original social justice

So I just read this National Geographic article on child brides.

I get the impression that they feel they are doing some late breaking investigative reporting. And to be sure, there are plenty of unaware readers to be informed.

And last night during some discussion among the 20+ nine and ten year olds concerning being a Christian where it is illegal, one boy (very innocently and truly unaware) said: "Are there really places where it's illegal to be a Christian?"

Now I will almost always be the first to claim I am not among the first to be informed on matters of concern affecting fellow citizens here and around the world. But I will say, straight-up and unashamedly, that as a follower of Jesus Christ, a Christian, both the horrors of child marriage and persecuted Christians are very familiar to me because for most of my life I have been very familiar with many missionaries from many places.

That NG reporter discovered what  those who listened to the prompting of the Sovereign Creator and Saviour of the world to take the name of Jesus to those who haven't heard, have known for years.

Those who would label and castigate Christian missionaries for misguided methods now and in the past should also remember that these faithful ones are the ones who have known about and fought these horrors stemming from a Christ-less existence for centuries by bringing hope. The only Hope for change.

I will also be so bold to say that while we shudder at the thought of parents in India giving up their elementary aged daughter for some old coot to add to his wife collection, we think nothing of letting our own daughters dress like they work the streets in the worlds oldest profession, then keep company with boys whom they have baited. When they turn up with babies and diseases and dysfunctions, we wonder. No, we are no better. We are doing no better at protecting our little ones. No better at preparing them for life than those desperately poor parents in India or Pakistan or Thailand who are hoping to give their child a better life and reduce the mouths that they must be responsible to feed.

In fact, we are more guilty because very few of us are facing abject poverty. We have all the medical technology available at our fingertips. More importantly, we have God's Word, written in dozens of varieties in our language.

I say it's just one more reason why the Message of Jesus Christ remains most relevant because our God is not surprised, He is sovereign. He sees all, He knows all and He allows us to work with Him as He changes hearts and minds. And that's the original social justice.