Savior complex

I've been watching a trend this year. A trend of the Well-off church to want to save the Hurting church. It often means the Western church wanting to save the Eastern church. It feels to us like a generous thing to do.

I noticed it with Meryem. She was, of course, from Sudan. She was going to be killed. We couldn't let that happen. Heaven forbid the persecuted church be persecuted. A pastor in Iran is in jail. We should get him out of jail. We should pressure, cajole, advocate for government interference (our government interfering with theirs that is). We should get him out of jail. Understand, please. I don't want anyone to die. I don't want anyone in jail.

It's just this. Our tendency to rescue people assumes a weakness on their part. They suffer (we think) because they are weak. We can help them (we think) because we are strong. We extend our strength on their behalf. We rescue them. It's true. We do. Often very successfully.

When the American's evacuated Iraq in the 90s, they took most of the Kurdish church leadership with them. Heaven forbid the church should be left behind to suffer. Jesus wouldn't have wanted the church to be persecuted, would he? He would have wanted the church to be strong, to be wealthy, to be free, to be part of the world's ruling super-power government system. We rescued the church right out of there. There was hardly a church left behind at all.

We would often, as good American Christians, have our government use drones against persecuting organizations, then we would to let the church lose a few drops of her own precious blood.

Without the shedding of blood, there is no atonement. Jesus chose to die.

Why is it that we cannot see that some of his followers might choose the same? And that we should not make it harder on them to do so. There are those who love their nation and their land and do not wish to be whisked out of it to safety with UN/ US protection. Christianity was not designed to be a risk free religion. It was meant to be undertaken at great personal sacrifice. Sometimes, we have to let others make the sacrifice. Not for our sake, certainly, but for their own.

I know it hurts. I have had friends choose to die. My parents lived their lives, intentionally, in harms way. I questioned the ethics of their doing so. I know. I worry for the people I know. It is friends of whom I say, we should let them take a risk.

Because often they know better than we do. In their churches, prayer meetings are heavily attended. In my church, Dave Ramsey's finances class is heavily attended. We know success, but the success we know is a worldly success. We have power--power of the purse, power of the gun. They have power on their knees and power in their hearts. The danger they face, they have the power to face. Even if it means death, or prison.

There is, of course, the other side. The justice seeking side. We are Christians and should seek justice. We should not let our brothers suffer unnecessarily. This is the side we come to automatically. It is our enraged, loving, possessive side. It is our "us vs them" side. We are the Kingdom of God and we have a sword side.

Love your enemy. Turn the other cheek. Would you have it in you to die in a prayer meeting for revival in the Middle East? Would you die on the chance that the land might be saved? That the blood of martyrs would be the seed of peace? I have known church leaders to pray for persecution where it might mean their death. Should we always be so quick to rescue?