The Wrong Side of History

Where were the German Christians during the Holocaust? Some may not have known of the horrific genocide, others may have learned a bit and then shut their hearts to learning more because it was too painful, too risky to become educated to the point of action. Yet, there was also a minority who moved and opened up their homes at great personal risk for the sake of the Jewish people.

Where was the church in the South during the time of slavery? Studying history, there were Christians who did step up and take action against this sinful atrocity and devaluation of human life, but many of the defenders of slavery and all its evil practices were upstanding members in the prominent southern churches.

We look back and we can clearly see the injustice and sin. It is easy to point fingers at the past and the Christians who, in general, did very little to fight.

I don’t want to be there, on the wrong side of history. What will they say as they look back on the church of America? Where are we standing silent when we should be standing in the gap?

Will they look back and see a church, filled with the Spirit, bringing good news to the poor, binding up the wounds of the brokenhearted, proclaiming liberty to the captives (Isaiah 61-1-2)? Or will we be looked at in retrospect as the rich, overindulged church, which praised Jesus with our lips, but looked on with dead hearts, unwilling to take a risk for the marginalized and oppressed?

Oh Jesus, move us, may we not be on the wrong side of history.