Social Justice Warriors: Rice Christians Revisited
Consider some recent headlines that really should concern us. One of them says this: “We may have been scammed by asylum seekers, admits Church of England”. Another runs as follows: “Whistleblower Exposes Alleged Asylum Seeker Baptism Scam in Church of England”. The first piece begins this way: The Church of England has admitted for the first time that it may have been “scammed” by asylum seekers falsely claiming to have converted to Christianity to boost their chances of staying in the UK. The Rt Revd Dr Guli Francis-Dehqani, the Bishop of Chelmsford, conceded it was “very difficult” to look into the hearts of converts and be 100 percent certain that they were genuine.
In the past Christian missionaries in places like India had to be careful of “rice Christians.” These were folks who often pretended to become Christians, but their main aim was to get rice and other goodies from the Western missionaries. Material benefits, and not spiritual ones, was the motivating factor.
It seems we have the same problem today, but in a new form. And this includes asylum seekers who are duping clueless Christians into thinking they have converted to Christ, simply to get free entry into the West. In both cases it was the supposed desire to ‘be like Jesus’ that became part of the problem.
Missionaries back then had to learn to be much more aware and careful as to how they proceeded. The same today.
Contemporary social justice warriors both within and without the church have a tendency to be naïve, gullible and undiscerning when they carry on about how “compassionate” they are. They may think they are being Christlike, but too often they can just be ‘useless idiots’ who serve the causes of various activist groups.
And lest folks think I am making all this up, consider some recent headlines that really should concern us. One of them says this: “We may have been scammed by asylum seekers, admits Church of England”. Another runs as follows: “Whistleblower Exposes Alleged Asylum Seeker Baptism Scam in Church of England”.
The first piece begins this way:
The Church of England has admitted for the first time that it may have been “scammed” by asylum seekers falsely claiming to have converted to Christianity to boost their chances of staying in the UK. The Rt Revd Dr Guli Francis-Dehqani, the Bishop of Chelmsford, conceded it was “very difficult” to look into the hearts of converts and be 100 per cent certain that they were genuine.
She acknowledged there had been a “small number” of alleged abuses but said the clergy “do the best they can” and it was “ultimately” the job of immigration tribunals and the Home Office to assess and vet the validity of asylum claims. Her comments come after robust denials by the Church of England of claims by senior MPs and whistleblowers that clergy have been routinely supporting “bogus” asylum claims and enabled a “conveyor belt” of thousands of asylum seekers to convert.
Abdul Ezedi, the Clapham chemical attack suspect, was granted asylum after claiming to have converted to Christianity, despite having two convictions in the UK for sex assault and exposure. Friends of Ezedi, an illegal migrant, told The Telegraph that he was a “good Muslim” who bought half a halal sheep every fortnight, despite his apparent conversion. James Cleverly, the Home Secretary, is reviewing the facts of the case to establish if the law needs to be overhauled to prevent such abuses. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/02/11/we-may-have-been-scammed-by-asylum-seekers-admits-church/
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Five Truths You Must Consider When You Are Angry
The person who gets sinfully angry has forgotten his new gospel identity in Christ. When we’re tempted to respond to people or circumstances with sinful anger, it is the renewal of our minds with biblical truths that will empower us to walk in grace and humility.
The key to overcoming anger is what you say to your own heart (Proverbs 4:23), especially in seasons when your anger might be provoked. Instead of merely counting to ten, or to a thousand, an angry person needs to stop and fill his mind with biblical truth so that he can overcome anger in his heart and become a person of grace. When anger builds, these truths do not automatically come to mind. The angry person is suppressing these truths so that he can continue to feed, justify, and express his rage. He must learn in the crucial moments of temptation to set his mind on things above because he is united with Christ (Colossians 3:1-3). As soon as temptation comes, it is helpful to review the following truths and related Scriptures. These truths redirect our hearts from devilish anger to Christian grace.
I want something too much, which is idolatry (James 4:1-4).
We become angry when our desires are not met. What must you have to be happy? Must you be respected and appreciated? Comfortable? Successful? Must you have a stress-free life? We must give our desires to God as we seek our ultimate satisfaction in Him (Isaiah 55:1-2; Psalm 34:8). When we will sin to get what we desire or to be sinfully angry because our desires have not been met, we have made these desires into idols. See the personal application projects at the end of this booklet for an assignment to help you identify your idolatrous desires.
I am not God/Judge (Genesis 50:19; Romans 12:17-21).
When others wrong us, we sense that the balance of justice is out of kilter, and we want to make it right again. The angry person thinks to himself, “You wronged me, so you deserve to be punished.” The angry person can punish the guilty party through hateful speech, acts of violence, slander, theft, or more subtly through being cold, quiet and withdrawn. These expressions of anger are sinfully judgmental. James reminds us that contrary to what our sinful hearts may think, “The anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God” (James 1:20). Our vengeful acts do not bring justice, but they compound sin. “Never pay back evil for evil to anyone… Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good” (Romans 12:17, 21). Even worse, our sinful expressions of anger usurp God’s office as the judge. When others wrong us, it comforts us to know that God will bring justice to those who do evil, even when human systems of justice fail. As we trust Him, we don’t need to take our own revenge or play God.
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A Message for Young Men
It now falls to you, young man, to be worthy—as worthy as any man can be—to receive from his hand what he counts more precious than jewels, more valuable than his own heart, of greater worth than his own name and even his own life. It falls to you, young man, to honor his diligence in so faithfully interceding for his daughter.
Somewhere out there in the great, wide world, someone is praying for you. He probably doesn’t know you and you probably don’t know him. You may not meet one another for many more years. But he’s praying for you nonetheless and has been for a very long time.
He is the father of a daughter. He is the proud father of a daughter who is very precious to him—more precious than anything he owns, more precious than anything he has ever done, ever made, ever accomplished, more precious than his very life. She is so precious that if he gained all the riches of this world but lost her heart along the way, he’d consider himself an abject failure.
This father knows that a time is coming when a young man will approach him and ask for permission to marry his daughter. He knows that a time is coming when a young man will insist that it is in his daughter’s best interests if she leaves her father and mother—leaves behind the ones who brought her into this world and who gave her such privileges and who raised her so well—and is joined to him instead (for such is the endearing conceit of young men). And, though it may be hard for this father to admit, he knows that this young man may just be right—that his daughter’s best life will be outside of his care and in another man’s, outside of his home and in one this new couple will build together.
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How Do You Cope with Chronic Illness in Life and Ministry?
Chronic illness isn’t just discouraging and traumatic, it’s actually quite frustrating. Your plans get scuppered. You constantly feel your limitations. You want to do things and achieve things, but you can’t. Recently, Phil 1:12 has been a big encouragement to me. In this verse, Paul explains how his imprisonment has actually become an opportunity for the gospel. In other words, the restrictions on his life actually served to advance the good news. Wow! He has taught me that limitations aren’t just something we endure, or put up with, but they are, in God’s mysterious ways, the very means God uses for his kingdom. The suffering of his ministers is not a problem for God, but part of his mysterious plan.
Andy Mason writes: I’ve been a vicar on a council estate in central London for about 17 years, and have been married for 25 years. During that time, my wife has suffered from a number of distressing chronic conditions. Accordingly, life has, at times, been very unpredictable, very stressful and pretty traumatic.
Firstly, my wife has a particularly nasty kind of endometriosis (you can look it up), which has, over time, caused acute chronic pain. It’s the kind of pain that isn’t controlled by tramadol, or morphine. In fact, when it was at its worst, it couldn’t be controlled by a drip in hospital either. There have been times when I have literally carried her into A&E in my arms.
Secondly, in addition to endometriosis, she also suffers with vestibular migraines (you can look that up too). They are a form of migraine that doesn’t manifest itself in pain, but in acute, very debilitating vertigo and nausea. An attack can leave her, all of sudden, laid out on the floor wherever she happens to be. These migraines can come suddenly and without much warning, leaving us suddenly needing to change all our plans and get her home. I’ve had to collect her, physically, from work a couple of times when she just couldn’t move.
The combination of these chronic health problems, with their spontaneous hospital visits, have been traumatising for us both. They have understandably left emotional scars and lingering worries about what is coming around the corner. As you can imagine, these struggles have been even made harder by having young children – who themselves have some complex needs.
During these years of ministry I can see that there have been different seasons. Some have been better, some have been much worse. We have been very grateful for a number of medical interventions over the last few years, which have improved the pain significantly. However, they also have side effects that make other things worse. So, while certain issues get dealt, other problems emerge. Anyone who has been operated on understands the complexity of these kinds of interventions. Overall, I’m amazed that we’ve come through some of these situations, but the Lord has been faithful. Somehow, he has kept us going in the drama of it all.
So, how do you cope with chronic illness in the midst of life and ministry?! Well, everyone has their own story and I have huge respect for the particularities of different situations, medical problems and personal struggles. No one context is exactly the same. There will obviously be plenty of people reading this article who have, and are, facing awful struggles. The Lord will have worked in them and they will have a bucket load of wisdom that has been given to them. All this said, I thought I’d share some encouragements from our own life as a family.
Now, just in case you wonder, as you read through this: I’m not a cessationalist with regard to healing. I’m very happy to pray for healing and for others to pray for that. However, I’m also, on the other hand, not spiritually perturbed by the lack of healing we’ve experienced. I’m fully convinced that our hope is not in this world, nor is God’s ‘no’ a demonstration of a lack of love. Quite the opposite!
So, below are some spiritual principles that I’ve learnt along the way. These are just an excerpt, and not meant to be exhaustive. In sharing these principles, I’m in no way suggesting that they’ll help everyone else, but I can say that they have helped me. Of course, I still hope that they’ll encourage some who read this. Here they are:
1. Sickness Is Bad, but Dependence Is Good
Ill-health very obviously makes you weak and dependent, and my instinct has always been to escape it as fast as I can. Yet it’s ironic that physical ill-health produces much spiritual health through an assault on self-reliance. As Tim Keller said, ‘you’ll never find out that Jesus is all you need until you get into a situation where Jesus is all you’ve got.’ Dependence is great for your prayer life, and if you can bottle it then much good can be done.
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