Where are you, Christians?

Where is your righteous anger? Where is your desire for life? Where is your pursuit of holiness and your hope for a more God-focused society?

Where are your pickets and signs calling for an end to this atrocity? Where are your gatherings of spirit-filled people? Why do I not see you outside of these buildings when I’ve seen you outside of others?

You know what’s happening right? You know that there are hundreds of young children, children who have done no wrong, sleeping on floors in these buildings? You know that many are going without soap? Wearing clothes that have not been washed for days? Some have even contracted lice while those in charge do the bare minimum to help out.

You know that these kids have been taken from their parents right? Let’s move on from the fact that you think the parents did something wrong (but seriously, wouldn’t you go to desperate lengths to give your children a better life?) and just face the reality that these kids have to live without their families right now. These kids have done no wrong, yet they face the punishment for it.

Think about your kids: think how you would feel if you were in the shoes of these families. Think of the terror both the children and the parents are facing right now. Have you no compassion? Have you no sympathy?

Where are you, Christians? Where is your moral compass? Have you truly sold your soul to gain more influence in the world? Are you content to be divided on partisan lines? Would you honestly rather stand by a regime that sometimes promotes your values than love the least of these?

Do you truly seek a bastardization of justice rather than mercy? How can you idly by and claim that “they deserved it?” Doesn’t your faith claim that it is only by grace that you are saved from getting what you deserve? Where is your grace for others? Where is your 70×7 forgiveness that you claim to believe? Where are you, Christians?

Well?

I’m waiting…

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Where are you, Shane? Why haven’t you done anything? You haven’t donated anything to help – you haven’t given time or money to change the circumstances of the camps. You’ve read news articles and tweets, gotten outraged, then moved on to other articles about sports without so much as raising your finger. Where have you been in all this?

Why have you not spoken up? Why are you not standing outside of these camps with pickets and signs? Are you afraid of what they’ll think of you? If you speak up, there are bound to be many people in your news feed who fight back. Those in your congregation who have praised you for your sermons might suddenly be up in arms against you. Would you honestly rather please them than stand up for the least of these?

Are you afraid of a fight? Of people not liking you anymore? Doesn’t radical grace require you to be with the outcast and with those who are hurting? Doesn’t radical love mean going where no one else dares to go? Doesn’t radical mercy mean saying what is just and right, despite the backlash you might receive? Didn’t your radical Savior piss off the religious elite? Didn’t they kill him for it?

You’ve often wondered where God is in these situations: where is God when the world is dark and horrific? You know the answer, don’t you? You’ve preached on it, but do you actually believe it?

God is in the camps. God is sleeping on the floor with those children. God is crying when the 3 year old cries asking for his momma. God is wearing dirty, wrinkled clothes as we speak. “Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me… whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.” You believe this, right? God is right there, suffering with those little ones. The Holy One is in their midst.

So where are you?