THE QUESTION BEFORE US
What has faith in Christ brought to the world, and how should we judge the failures of those who bear his name?
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Love must become visible
Love of God and neighbor has moved Christians to shelter the sick, raise orphaned children, resist slavery and confront injustice. These are public fruits of a faith that commands costly love. Jesus also warns that calling him Lord does not excuse disobedience. The same Christian standard that inspires mercy exposes the sins of Christians who betray it. Does our conduct honor the Lord whose name we bear?
Matthew 22:34–40: love God and neighbor (KJV) Matthew 7:15–23: fruit and empty profession (KJV)
In the parable of the wounded traveler, a priest and a Levite pass by, while a Samaritan stops, tends the wounds, and pays for continuing care. Jesus makes the merciful outsider the example to follow. Compassion requires time, money, and willingness to approach another person's suffering. Religious position is no substitute for it. This is the standard by which Christian charity and Christian failure should be examined.
Conviction becomes shelter and care
In fourth-century Caesarea, Basil described accommodation for strangers and medical care for the sick, including physicians and transport. Gregory of Nazianzus described the charitable settlement outside the city and Basil's personal care for people suffering from leprosy, whom others shunned. Gregory understood that care as imitation of Christ. Their testimony shows Christian mercy taking institutional form: resources, medical attention, and personal care offered to people who were poor, sick, and rejected.
Basil, Letter 94 to Elias: medical care for strangers Gregory of Nazianzus, Oration 43, §§63–64: Basil's charity
In Bristol, George Müller recorded receiving the first children into his orphan house on 11 April 1836. His report dated 18 May counted twenty-six children under a matron and governess. His project included Christian education as well as bodily care, and he openly attributed its support to God. His account gives a concrete example of faith expressed through sustained responsibility for children. Orphans needed a home and daily care, not merely sympathetic words.
George Müller, Narrative, Part 1: report of 18 May 1836, points 3–6
Christian faith can challenge Christian wrongdoing
The Germantown petition of 1688 applied the Golden Rule against the enslavement of Black people. Its authors asked fellow Quakers to consider the theft of human beings and the separation of husbands, wives, and children. The larger meetings deferred the petition and failed to endorse it. Both parts belong to the history: Christian reasoning supplied a protest against slavery, and a Christian institution failed to answer that protest with justice.
Germantown petition against slavery, 1688: transcript and meeting responses
Frederick Douglass made the distinction sharply in the appendix to his 1845 Narrative. He affirmed the Christianity of Christ while condemning the religion that defended slaveholding, whipping, and the destruction of families. He did not ask the enslaved to overlook Christian hypocrisy. He exposed it. His argument challenged Christians to obey the Christ they professed rather than use religion to protect power and profit.
Frederick Douglass, Narrative (1845), Appendix, opening paragraphs
Martin Luther King Jr.'s Letter from Birmingham Jail, dated 16 April 1963, defended nonviolent resistance to segregation from within his Christian vocation. He also rebuked churches that opposed the freedom movement or remained silent. Some Christians marched and suffered; others obstructed justice. His witness gives Christians grounds to resist racism and a reason to repent of their own institutions' failures. A church's silence does not become righteous because its windows are beautiful.
Martin Luther King Jr., Letter from Birmingham Jail, 16 April 1963
Josephine Butler likewise challenged injustice against women. She advocated women's education and helped lead the campaign against laws imposing compulsory intimate examinations on women suspected of prostitution without equivalent examination of male clients. Her memoir grounded the principles she defended in Christ's ethics and recorded opposition from prominent churchmen. The repeal statute was enacted on 16 April 1886. Her work shows a Christian woman confronting a sexual double standard, rather than accepting humiliation as women's proper place.
Josephine Butler, Personal Reminiscences (2nd ed. 1898; 1910 edition used), chapters II–III, pp. 34–38 Northumberland Archives: Butler's education and Contagious Diseases Acts campaigns Contagious Diseases Acts Repeal Act, 16 April 1886, section 2
Acknowledge our neighbors' achievements
Important intellectual and medical work also emerged in the medieval Islamic world. Al-Khwarizmi taught systematic methods for solving classes of quadratic equations. Ibn al-Haytham's Book of Optics advanced the study of light. Al-Zahrawi's surgical treatise described procedures and instruments and circulated in Latin translation. These are identifiable contributions. Christian conviction requires truthfulness about them.
St Andrews MacTutor: al-Khwarizmi's worked quadratic and general method Harvard Houghton Library: Ibn al-Haytham's Book of Optics and the 1572 Latin edition British Library, Add MS 36617: al-Zahrawi's surgical treatise in Latin
An achievement does not make every religious claim of its author true, and an atrocity does not erase every achievement of the society in which it occurred. Arabic language, Muslim rule, ethnicity, and personal belief are distinct. The point is to examine what people taught and did, while recognizing our neighbor's humanity. Jesus' command to love does not give Christians permission to distort another people's history.
Context does not make cruelty righteous
The background to the First Crusade includes earlier Muslim conquests of Christian-ruled lands. Arab armies conquered Byzantine-ruled Syria, Jerusalem, and Egypt in the seventh century. More than four centuries later, the Byzantine emperor sought western help against Turkish power, and Urban II called for an expedition in 1095. The Byzantine appeal and the pope's religious proclamation belong to the immediate background. Those intervening centuries involved different rulers and conflicts; they cannot be collapsed into one battle.
Metropolitan Museum: eastern Mediterranean, 500–1000, event 634–644 Metropolitan Museum: Egypt, 500–1000, conquest in 639–642 Jonathan Harris (2014), Byzantium and the First Crusade, accepted manuscript, pp. 1–5 Urban II, letter to the faithful in Flanders, December 1095: item 6
Jerusalem in 1099 was held by the Fatimids, not by the same seventh-century conquerors or the Seljuk rulers threatening Byzantium. Crusader participant accounts describe killing men and women after the city fell, including people previously offered protection. Christian readers must face that testimony. Earlier conquest provides historical context; it cannot sanctify the killing of people under protection. Neither a cross on a banner nor an appeal to past injuries makes cruelty obedience to Christ.
Luke 10:25–37: the merciful Samaritan (KJV) Metropolitan Museum: eastern Mediterranean, 1000–1400, Jerusalem in 1099 Crusader accounts of Jerusalem, July 1099: items 4–5
Name the injustice and defend the person
The same seriousness is needed today. UNICEF reported in August 2026 that Afghanistan's Taliban authorities had barred girls from formal schooling beyond grade six since September 2021, and women from university since December 2022. Denying girls learning because they are girls is an injustice. UNESCO identifies Afghanistan as the only country formally imposing this exclusion beyond primary education. The charge should therefore name the Taliban's policy rather than every Muslim society.
UNICEF, 14 August 2026: girls' secondary and women's university exclusions in Afghanistan UNESCO, 11 August 2026, updated 19 August: formal education exclusion in Afghanistan
Mauritania presents a different failure. A UN rapporteur's July 2023 report described continuing descent-based slavery despite legislation criminalizing slavery. A November 2025 UN compilation reported slavery-like practices persisting in rural areas. A prohibition on paper is insufficient when people remain in bondage. Victims need protection and enforcement. These findings condemn specific practices and failures; they do not show that every Mauritanian participates or that every Muslim government authorizes slavery.
UN slavery rapporteur, 21 July 2023, A/HRC/54/30/Add.2, §§20–23, 28–34 OHCHR compilation, 4 November 2025, A/HRC/WG.6/51/MRT/2, §30
Wealth cannot certify holiness
The Bible anticipates the danger of prosperity. Deuteronomy 8 warns people who have eaten, built good houses and multiplied their wealth against forgetting the God who delivered them, then crediting their own power for what they received. A society can inherit gifts, grow rich and turn those gifts toward pride or indulgence. Its departure from God does not become a Christian ideal simply because it happened in a country with a Christian past.
A wealthy Christian-majority country is not thereby holy, and a wealthy Muslim-majority country has not thereby proved Islam true. Poverty proves neither faith false. Jesus warns against making earthly treasure our master. James condemns rich people who withhold workers' wages and indulge themselves while others suffer. Money can purchase impressive buildings while concealing injustice. A Christian defense of charity must therefore reject greed, exploitation, and national pride within Christian societies as firmly as elsewhere.
Matthew 6:19–24: treasure and serving God (KJV) James 5:1–6: wealth, withheld wages, and oppression (KJV)
Scripture also refuses to protect depravity inside the church. Paul rebuked the Corinthians for tolerating sexual immorality and required them to address wrongdoing among their own members. Christian confession creates responsibility; it does not cancel it. When Christians cover sin with religious language, the answer is repentance and obedience to Christ. His warning about corrupt fruit should move us to examine ourselves before congratulating our civilization.
Matthew 7:15–23: fruit and empty profession (KJV) 1 Corinthians 5: sexual immorality, greed, and accountability inside the church (KJV)
Trust Christ, not a nation's record
Basil's care, the abolitionists' courage, and a woman's fight for dignity are worth remembering. They cannot earn anyone eternal life. The Christian gospel announces that Jesus Christ died for our sins and rose again. Salvation is God's gift, received through faith, not a reward for the accomplishments of a nation or our own good works. Those rescued by grace are called into a life of good works, rather than released from the duty to love.
1 Corinthians 15:1–8: Christ's death for sins and resurrection (KJV) Ephesians 2:8–10: salvation by grace and the life of good works (KJV)
Come to Christ himself. Bring your sin into his light instead of sheltering behind your community's successes or blaming another community's failures. God gave his Son so that those who believe in him should have eternal life. The mercy Christians are commanded to show begins in the mercy we need to receive. Our hope is the crucified and risen Savior, whose grace calls us to truth, repentance, and costly love.
1 Corinthians 15:1–8: Christ's death for sins and resurrection (KJV) John 3:16–21: God's gift of his Son, eternal life, and coming to the light (KJV)
Go to the sources.
Complete source list(32)
King James Version
Matthew 22:34–40
34¶ But when the Pharisees had heard that he had put the Sadducees to silence, they were gathered together.
35Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him, and saying,
36Master, which is the great commandment in the law?
37Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
38This is the first and great commandment.
39And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
40On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.
King James Version
Matthew 7:15–23
15¶ Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.
16Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?
17Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit.
18A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.
19Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.
20Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.
21¶ Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.
22Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?
King James Version
Luke 10:25–37
25¶ And, behold, a certain lawyer stood up, and tempted him, saying, Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?
26He said unto him, What is written in the law? how readest thou?
27And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself.
28And he said unto him, Thou hast answered right: this do, and thou shalt live.
29But he, willing to justify himself, said unto Jesus, And who is my neighbour?
30And Jesus answering said, A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead.
31And by chance there came down a certain priest that way: and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side.
32And likewise a Levite, when he was at the place, came and looked on him, and passed by on the other side.
King James Version
Matthew 6:19–24
19¶ Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal:
20But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:
21For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
22The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.
23But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!
24¶ No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.
King James Version
James 5:1–6
1Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you.
2Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are motheaten.
3Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days.
4Behold, the hire of the labourers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth: and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth.
5Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton; ye have nourished your hearts, as in a day of slaughter.
6Ye have condemned and killed the just; and he doth not resist you.
King James Version
1 Corinthians 5
1It is reported commonly that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles, that one should have his father’s wife.
2And ye are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he that hath done this deed might be taken away from among you.
3For I verily, as absent in body, but present in spirit, have judged already, as though I were present, concerning him that hath so done this deed,
4In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when ye are gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ,
5To deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.
6Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?
7Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us:
8Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
King James Version
1 Corinthians 15:1–8
1Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand;
2By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain.
3For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures;
4And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:
5And that he was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve:
6After that, he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once; of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep.
7After that, he was seen of James; then of all the apostles.
8And last of all he was seen of me also, as of one born out of due time.
King James Version
Ephesians 2:8–10
8For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
9Not of works, lest any man should boast.
10For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
King James Version
John 3:16–21
16¶ For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
17For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.
18¶ He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
19And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
20For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.
21But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.
King James Version
Deuteronomy 8:10–20
10When thou hast eaten and art full, then thou shalt bless the LORD thy God for the good land which he hath given thee.
11Beware that thou forget not the LORD thy God, in not keeping his commandments, and his judgments, and his statutes, which I command thee this day:
12Lest when thou hast eaten and art full, and hast built goodly houses, and dwelt therein;
13And when thy herds and thy flocks multiply, and thy silver and thy gold is multiplied, and all that thou hast is multiplied;
14Then thine heart be lifted up, and thou forget the LORD thy God, which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage;
15Who led thee through that great and terrible wilderness, wherein were fiery serpents, and scorpions, and drought, where there was no water; who brought thee forth water out of the rock of flint;
16Who fed thee in the wilderness with manna, which thy fathers knew not, that he might humble thee, and that he might prove thee, to do thee good at thy latter end;
17And thou say in thine heart, My power and the might of mine hand hath gotten me this wealth.