grateful for Christ

This weekend I went into downtown Portland at God’s prompting because He had something for me to do. I may have missed my first opportunity by not heeding His prompting to stop my car and talk to a person, but God graciously granted me a second chance as I was walking near Portland’s waterfront.

Now, it just so happens that Luis Palau’s CityFest was occurring at the waterfront this weekend. Think of it as a big rock concert/extreme sports show/Christian festival/evangelistic crusade combined with something they call Season of Service (SoS, for short).  SoS is essentially an effort to get Christians involved in volunteering, the idea being that the rest of the city will see the festival in combination with SoS and get a better overall idea of what Christians are all about (from the perspective of Luis Palau’s organization).  This is accomplished by making partnerships with businesses, non-profit groups, and even city governments to obtain funding, support, volunteers, etc. One of those partnerships was with the City of Portland’s “Project Homeless Connect” (PHC), which is where my story really begins.

As I came strolling down the sidewalk from the north, I came to the area where PHC’s tents were located.  Across the street from PHC, I saw a homeless man (we’ll call him Mr. A) in roughly his late twenties or so sitting with two dogs, two bicycles, and some other belongings. He was being questioned and sternly lectured by two Portland police officers. Sensing the Holy Spirit’s leading, I waited until the police left and proceeded to talk to him. I asked what was going on. He told me his story.

Basically, he and his wife (6-10 weeks pregnant) were either at or travelling in front of PHC’s tents when his wife unexpectedly passed out. Somebody called an ambulance, which proceeded to take to her a hospital across town. Unfortunately, the ambulance could not accommodate the couple’s dogs and other belongings, so Mr. A had to stay behind.

Apparently, Mr. A and his belongings were blocking a truck entrance to PHC’s tents. According to him, his inability to move his belongings when a truck arrived resulted in the police being called. He made it sound like somebody got impatient. If I had to guess, though, I would assume that, in his distress, he was probably stubbornly refusing to move. I do not know the details, however, because I didn’t grill Mr. A (his mind was understandably elsewhere), and the coordinator of Project Homeless Connect (we’ll call her Mrs. B), who called the police, refused to explain her perspective on the situation when I contacted her.

Regardless of the details, there are two problems with PHC/Mrs. B’s response which indicate a failure to love as Christ would have them do. First, she did not help Mr. A get to the hospital to find out how she was doing (That took a few hours of traveling with the help of one of God’s servants, who, to the best of my knowledge, has received no updates on her condition). Second, rather than bear with him in patience and limitless mercy when–I assume–he acted difficult, Mrs. B pawned him off on the police, who had the power to ruin his life, as well as cause exceeding hardship for his unborn child and his wife, by sending him back to prison (he was on parole). Thankfully, they showed a touch of mercy (combined with strong threats, according to Mr. A), which Mrs. B of Project Homeless Connect did not.

What does this have to do with Luis Palau, CityFest, and the “Christians” of Portland? Well, by being partnered with PHC–a partnership which included many CityFest volunteers and a location at the waterfront implying a connection between PHC and the Christian community–they also became guilty by association of the evil done to Mr. A by Mrs. B and the PHC. Obviously, PHC, as a secular organization, cannot be expected to do what is right in the eyes of God, since as Jesus said, “No bad tree can bear good fruit” (Mt. 7:18, Lk. 6:43). My interaction with PHC has only been to call Mrs. B personally to repentance before God. However, as Christians, we are advised not to work alongside non-Christians, because our purposes, hearts, and lives are pulling in two opposite directions. As the apostle Paul put it:

Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? (2 Cor. 6:14,15, NIV)

As a result, the organizers and participants of CityFest need to know what has happened, how the name of Christ has been tarnished and the purpose of Christians has been confused in the eyes of Mr. A and others like him because of this unholy alliance (I hope that doesn’t sound like an exaggeration).

My heart aches for Mr. A and I am sad that Christians, through their partnership with Project Homeless Connect, are now guilty by association of heartlessness.  We have a duty to love every single individual to the degree that Christ did.  He died at the hands of His enemies, for His enemies.  I know there are actual Christians who would think nothing of calling the police to deal with another human being instead of dealing with them in love, patience, and faith in God’s ability to sort situations out, but that is a different story entirely.  I just pray that Christians will learn that our purposes are very different from those of the world, and the love we have is not the concoction of pride, pity, and fraternity that the world calls love.  The world’s love will always fail, but Christ’s love never fails.  Why would we partner with non-Christians to show the world what Christians are like?  We have a hard enough time doing right ourselves–and we have regenerated hearts and the Holy Spirit!

At this point, I need prayer for wisdom on how to proceed, if at all.  I write this publicly not to shame CityFest or Luis Palau’s organization, but to serve as an example of why we are advised not to be “unequally yoked.”  Should I move ahead with contacting Palau’s organization to explain the matter to them and exhort them to change their tactics?  If they did, it would serve their ministry well and would be to everybody’s benefit.  I would submit that there are other things they could change that would do even more toward that end, but I am trying to focus on this one issue.  At least they are preaching Christ, even if it is a message that is thoroughly confused/infused with middle-class, American culture.  It would be best if all Christians knew the fulness of what Christ wanted for us, but I can only pray for that day.

UPDATE (8/27/2008): After another interesting night of prayer, I realized that I needed to rewrite this article to reflect the true character of love, especially as it is manifested in gentleness, patience, and kindness.  I took out the inflammatory junk and tried to be fair.  The love in my heart wants to embrace the CityFest organizers and the whole evangelical subculture as brothers and sisters.  I don’t know why I find it easy to love the most heinous of sinners but struggle to love my fellow Christians when they follow after the world.  I think it is because I cannot blame a sinner for sinning anymore than I can get mad at a squirrel for eating nuts, but I guess I expect regenerated Christians to know better.  As for why they don’t, that I don’t yet understand much.  I can only love and pray, I suppose.

OLDER UPDATE (8/26/2008): After an interesting night of prayer, I get the sense that I should not pursue this in the eyes the public.  Instead, if God does want me to pursue this, it must be done privately and individually.  Anything else does not seem to be from love.  Activism fails to love because it is just like calling the police on a homeless man; it cares only about the end result and not about the person you are trying to stop.  As such, there will be no Part II, unless I have good news someday that all parties involved desire to share.  NB: Other Christians, no matter how misguided, are not our enemies.  We should lovingly pray for and encourage our brothers and sisters in every good way so they can have love, faith, wisdom, and be known by God.

Do continue to pray for me so I can know if and how to proceed privately.  I’m still not sure that the time is right for me to do this.  The sense I got while I was praying is that I should just continue to go out there and reach the folks in need without worrying about the Christians who are, to put it nicely, detracting from that effort…  Not sure yet.