’s case that doing well is confined to preaching the good news alone.

Some graphic illustrations of the coming kingdom of God are to be found in passages like Zechariah 8 v (4-5)

Thus says the LORD of hosts, 'Old men and old women will again sit in the streets of Jerusalem, each man with his staff in his hand because of age. And the streets of the city will be filled with boys and girls playing in its streets.'

Isaiah 65 v 18-23 paints an even more detailed and more graphic picture of the Kingdom dealing with health, housing, agriculture, justice and equity. These and other passages describe the kind of world that will bring joy and delight to the Lord – a world He would rejoice over (Isaiah 65 v 19). If we know the heart beat God and know what exactly gives Him pleasure and delight , then can we in all honesty pray the Lord’s prayer about His will being done on earth “as it is in heaven” without lifting a finger to make this happen ? It sounds inconceivable.

It is not that today’s Christians are like the desert fathers who have actually retreated from society and civilization and created a parallel even if unsustainable universe. No, that has not happened. In fact today’s Christians are if anything, more worldly wise than their forbears of even a generation ago. But we have it upside down.

Conventionally, we are taught that believers are not to be “of the world”, even as by happenstance, they are “in the world”. Of course the Bible really teaches us that we shouldn’t “be conformed any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is--his good, pleasing and perfect will. (Romans 12 v2). But what has happened is that while we have often been transformed through dialogue and immersion in the world, usually our minds have not been renewed by the Word of God, they have been renewed by the world. Instead of us Christians exercising a leavening effect on the world and through our engagement helping to provide for the world of a glimpse of God’s Kingdom, we have allowed the world and “secular” society to transform us. I have deliberately put the word “secular” in italics because “secular” culture and world view is ultimately an amalgam of many different influences and its ultimate nuance is finally shaped by who has finally contributed the most to shape that secular world view.

I submit that the mean reason as to why Christians, particularly Christians from our kind of people , which is basically a middle class constituency shy away from any particular engagement is not theology , but apathy – for a classic description of apathy , see the quote attributed to Pastor . It is not that we have tried to change things and turn things around; we have not even attempted anything. Yes, we may use the scriptures or the teachings of our church and denomination to dress up our apathy and lack of activity the main reason for this is apathy, the typical middle class apathy. We are neither for nor against any thing; but just plain indifferent – and therefore by default instead of we shaping society, we are in turn shaped by it.

The one area where apathy and its impact is most perceptible is in the area of the renewal of our minds, especially since we have grown up in a culture where a “turning of the heart” is more prominently emphasized. And since our minds are not renewed or transformed, usually we make the same choices that any else makes; enter the same rat race that everybody else does and end up in the same careers and jobs that everyone else is in. Christians, because their minds are often not renewed are influenced more by the peer pressure of their kinsman than by the peer pressure of the kingdom.Most decisions in our life are made by discerning by God’s will, or so we say. But we seem to have atomized this. We have set procedures for knowing the will of god – we rely on scripture, circumstances, an inner “peace”, the counsel of fellow believers and by triangulating the results, we come to a conclusion about what we must do.

While these are all fine in their particular context; certain things are forgotten and we seem to try and discern God’s will in a vacuum. The primary identity of a follower of Jesus Christ is that of a subject of his kingdom and to then live according to the priorities of that kingdom. To give an example, when people choose to apply for and then accept the citizenship of the USA or Canada or some other when offered, they are first required to owe allegiance to the constitution of the country and then find their place in society within the parameters of the constitution. The criteria of offering citizenship are often the value addition that the new immigrant would bring to the country he is migrating to and points are awarded on various criteria.

But with Christians, usually the norm is opposite. We often make our decisions and life choices , even if made in consultation with others and in prayer , keeping out of radar screen , the larger kingdom picture and priorities and the value addition that we can bring when we “emigrate” to god’s kingdom. Often we make our choices just as anybody else would, and then try and rationalize them with reasons that might seem shallow to our own ears.

Will society benefit and the world become a better place to live in if it reflected the priorities of the Creator? if so, should it be a question to ask while seeking God’s will as to how best my gifting can best serve society so it more accurately serves as a shadow of the kingdom to come. Seeking to discern God’s only seeking my personal best while ignoring the Lord’s larger purposes for this world (the Lord after all did love the world enough to send His son for them….) where I may fit is self serving and shallow.

How then does one engage with society? Needless to say, one must begin by developing a Christian world view, the habit of as Moses would put it in Prince of Egypt of looking at life through heaven’s eyes. Of course how one does is that is a discipline by itself which ought to be part of all our discipleship programs. Even supposedly highly technical subjects like textile technology or architecture when studied with the proper perspective can help fulfill God’s will on earth is important and path breaking . You don’t study architecture merely you are bright, cleared the NATA exam and landed a seat; no you study architecture because it can be a tool In God’s hands.

If a secular, temporal state finds utility and value in the study of architecture, will not an eternal kingdom find it invaluable too? In the first decade of the 21st century, there are far greater career and educational options than what existed even a decade or two ago, but a far lesser understanding of what can be achieved and accomplished through them. If we look at the history of the freedom struggle; we will find that most of the leaders then were accomplished lawyers and barristers. If you asked them why, they would tell you why – they saw the study of law as a tool through which they could dialogue and discuss political change at the highest levels of the establishment and eventually negotiate for independence for the country. They had a vision for their people and for their country and could freely and openly articulate it. But today it is quite possible for a student to study whatever he or she secured admission in after appearing for a rainbow of entrance exams and the assuming one had the choice to pick out of one or more streams, choose the one which is the most materially lucrative.

Often Christians are reluctant to get involved in issues of society because we are so few in number or we will get involved in a few particular fetishes. A lot of people get involved when the Delhi High Court declared Section 3 77 of the Indian Penal Code anachronistic and deemed it illegal. Similarly, people get agitated when persecution happens. While this is right and proper, God is the lord of all creation (….the Firstborn and Lord of all creation- Colossians 1 v 15) and our concerns ought to embrace everything according to our education, aptitude and gifting.
I suppose that everything begins with awareness.

Let me give an example from my own work. When we began talking to churches and Christian groups that human trafficking and particularly the trafficking of minor girls and boys, (yes, boys) is the largest illicit industry in the world overtaking the arms trade and the trade in drugs by far, people didn’t know. Similarly, though we laud the efforts of William Wilberforce in outlawing slavery in the British Empire and those of Abraham Lincoln in the United States , not many will know that there are more slaves alive today in this century than there were in Wilberforce ‘s time or Lincoln’s time. Slavery was legal and in your force then, it is cover and underground then; that is about all the difference.

Of course, I have cited examples from my own context and experience in the social sector; but the point that I am trying to make ought to resonate anywhere. We in India are blessed to be living in a democracy, however imperfect; but the direction in which a democracy moves is determined often by sustained and informed lobbying and advocacy and debate. Informed decision makers do not just happen ; their opinions are shaped by those who have assiduously worked to shape them by furnishing facts and data and information. Even fringe groups do this ;

I have just finished reading a book “Red Sun” by Sudeep Chakravarty on the Maoist insurgency in India and he documents how Maoists have successfully used music ,art,literature,media and other forms of popular expression and married them with existing social and political realities to sell the idea of a communist utopia. Using this approach , Maoists have managed to recruit many to their cause ; and even those who have not signed up have often turned sympathizers providing crucial logistical and moral support. In many of the same areas , missionaries are also active but preach the gospel in a style and idiom that is often other worldly and dry in its approach. Maoists have emerged as thought leaders ; whereas evangelists are seen as proselytizers.

Typically, following awareness would be engagement and involvement; but most of us never get there. Even if we are aware – we read the papers, watch the news on television ; and increasingly the media is highlighting issues in society that are flawed and need fixing; life for most of us just goes on as it always has. This is where apathy kicks in and the kingdom of God and its values start receding as I retreat into the confines of my comfort zone. I go to Bible Study every week and dissect up books like Amos and the sins and shortcomings of the Israel of two millennia ago with ease. I artfully dodge the wrinkles and hiccups in my time and country. Israel of the Bible doesn’t require a direct response from me ; but if I extrapolate scripture into my country, my society, then I may need to do more and my comfort driven lifestyle may have to be abandoned. And that is difficult for most of us.

But if finally a Christian student or graduate is convinced that need to be engaged in society be it through art or media or education or banking or micro finance – society after all has more hues than the rainbow, what should they do ? Should they go and join up with some Christian organization trying to address these issues ? Should they join some secular concern ? The government ? This complex and debatable question.

As I travel around the country, I have often heard Christian organizations being described as regressive, reactionary, backward looking and slow to absorb new thinking and ideas and even slower to adapt them. And my own experience is that this is often true. However , it is also true that there is a dearth of good leadership in many or most Christian organizations. Many years ago, I know of Mr. Lalchungliana, a serving IAS officer , who left the civil services to come and provide leadership to the then fledgling Emmanuel Hospital Association; I do not know of many others who went to the IITs and IIMs or any of the other prestigious higher education institutions finish their courses and serve Christian institutions ? to ask a more pertinent question – how many student s who study in St Stephen’s College and particularly those who get in under the minority quota , finish their course and come back to serve in Christian organizations and make them more forward looking, more progressive , less ghettoized ? Probably very few.

And because we don’t want to perpetuate a mission compound or ghetto culture of which we already have plenty, we also of course need to be involved in secular entities of whatever kind that can make proper use of our gifts and skills. The thing to keep in mind of course is that the term “secular” by itself means nothing in terms of a worldview. We often talk of a “secular” world view , but actually that is nothing but the world view that is made prominent by the thought leaders of the time. In the Islamic world , secular world views will have an Islamic flavor; in India it has a Hindu flavor and in Europe , it has or till recently it had a Christian flavor.

So can we enter the secular work force and inject it with the aroma of Christ ? And in my understanding , the aroma of Christ is not just about not taking bribes, not being corrupt , not coming late to office and all that but presenting a biblical view of the world and its affairs which is born of a deep attachment and bonding. Many millennia ago, Jeremiah advised thus for exled Jews in Babylon “Work for the good of the city where I've taken you as captives, and pray to the LORD for that city. When it prospers, you will also prosper”(Jeremiah 29 v 7). If that is the level of engagement expected of captives towards a land to which they have been forcibly exiled, what might God expect of us who are citizens ?

Times have changed

About ten years ago, the relief and development agency that I worked for sponsored a young man from leading evangelical congregation on a tour around the world along with a few others chosen from all over the globe. The intention was that as they went around and saw the relief and development activities being done in the name of Jesus Christ in many difficult places in the world and how lives of people and communities were being transformed as a result, they would develop a perspective. That when they returned back to their lands and to their church, they would speak for what we today call “integral mission” , that the gospel is all about transforming lives in all dimensions : body, mind and soul.

One Sunday morning, pinned on the church notice board was a picture postcard written by this young, man from some picturesque location in Europe. He narrated briefly all that he had seen and experience d in his travels, and ended by saying that for all that the trip was really a waste because they weren’t doing any evangelism on the trip and no souls were being won. I remember cringing inwardly seeing that letter; but shouldn’t have – evangelicals were like that only.

Around the same time, we tried to influence a VBS class in the city to include at least one session on a Christian’s responsibility in society; in looking at events around us through heaven’s eyes as Jesus would and then respond to them according to the teaching and ethos of scripture. The stony look that the organizers and teachers gave was unforgettable. Similarly, when I tried to talk about my experiences with the Catholic Church (mostly positive), my doctrine conscious evangelical friends reached for their Bibles and sneered at me disdainfully, if not snobbishly.

It is difficult to exactly pin point when things began to change and evangelicals began to be accommodating and how this happened. Possibly when the first instances of persecution began happening in the late Nineties. This was still the United Front government but the BJP and its allies were on the ascendant. And of course the fundamentalist forces neither knew nor understood doctrinal niceties and they destroyed, killed and burnt churches of all denominations and persuasions. Perhaps it was the sudden dawning that if fundamentalist forces had to be appropriately countered , it was no longer possible to be confined to one’s denominational or theological positions that made evangelicals open up to embrace Catholics and “liberals” and other “social gospelers”. This embracing did not mean that each party abandoned their stated positions but certainly ushered in a wave of acceptance, tolerance and diversity that exists among God’s people.

It is similarly difficult to say when Evangelicals began to be accommodative of social concern ministries; not just tolerate them but actually embrace them and acknowledge that these are a valid expression of the Christian gospel. But when umbrella organizations of the evangelical constituency like EFI, began opening their doors to such an expression of ministry, a milestone had surely been crossed.

Of course, EFICOR had been birthed by EFI way back in 1967, but for a long time that remained the only entity that dabbled in developmental and justice issues and became an autonomous entity in little over a decade. But today, it would seem that we have traveled a long way. Today when we have programs like Viva which works with issues of children at risk operate under the umbrella of EFI, the leading evangelical magazine does a whole issue with homosexuality as the theme and the decadal Congress on Church in Mission has tracks like human trafficking, Christians in political engagement and Religious freedom, it seems that finally the evangelical community has finally made it to the new millennium.

Grace and Stigma

One of the hallmarks of a developing and progressive society is the degree to which it is inclusive – inclusive of minorities, marginalized and other vulnerable sections of society who may normally not expect to find a place under the sun. Such a place of equality is what the Indian constitution guarantees in Article 14(equality) and Article 15(no discrimination)

So what is one to make of the recent Supreme Court ruling that those leprosy patients cannot contest a civic election or hold municipal office in Orissa state? The case was brought to court by two men who were elected to a civic body in Orissa in 2003, but were later disqualified as they had leprosy. The Orissa Municipal Act of 1950 bars people suffering from tuberculosis or leprosy from holding such posts.

"The legislature in its wisdom has thought it fit to retain such provisions in the statute in order to eliminate the danger of the disease being transmitted to other people from the person affected," Supreme Court judges CK Thakker and DK Jain said in their ruling.

In the colonial era, the central government passed the Lepers Act of 1898, which provided legal provision for forcible confinement of leprosy sufferers in India. A hundred and more years have passed by; politically India is an independent state, has become a signatory to the UN resolution which says discrimination against leprosy patients must be ended. Medically, leprosy is detected early and thanks to a multi drug regime, cured early too. And yet a few years short of the second decade of the 21st century, piles of archaic legislation keep those who happened to have contracted leprosy at some point on the margins of society.

I always think of that fear and stigma when I read the stories about leprosy in the Gospels. Leprosy was of course greatly feared in the ancient near east. No one had contact with a leper(as they were referred to till recently). They were, instantly, removed from every social sphere. They couldn’t worship in the synagogue, they couldn’t live with other people, they couldn’t participate in the economic system of the time; who would take money from a leper?

We are familiar with the story of Naaman. Successful military man and leader, struck down by disfiguring disease –But Naaman’s disease is likely to get him ousted from his post, in a society even more fixated on appearance than ours. If Naaman can’t get his skin cleaned up, not only will he have to leave office, he’ll be banished from polite and religiously observant society. Naaman’s route to healing reads almost like a spy novel. A word dropped by the slave girl who works for his wife – and why would this little girl who was captured in an enemy raid want to help him? But her tiny shred of hope has him rushing off to his king to get a letter of passage to the enemy. When the letter comes to the king of Israel, he despairs, for he knows he can’t fulfil this request. But Elisha gets wind of the visitor and says, “Come see me and I’ll see what I can do.” Naaman goes, but he’s too proud to enter Elisha’s house. Elisha sends a message out – “go wash in the Jordan, and you’ll get what you’re after.” It must have sounded amazingly dismissive, because Naaman leaves in a huff. But his own servants offer him encouragement, and he finally goes off to the river, and gets his youthful appearance back. Maybe this is where the fountain of youth idea came from…Slave girl, servants, enemies, kings, and prophets – an impressive set of links that bring Naaman to his knees.

Jesus’ healing of the leper is more direct. The leper appears and asks to be healed. And Jesus reaches out his hand and touches the leper and says, “I do want to; be clean.” Jesus chooses to foul himself – touching a leper makes him unfit for polite society. Being gut-wrenched may also carry the sense that Jesus touched the man in spite of his own revulsion – or, more likely, the revulsion of the people around him. Those onlookers, just like the people around Naaman, are accustomed to keeping themselves “clean” by excluding anybody who threatens them. They don’t want to get too close, and they certainly don’t want their eminent visitor and rabbi to get too close.

Several secular laws and courts of course discriminate against those who have leprosy and those who are “different” in subtle and not so subtle terms. But maybe we can be brave enough to admit there are banished ones within the household of faith too. There was a decade or two at the beginning of the AIDS epidemic where more than one preacher declared those with the illness were socially unclean; some even claimed those with the disease were going to hell for the depravity of their sin as preachers declared that the illness itself was a sign of God’s curse. There have been days not too long ago when a divorce was enough for a couple to feel the wrath of the church. Some of us still remember days when watching television, going to movies and many other social activities were the sins that would stigmatize you in way that would eventually shun you from the good fellowship of the church.

If the church is to be a different kind of community transformed by grace and surviving by grace, then in my reckoning, we are called to be the compassionate community moulded by the Lord. We must forever look over the wall of the community to see who’s outside the gates, banished there by the people of God, unable to get in other than to get on their knees to beg. There’s a risk in loving the outsiders to be sure. But if we’re the people of faith we claim to be, that’s the kind of love we must share.

Healing takes a whole community of unlikely partners, and it takes getting past our own fear of contamination. it is time for us to seek to be liberated from our own hidden demons and stigmas.

The Classroom and the Kingdom

One of my friends whose whereabouts are usually not traceable, because he is involved in hectic travel has grounded himself for the next month or so. he has stationed himself at home ; well not exactly at home, but like a tame pet, he goes off to the office in the morning and is safely back to home base by evening. after hearing that piece of news, I haven been given similar instructions on the home front and my wife herself has taken leave a month’s leave and has parked herself at home. In both our families, a child is going through that iconic rite of passage – the board exam….. An event talked about in awe and hushed whispers.

I do not know the number of students who sit for the Board examinations in India every year, with practically each state having its own board of secondary education apart from the grand daddy of them all, the Central Board of Secondary Education. But whatever be the number, the ides of March bring with them the news of the examination season and the country it would seem defers to the phenomenon. elections if due, are scheduled and rescheduled to ensure that the examination schedule is not trifled with ; the election commission , typically a law unto itself , defers to the board examinations – elections will never be scheduled in a way that they interfere with the examination time table.

But stress for exam going students and increasingly their families is becoming a major issue in the last decade and it is a matter of concern that young people are being exposed to stress at such an early stage of their lives when their coping mechanism is so weak. Eexamination stress pushes students to various kinds of perversions, not only affecting concentration and memory but also forcing them to adopt abnormal behavior. Stressed out children are increasingly consuming tobacco, drinking tea, coffee and taking commonly-available amphetamine drugs such as cough syrups to keep up while preparing for exams.

And then there are those who simply can’t cope and end their lives. According to government reports, over 5000 students committed suicide in 2006. The unofficial figures are even higher. It seems stress is pushing our students to the brink; many of them just in class six. Boys are more vulnerable to committing suicide than girls, because adolescent girls seek support from family and friends to deal with emotional stress during examination. But as boys are less expressive, they tend to suppress their feelings of inadequacy and fear of poor performance. This often drives them to suicide to end their frustration

What's pushing today's Indian students - a bright generation with a global reputation for their high intelligence quotient - to the brink? Parental and peer pressure, rising ambitions and fierce competition are brewing a deadly cocktail for these young minds. Moreover, a nation racing towards affluence, an economy on a remarkable upward growth trajectory and skyrocketing salaries are putting unprecedented pressure on youth to succeed.

Often Christian families are not too different when it comes to choosing careers and vocations for their children although it should be obvious that the biblical perspective is that the purpose of education is to advance God’s purposes and plans for this world. Christians ought to pursue education so that through that means they may best serve the interests of the Kingdom of God and work for justice and equity in a society that reflects the character of God in his justice, compassion, grace and mercy. If we think of education only as a means for the young to develop their skills, or to achieve their potential, or to be equipped to succeed in life, then we have seen only one side of the coin. Rather, education must do all of that and also serve the entire society. It must serve not just its students but all of society, it must be as concerned about responsibility to the world.

Ephesians 2:10 says that each one of us were shaped for a specific task. All of us were custom-designed by God to fulfil a specific calling. The purpose of any education is to equip us to best do the work that God has designed us to do-the tasks He has called us to. As Christians our ultimate aim in the race of life is not necessarily to be the top of the class. That way life becomes not just a race to join but a rat race to win -and what matters is doing our competitors down. Our primary mission in pursuing an education is not to win a rat race, but to be better skilled in caring for what God has entrusted to us - our world, our sisters and brothers.

Kaala Bandaar - The Evil Within Us

A news bulletin on the television channel IBN 7 describing the havoc created by the “ kala bandaar” greets Abhishek Bachchan, a Generation Y, NRI, accompanying his ailing grand mother, who wants to come back to India in her old age. This is of course Delhi 6, the recently released movie, which has become better known for the catchy Masakali song.

Although the theme of the kala bandaar is a thread running through the film, it is brought to some kind of a closure only near the end. Abhisekh Bachchan dons the garb of a monkey in the climax, is caught and is lynched. He is practically killed but recovers. As the narrator in the film within, he makes a philosopher like speech, saying that there is a kala bandaar, a black monkey, lurking inside each one of us; ready to engulf us and our lives, at the slightest opportunity. Although in the movie, it felt that the Director had chosen through this statement, to conveniently kill off a concept that had outlived its utility as the movie closed, the speech is not entirely hyperbole.

There is indeed an element of evil that prowl in our hearts. I have just been reading a book titled Stones by the River. Set in Germany, the book traces the transformation of German society in the inter war years from the perspective of Trudi Montag, a dwarf girl who watches with pain and horror as ordinary citizens whom she has known all her life, change colors before her eyes, and become sympathizers, and later informers for the Nazi party. Not that they all subscribed to the Nazi ideology; but what drove them was the greed of laying hands on Jewish property and wealth, every time they betrayed one to the authorities.

A mob is a good example of an occasion when ordinary people suspend their values and sense of discernment and succumb to the increasingly strong nudges of the evil within themselves. Inherently good people become momentarily totally evil. In the movie itself, there is such an instance that is captured. Shortly after Abhishek brings his grand mother home to Delhi, she suddenly falls sick. The whole community in the muhulla comes together to make arrangements for her to be taken to hospital and Abhisekh is overwhelmed; yet the same group would split on communal lines and turn murderous a while later.

Of course, in our darkest times, we all think of dominating others, subduing others to our will and a ‘sadistic streak’, though latent, is there within all of us. As we are reminded through the turmoils of our own lives every day, there is a battle going on inside of us, We may want to think of these primeval forces of good and evil as two sides in a fight: the one that has been fed will defeat the one that has been starved.

The question that we may want to ask ourselves every day is this - by our thoughts, by our actions and by our habits, one or the other dogs – of good or of evil - are being fed and fattened. Are our actions fattening the kala bandaar within us? Or are we starving it to death and enabling the image of God within us to become more clearly visible?

Maula, Maula.... and Worshipping the True God

Delhi 6 ( the movie that is, not the PIN CODE!), my wife remarked about the Sufi song “Maula, Maula”( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=McYnZj-EvL4). Although she didn’t get the full meaning of the Urdu lyrics, she remarked at the intensity of what was essentially a Sufi worship song, and remarked at the intensity of the lyrics, melody and the rendering of the singer expressing a very deep yearning to get closer to God, which is in its essence what Sufism is all about. On the way back home, we passed the neighborhood temple, where a gaggle of toothless women were clanging cymbals in what could only be described as a listless enactment of a ritual.

Since then I have been about the object called “Christian worship”. I have been meeting people lately who introduce themselves as “worship leaders” or who “lead worship”. Subsequently observing them in their work place, I find what they actually do is strum a guitar and lead in the singing of a few songs.

Worship of course is a private act as well as a public one, I suppose for public events, some kind of coordination is needed, but the self adulating title of “worship leader”, perhaps deflects more glory on to the person than to the function, which is to lead the people of god in adoration. John Piper says this in his book, Desiring God, "Worship is a way of gladly reflecting back to God, the radiance of his worth." Let me say that again. "Worship is a way of gladly reflecting back to God the radiance of his worth." As our heart is captured by who God is, what he has created, how he works, that his purposes are always good. What he sacrificed for me and you and how he pursues us in love even at this moment, it moves me. It makes me grateful, happy, joyful, and glad and I want to reflect that back to him in worship. My heart spontaneously overflows in joy.

Joy is what was oozing through every clap and beat of the Sufi Quawali, thought the tenor was nasal and rustic. Perhaps the voice was not trained enough bit the heart was well in tune and was able to draw the attention of even a casual movie goers to thought of God for a time. Of course on special occasions like Christmas and Easter, even our churches parade out our best choirs and chorales and the rendering of them is often truly angelic, but can we worship “in spirit and in truth” and in day to day life and our routine Sunday services ?

The purpose of worship after all is to provide an atmosphere in which people bring their everyday, busy, confusing, frustrating lives and leave the cares and concerns at the altar trusting God through faith to speak to them in the midst of their lives. Music is a means to do that but not the only means to do this. May be the Psalms provide a good context as well as a framework for worship. In the Psalms we often read about the psalmists' enemies, but they are almost always spoken of in very unspecific terms. We're not told who they are, or what they are trying to achieve, but only that they have set themselves up against the man of God, and therefore against God himself.

The world we live in often provides our equivalent of the psalmist's enemies. Our world has set itself up against God, and therefore against us. The world is not neutral, it is opposed to us, so it is no wonder we experience its hostility from time to time as God allows. Things happen to us over which we have no control. What is it that is overwhelming you at the moment? Are you riding the wave, or is it all crashing around you that true worship is startlingly honest. It's easy to overlook, but the Psalms, with all their questions and accusations, are worship! To pour out your soul in all honesty before God, is worship, and the psalmist shows us how to worship God, in this Psalm just as much in the "praise him on the trumpet" types of Psalm. In fact the psalmist has discovered what we've all experienced: that it is impossible for us to whip up worship in ourselves. If our souls are downcast and disturbed within us then no matter how great the music, no matter how much we close our eyes and raise our hands, no matter how fervent the leader, we will ultimately never find the presence of God that we long for.

There can be no doubt that what is going on in contemporary worship services has some very positive social dynamics. There is an opportunity for interaction, sharing, emotional release, and all the rest. We must not think that drums, keyboards, or any technique--be it mystical, ecstatic or esthetic--is what worship is all about. Worship is about the heart of a man, woman or child. It is not contrived, induced, or concocted. It is the result of the working of the Holy Spirit in the heart. The Lord is not in the wind, nor in the fire, but He is in the still, small voice. Worship in the Bible is after all a lifestyle of sacrifice not an event !

Sin and Shame

The latest issue of the Jesuit run Indian magazine, “The New Leader” carries a lead article on hat it calls the growing phenomena of “Drinking as a subculture of Priests”. The article begins with the candid admission that alcoholism thrives in shadows, secrets and silence. And then goes on to say that alcoholism thrives because alcoholics take refuge in shadow land because they are confused scared and above all ashamed.I like the candidness of the article and the willingness to admit that there is a problem and that there is a need to address it and that those affected by alcoholism need to be helped to cope with it and not pushed into the shadows.


The word that most deserves to be coupled with sin is salvation; but the words that typically accompany them are shame, stigma and the world of shadows. at this point, I am not commenting on whether alcoholism is a disease or a sin, but simply commenting on the attitudes of shame and stigma in people who display behaviors that is considered unconventional in a given culture or society.

The church is the community of redeemed sinners, but is often unfortunately the first to put its own fallen comrades into the shadows, and often very publicly. The secular world, which has never seen nor often experienced grace, is often found to be more tolerant; though this tolerance may be more passive tolerance than active assurance and acceptance. How important is grace Vis a Vis the judgment that we often use to push people into the shadows because they have a “problem”? Just how important is grace and acceptance in the church community? Well, the the apostle Paul, in practically all of his greetings, starts off by wishing them grace and peace. God gives us grace, but God also want us to have grace in our lives.

And He also wants us to give grace. As we have received grace in whatever facet, He wants us to give it. How have you experienced it? If you've been through a death-like situation, you're likely to be very encouraging to people who are in a death-like situation. If you've been sick in a particular way, you're probably able to comfort people who are sick in that same way.

It is important to use the grace of God in our lives. And having the grace of God does not mean we still don't fight ourselves, because the Apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians 9:27, that he had to fight himself and keep himself in check lest after he had preached to others he himself be found a cast-away. The grace of God leads us to exert ourselves in a godly way. It leads us to ask for forgiveness. It leads us to receive forgiveness. It leads you to comfort, console, and give hope, to others.

The New Leader article zeroes in on the particular burden of the priests: they are representatives of the church and the church hierarchy; he often faces extra ostracism if he reveals his situation and suffers in isolation if he doesn’t. It is a bit of a Herculean task I admit; the church is a body of people is called upon to reflect the image of God all right and so what happens when you notice an aberration? What do you do? The New Testament on the odd occasion does recommend the ex communication and disfellowshipping of the odd person; but the end goal is still the same – that the person would be eventually restored into communion and community. Restoration is thus the eventual goal; and there are various methods to pursue this. But the gift of grace has a far larger role in the scheme of God’s things than we are ready to offer it – stigmatization and isolation is a lot simpler to do.

A Theology of Silence

Buddhism, once the domain of Ambedkar and his acolytes is now attracting more glamorous followers including in its ranks people like Priyanka Gandhi. The latest issue of Outlook talks about the Buddhist revival that is happening. middle class and page 3 crowd, typically associated more with partying are joining up for one of the many forms of Buddhism available today.

One of them is Vipassana which has its centre at Igatpuri near Mumbai and which I recently visited. the introduction to Vipasssana in the Igatpuri begins with a ten day introductory course which is quite austere. austerity of course was to be expected but what fascinates me most is the importance accorded to silence in the whole course: ten days of near total silence cut off from television, news papers and conversation of any kind. Such an atmosphere, it is said leads to a state of mental purification and “detox” when one is cut off from all polluting influences.

Surely silence has a lot of therapeutic effects, but in the Christian tradition, more specifically in the Protestant, Evangelical tradition, we don’t have much time and space for silence. Silence is for the monks and the nuns and of course we don’t have them either. And that is a pity.

It is difficult to fathom a reason but perhaps a reason could be the protestant, evangelical emphasis on the Word of God and the underlying assumption that the Word of god is meant to be heard; rather than meditated up on or even read. Hence the plethora of preachers and speakers and the importance given to them. The medium does not matter; it could be television or in crusades or revival meetings or churches. In this tradition, the very moment we think of planning an event or a program, in the very next breath, we ask, “but who will be the speaker?” a program without a speaker is sort of thinkable in our circles.

Of course the concept of silence is thoroughly biblical. Jesus spent long moment in silent contemplation. All four Gospels tell us that Jesus prayed. He prayed alone on mountains and in the wilderness. In the first centuries after Jesus’ life, most Desert monk/writers were familiar with silence--their own silence, and the silence of God. After the Reformation in the 16th century, Protestant denominations drew parishioners’ attention almost entirely to the Bible, to sermons and vocal prayer, and to the singing of hymns.

From then on we lost the tradition. Almost all post-Reformation denominations (except, e.g., the Quakers) focused (and still do focus) on the Word--reading the Bible, listening to sermons and trying to convert others by convincing them that our particular verbal formulations of scripture, of doctrine and of God’s identity are true in themselves. For most Protestant denominations, the words of Scripture, doctrine and creeds are themselves identified as holy. These Christian brothers and sisters do not seem to be interested in contemplative silence or in the possibility that the Triune God can show up between, beneath and beyond our words and stories--even beyond our sacred words and stories.

Those of us who value contemplative silence should remember that Jesus did not teach wordless, contemplative prayer explicitly. Yes, Jesus did pray alone, often going into the desert for solitude, and we can infer from his life and teaching that he learned about himself, his mission and God in silence. But contemplatives should not ignore the fact that Jesus ‘s spirituality was thoroughly relational. Jesus discerned God’s personal presence as he studied Hebrew scripture, and he preached. The Gospel writers tell us that God’s presence was conveyed powerfully through Jesus’s words. Jesus’s ministry tells us that very often the Good News is spoken, one to another, and the effect on the listener may be more powerful, meaningful and redemptive than if that listener had sat in meditation or contemplative prayer. we may need of course as in every thing, the right checks and balances but a theology of silence would add great value to evangelical spirituality.

Children at Risk

Fuller Seminary’s School of Intercultural Studies in 2006 chose “Children and the Mission of God” as its theme for its annual missiological lectures. The lectures were launched by Bryant Myers, newly appointed professor of International Development, and a well known Christian development ideologue. He began the lectures with an overview presentation, “Children in our Midst: Our Mandate”. Among the thoughts brought out by Bryant Myers, was the insight that “The well-being of children is an indicator of the well-being of society,” According to him “If the children are doing all right, the rest of us probably are, too.”

One thrust of Myer’s speech was that even though many of the world’s children today are doing well, there are many who are not. An alarming 210 million children globally are involved in labor outside the home, half of them in full-time work—taking them out of school and placing many in hazardous conditions. Of these, 1.8 million are involved in the worst forms of child labor: prostitution and pornography. Myers noted the distressing fact that those who exploit children in this way often take advantage of disastrous situations; after the tsunami, he said, “the child exploiters arrived in Banda Aceh (Indonesia) as soon as relief workers did.”

Many more disturbing statistics were offered in the speech: 5.7 million children are engaged in forced or bonded labor; 300,000 are child soldiers; 10 million are refugees, many without their families; tens of millions live on the streets; and vast numbers are unregistered, with no recognition by their governments. Myers also noted the very different kind of problem of “deceived children” in the U.S., where $12 billion is spent every year on advertising directed to children 12 and under. In the affluent world as well as the developing world, children are at risk – albeit in different forms.

“Children are in trouble everywhere in the world—some in awful ways, but also in more sophisticated, psychological ways,” Myers said. We must “act like Christ and be the Church” by caring for and protecting children through tangible provisions of care, by actively advocating for them, and by empowering them. “These children need to hear the gospel,” Myers urged. “They need to learn the liberating news that Jesus weeps for them…and that he provides forgiveness.” We must all think more intentionally about children and how our daily decisions will affect them. The speech concluded with a moving note citing a quote from John Whitehead: “Children are the living messages we send to a time we will not see.”

It is very apparent that in our world and for that matter in most of history, children have by tradition been cherished, if at all, as citizens of tomorrow, the so called “future generation”. With this positioning as “assets of the future”, children deal with marginalization on account of their gender, caste, race, ethnicity and class, just as grown-ups do; they suffer being inconsequential merely for the reason that they are “children”. That childhood itself is valued and requires to be treasured, sheltered and provided for, is a relatively modern insight.

Similarly, until very recently, issues related to children have tended to be marginal in almost every area of Christian living. From the many rules of the New Testament calling for compliance of children ‘in all things’ (Col.3:20) to all the culture and behavioral norms of the present day, a top down approach which often prevents listening to children and characterizes the child-parent association as one of blind obedience: it is more about power and control than nurture.

However as we know Jesus identifies himself with children in a series of verses in the gospels. (Mk.9:33-7; Mt.18:1-2; Lk.9:46-8) “Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me.” (Mk.9:37) Jesus’ teaching about receiving children as the mark of true greatness places children at the center of the community’s attention as prime objects of its love and service, and requires of all who would be great in the community to serve children. Those simple words of Jesus say it all that there is to be said on the subject of children. If you want to know who God is, look in the face of this particular child. If you want to know who has the highest rank in the Kingdom of God, it is the one who cares for children

Christian workers involved in ministries to children at risk of course cannot fail to see the reality of the plight of the children in such a world. Jesus Christ came to not only redeem the nations but also to place people in a redemptive culture where they could have hope. Children are made in the representation of God and as such have an inherent spirituality. This recognition that children are spiritual beings and are spiritually aware guides Christian people working with children at risk in all that they do and plan in their ministry. But how does this appreciation of a child’s spirituality shape their work? How does one work with those children whom life has ‘incensed and who have a disturbed spirituality because of their experiences in their respective “at risk” situations?

In some ways, Jesus left us clueless. The Lord Jesus at no point told his followers how to be successful with children or what policies to put in place or what to speak to a child at risk; as an alternative he told them to just let the children get nearer to them and then be taught by them, look to them and discover the way they are, grow to be like them. Jesus’ main concerns are not about what one can do for children but what one can learn from them to shape our own life and spiritual growth.

Coming to some hard realities on the ground, one of the certainties of our world at the start of the twenty-first century is the rapid pace of change. Even though the world is going through a moment of unparalleled growth, capital and the enlargement of the resources of the "have" nations, there are still many pieces of our world where scarcity, sickness, bloodshed and conflict are taking their effect on the social order. The depressing truth is that this unmatched lucrative development in the world order has left the developing world far away in the past to the point that the disparity between the "haves" and "have-nots" has intensified considerably in the last several decades

In India 87 of every 100 children born have the probability of dying between birth and exactly five years of age. The state of India's newborns and the health challenge faced by them is bigger than that experienced by any other country. Although India's neo-natal mortality rate (NMR) witnessed a significant decline in the 1980s (from 69 per 1,000 live births in 1980 to 53 per 1,000 live births in 1990), it has remained static since then (only dropping four points from 48 to 44 per 1,000 live births between 1995 and 2000),

Also, one in every three malnourished children in the world lives in India. Child malnutrition is generally caused by a combination of inadequate or inappropriate food intake, gastrointestinal parasites and other childhood diseases, and improper care during illness, the report says, while pointing out the incongruity that in a nation with soaring Gross Domestic Product rates and Sensex indices, children continued to die of malnutrition and starvation. The major cause for such a tragedy is the lack of public health services in remote regions, poor access to subsidized health care facilities, the declining state expenditure on public health and the lack of awareness on preventive child health care.

Similarly globally, each day some thirty thousand children under the age of five will die around the world. In the time that we will take to read this paper, some 1,200 children will have died. The causes are many: war, poverty, hunger, preventable diseases. And yet, even though we lose as many children in a week as were killed in the 2004 Asian Tsunami, rarely does a cry go out or the plight of these children get reported in the news. Children remain the hidden casualties of war and poverty in the world, unseen in the reporting on bombs and political responses. In Somalia alone, the site of the most recent fighting for power, some 1.5 million children are at risk in the middle of the battle. Worldwide, mostly on the African continent, there are over two million children under the age of 14 living with HIV/AIDS. And yet, we rarely hear about them. They remain invisible to us, and if we are honest, we often prefer it that way.

Besides as Keith White puts it, in the name of liberal democracy and freedom, children and young people have televisions, mobile phones and videos in their private space, ideal conditions for the global predators who would consume them as market statistics. Millions of child prostitutes have their identities, their virtue, their futures taken from them as an insatiable industry thrives on arousing the sexual desires of adults, an inevitable and unspoken effect of which is eventually to recreate children as sexual creatures. Child soldiers indoctrinated and motivated by adult communal and religious agendas kill and maim other children.

In view of such a hard to believe inventory of trouble for our children and the diverse manners in which we adults have put them at risk, what should be our response? What Should Christians do in a world that seems to be difficult and more dangerous for our children? Without a doubt we should do what Jesus did. Obviously, we should not do less. Jesus preached and healed, He taught and He acted. He modeled what He taught. However, the core of Jesus’ ethical impetus, however, is his specific summons to begin living now in this fallen world according to the values and demands of the coming kingdom. Jesus’ gospel of the kingdom does indeed lead to the formation of a disturbing community asking and trying to answer searching and difficult questions. But it is a group of people who lovingly challenge the evils of the here and now precisely because it shares the Creator’s love for his good creation and dares to strive now toward that fullness in personal, socioeconomic and political life that Christ will bring in its fullness at his second coming.

With all this background, we must all be familiar with the many issues to be taken up by the Church and those of the church who are engaged in this mission, not the least of which is to continually renew our grasp of the mission of God as it gets reinterpreted at different times without changing at its core. Part of the difficulty here is the range of impulses for mission among the many part of the global missionary movement. Among younger Christians in many places in the world, ideas such as the glory of God as revealed in the worship songs of their time, identification of the desires of the whole self in community, and a new found commitment to justice have aroused a new mission’s consciousness. An illustration of this is the increasing response to the overwhelming plight of over one billion children at risk. This concern has found expression at various levels including at the level of development practitioners as well as academicians.

Such an encouraging support and an over powering urge among Christians agencies, churches and individuals to network, to collaborate and to share leanings and experiences led to the formation of the Viva Network( Now Viva) around a decade ago. Viva today works with over 80 network initiatives helping as many as 1.2 million children, apart from being a catalyst for the furtherance and popularization of child theology in seminaries and Bible Colleges. Other Viva initiatives for the church include (Understanding God’s Heart for Children), for Child Care Workers (Celebrating Children) and for Christian institution and church run programs (Quality Improvement System).

There are newer and possibly greater challenges that wait for us on the horizon and the fight to take on and overcome these challenges is only beginning to be fought. Global trends like the growing influence of cyber evil, is only one more in a register that includes economic excess, aggressive flare-ups, and limitless immoderation. These engross people deeply excited for a sense of individual meaning and distinct value in today’s world. Our Christian answer to these things must come out from three strong commitments:

We must be acquainted with the influence of historical and currently emerging societal and global trends as the setting in which Christ’s redemptive love is discovered. We must pull out all paradigms, programs, and individuals whose significance no longer correlate to the world’s changing life contexts. And, finally, we must return to the Lord in complete humility, equipped with knowledge of the signs of the times but in patience awaiting the wisdom from above that will give us light and insight for the work ahead.

In addition to all that they do in terms of physical interventions Christian workers involved with children at risk have an opportunity as well as a responsibility to help children explore their own spirituality and provide to them the necessary ingredients of spiritual formation and also be enriched by what the children have to offer. Along the way then, they can help over turn existing paradigms that see children as passive recipients of assistance and who have nothing to offer to the church and to society. That is most certainly not true. A Christian response to children at risk needs to grasp the opportunities to allow children to explore, ask questions and find the answers that helps them acknowledge the sin in a fallen world that has put them at risk and find healing in their lives, lest when they grow up to be adults, they in turn perpetuate a vicious cycle where they in turn pose a risk to future generations of children.

Finally then, as we have seen, children are not the people of tomorrow, but are people of today. They have a right to be taken seriously and to be treated with consideration and respect. They should be provided opportunities to grow up into whoever they were intended to be, for the unidentified human being inside each one of them is our hope for the future.’ Jesus as we know was entirely unyielding in taxing adults and adult systems that damaged or wounded little ones: the adults needed to alter their norms radically, even to the extent of tugging out their own eyes and cutting off limbs if this would put a stop to them from harming children (Matthew 18).

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

Christian Institutions : Slowly Losing their Way

Forty-eight students from Delhi’s St Columba’s School at Ashok Place — who recently failed in one or more exams in the Class XI finals — have been asked to seek admission elsewhere. Such a piece of 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”

By doing what it has done, by turning out on to the streets, those who have failed , the very same people whom the world calls low and despised , St. Columbus School has turned the teaching of Jesus on it head. By choosing students who are already bright and intelligent to remain on the school roles and turning out the rest to the mercy of those mediocre schools which might accept them, it has gone the way of any other commercially run school which does not purport to run on the basis of any noble values. After all, again to quote Jesus Christ and the Bible , “It is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick. I guess that the bright students whom St. Columbus are capable of doing pretty well on their own and the school’s assistance might 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 roles, they might have had another, better life

This piece cannot really close without referring to Anna Hazare and his school in Ralegaon Siddhi who has a school that takes only the sort of students that St. Columbus chooses to discard and who has built up the reputation of his school by enrolling almost entirely rural village youth, delinquents with police records and those who have failed repeatedly in their previous schools. By picking up those whom even the world and even the church run schools has discarded, Anna Hazare is doing what Jesus would have approved of. In today’s world, we need to applaud people like him all the more for we need them more than a church that has lost its way.

The Church in India and Health Care: Staying Relevant

The church and the Christian community in India have always been justly conscious and proud of its involvement in two sectors historically- education and health care. This involvement has been an interesting one and from a time where the church run health care meant charity and charitable institutions, today many church run institutions are involved in a variety of initiatives –including an adoption of the rights based approach which really represents a paradigm shift. In India, and other developing nations, the presence in the field of health care of the Church and NGOs needs to be evaluated and new strategies for better effectiveness need to be adapted especially as we live in times where even the legitimate concern of the church are looked up by many in our nation with unease and suspicion.

If the Christian institutions and churches have earned recognition for their contributions to society in past days, it was because they were relevant to their times and the health care needs of those days. If we want to retain that appreciation or regain that stature, we need to rediscover and reclaim that position by doing three things and all at the same time: Be Advocates for the poor and the marginalized as the scriptures instruct us to do, be the best and most effective in all that we do and be the Champions of innovation and change constantly in all our institutions. It is no longer possible or right to breathe and live on the basis of past glory, no matter how noble the foundations might have been.

The Church which historically provided health care through its institutions is today saying that health care is a basic right that the state should provide and to which the citizens have a right. While institutions have not been abandoned or closed down and still provide a significant service, this approach of demanding from Caesar what he should rightfully provide because of the taxes he collects is a bold initiative for a minority community and its institutions to taken and should be applauded. Such initiatives should in fact expand in their scope. Now what does all this mean?

The flagship program in health of the government since 2005 has been the National Rural Health Mission. The purpose of this mission among other things is to strengthen the primary health centers (PHCs) and sub-centers and create a network of rural hospitals. The direction that NRHM has taken has led to the increased privatization of health care services in the country. Now while it is a separate discussion as to whether privatization of health care is good or bad, can the church with its numerous institutions, clinics and committed manpower step in to provide low cost and ethical health care. If that could be done, it would not only mean that the church’s own resources are freed up for other things, but also a huge contribution to society in general where the general complaint across states is that the government run facilities are sloth or corrupt, if not both.

However despite the growing reality of public private partnerships, participation of Christian institutions is in this is still a largely untapped opportunity. Apart from this, can the church with other like minded and committed organizations act as a watchdog to ensure that the resources allocated for the running for the program are actually being used effectively and usefully. The church with its numerous dioceses parishes and mission stations has a country wide presence which is an unparalled advantage.

Indian systems of medicine is again one of those areas where attention would be helpful. The Indian Systems of Medicine & Homoeopathy continue to be widely used due to their accessibility, efficacy and affordability. The Indian medicine system is also embedded in the beliefs of a wide section of the public and continues to be an integral and important part of their lives and for some, it is also a way of life. Complementary and Alternative Medicine or Traditional Medicine is rapidly growing worldwide. In India also, there is resurgence of interest in Indian Systems of Medicine. People are becoming concerned about the adverse effects of chemical based drugs and the escalating costs of conventional health care. Longer life expectancy and life style related problems have brought with them an increased risk of developing chronic, debilitating diseases such as heart disease, cancer, diabetes and mental disorders.

Although new treatments and technologies for dealing with them are plentiful, nonetheless more and more patients are now looking for simpler, gentler therapies for improving the quality of life and avoiding problems of toxicity. Ayurveda, Homoeopathy, Siddha, Unani, Yoga and Naturopathy offer a wide range of preventive, promotive and curative treatments that are both cost effective and efficacious. There is a need for ending the long neglect of these systems because it is the various indigenous systems of medicine are the ones that are typically patronized by the poor being affordable and rooted in the country’s folk traditions. Even the WHO Charter on traditional medicine encourages health systems to immediately address this neglect of this vast body of knowledge.

In the neglect of indigenous medicine, Christian institutions are on the same side as any one else in the country. Since the majority of Christian doctors and nurses are trained in Western medicine, the hospitals and clinics they run are also based on the Western tradition. The unfortunate result was the marginalizing the Indian system of medicine, that has been practiced in India for thousands of years and has benefited millions of people over the centuries. In fact a lasting contribution to the promotion of Indian Systems of Medicine by the church would be to set up an institution of the stature of CMC Vellore or St. John’s, Bangalore, where training is provided on alternate systems of medicine.

At the turn of the last century, the church run hospitals and clinics had a virtual monopoly on providing health services outside the big cities. Government institutions and hospitals tended to be in the cities, the whole chain of primary health care institutions were non existent and so what little was there was provided by the church. Today, that is no longer the case. Options have emerged and even if many of the options that exist today are hardly inspired by philanthropy, they nevertheless exist and people use them – even the poor use them even if they can’t afford it.

But in a situation that is no longer monopolistic from a business point of view, and operating in a climate that is no favorable from a social and political point of view, our institutions not only have to survive and thrive but be the best. But what is best? Many corporate hospitals have emerged today; that technologically speaking has every thing to offer provided if you have the money. And increasingly the choice is becoming between costly corporate hospitals (not necessarily ethically managed though!) and ill equipped badly run government clinics and hospitals.

The genuinely non profit sector is gradually disappearing and this space is getting vacated. The social costs are damning. P.Sainath in November 2007 cites a study done for the WHO in six Indian States found that 16 per cent of households it looked at were pushed below the poverty line by heavy medical costs. Nearly 10,000 families from lower income groups were covered by the survey for the years 2002-05. Some 12 per cent had to sell their assets to meet health expenses. Over 43 per cent had to resort to loans for the same reasons. I hope that a day will not come when patients have to sell of home and hearth to settle bills in a Christian hospital to avail of the “best” health care available.

The late Pope John Paul II, in his Apostolic Letter, Ecclesia in Asia, wrote: "Following in the steps of Jesus Christ who had compassion for all and cured "all kinds of disease and illness" (Mt 9:35), the Church in Asia is committed to becoming still more involved in the care of the sick, since this is a vital part of her mission of offering the saving grace of Christ to the whole person. Like the Good Samaritan of the parable (cf. Lk 10:29-37), the Church wants to care for the sick and disabled in concrete ways, especially where people are deprived of elementary medical care as a result of poverty and marginalization".

What people expect from the church and the church run institutions is not necessarily the technological cutting edge but acceptable and appropriate standards of care that are ethical, affordable and administered with compassion, grace and prayer and that in fact can become a protocol for others to emulate. May be for this a business model needs to be evolved that combines business acumen, human sensitivity and ethical protocols. In that sense, while the church’s ministry, much as the Lord Jesus’ example and reminder through the story of the Good Samaritan remains always the same, the ministry of the Good Samaritan himself trying to be a neighbor to his people has evolved over the centuries and must continue to do so.