A Different Face to Christianity

One of my news search elements turned up an interesting story on efforts in the Church of Scotland to address real social issues. It is a refreshing concept and approach to being Christian and it's 180 degrees in direction from what one sees the professional Christian set doing in the USA where sowing hatred, the condemnation of others, and marketing of bogus snake oil "ministries" or fabricated emergencies - such as "saving marriage" - to enrich organization leaders seems too often to be the norm. Instead of embracing those with power and money, the Church ought to do what Christ focused upon: helping the poor, healing the sick and uplifting those marginalized by society, which in my view should include the LGBT community which for too long has been persecuted by Christians. Here are a few highlights from Glasgow's Sunday Herald:

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Ever since coming to the church in 1995, [Reverend Ian] Gilmore has been passionate about the need to look out from the stained-glass windows and deal with the murkier issues on its doorstep. "The church should be responding to the real needs of the community," he said. "We've taken the initiative with Aids because it is a real issue in the community. When I moved here, drugs were being shared at the foot of Leith Walk."South Leith Church has met the need by playing host to a needle exchange and holding a community event on World Aids Day. It gives out information on the illness at its weekly homeless breakfasts and has contact with local prostitutes.

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At the moment, it is up to each Church of Scotland minister whether a parish tackles such issues. But at next month's General Assembly in Edinburgh, several proposals are being put forward that would require the Kirk to deal with the darker areas of society head on. One report will call for HIV education to be included in the training of all ministers. The convenor of the Kirk's HIV/Aids Project, who wrote the report, said the church needed to be "HIV-competent".

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The Guild's report will call on churches, particularly in urban areas, to take responsibility. "You have churches in the city centre looking for a role," said Twaddle. "It's hard being in an area where no-one lives. So what is your parish? Maybe the brothels and the prostitutes are your parish."

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Guild general secretary Alison Twaddle is keen to show the Kirk operating in the "dark places", not just at "cake sales and coffee mornings". The gutter, with all its social problems, is where the church should be. "I mean, what else are we going to be about?" she said. "The overall theme of our projects is from the Bible. What does the Lord require of you? To act justly, to love, mercy and to walk humbly with your God. God is biased towards the poor, Jesus was biased towards the poor, so the Church ought to be biased towards the poor and the marginalised."

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This is the kind of Christianity that I believe in - not the perverted and hate-filled version marketed by the Christian Right in America who more closely resemble the Pharisees of the Bible rather than Christ.