Social justice: climate change, abortion rights, LGBTQ, Israel and Hamas, animal rights and many other modern issues: where are the Christians in these movements? Or, where are all other religions?

People believe things. I am writing as a Christian, and there are some things that are very important to me. If nothing was important and if I was just playing a game, I would be a phony, a hypocrite.

It is very important, for us to know who we are, what we believe and don’t believe, where our lives go from here.

So, who are you? What is the direction of your life? We are at a place in history where we must answer those questions. Every idea that people believe sincerely and strongly will grow to become a movement, and every movement has material needs. It takes hard work to build a movement.

When I was young, my family took me to a church every Sunday. My best friends, in my neighborhood, had a mother who was very dedicated to the Jehovah’s Witnesses. I remember trying to sleep in on many Saturday mornings, and then I would hear a knock on the front door. The neighbors would visit, with their literature, and my mother would get her Bible. The conversation would be loud, and I could hear Bible quotations being shouted out. That was often my Saturday alarm clock, and there was no way I could sleep, after that.

I was not a big fan.

Looking back, I can see that both sides, in those front door arguments, knew exactly who they were, and what they believed. That is a good thing, even though they wrecked my sleep-in time. That was an older generation, and convictions like that don’t seem so common, now.

I remember that my parents were very faithful to make financial contribution to their church, and others did the same, for many years. After I grew up and moved away, the congregation built a new building in the suburbs with a large parking lot. The old building, that I remember very well, was sold, and now, when I drive by, I see a large sign with the words “Greek Orthodox.”

I was not present when the property was sold, but I am sure that the real estate deal was honest, and there was no argument about theology. One group moved to the suburbs, and the Greek immigrant community made an honest offer on the old building.

We should be warned, there is another way:

• READ: Research shows that a majority of Christian religious leaders accept the reality of climate change but have never mentioned it to their congregations

We may or may not reject some other ideas and movements, but the important question is; Who are we? Or, what road are we travelling on? 

Imagine a neat and clean church site, built and payed for by older generations, with generous parking lots, a great reputation in the community, and a congregation that will give financial support until they die. Now imagine another group working to slide their ideology into that facility. If the members aren’t clear about what they believe, the new believers could capture a gold mine. 

That facility could be dedicated to a new purpose.

We have family friends who are struggling to save their denomination. It has several building sites, and even some church run schools, with some support from the government. I think the new movement has strong ideas about Trans and sexual-orientation issues, and they want to make changes in the leadership of the old religious group.

We were invited to a large business meeting, and I had to leave early. I didn’t like the manipulating arguments, and I had to go to work the next day. I think they debated until after midnight.

In the weeks that followed, lawyers were hired, and the arguments were told to a judge, in a courtroom. The judge decided for the original believers, but apparently the arguing still continues. Also, there are some expensive legal bills that must be paid. 

So, what happened, and what is the lesson for us?

This is an old problem, at least two thousand years old. The first Christians had problems with teachers who tried to capture their movement, without the hard work of starting their own movements. They were called “false prophets” and they tried to infiltrate established groups, to avoid the hard work of building their own movements.

Jesus himself warned about “wolves in sheep’s clothing”:

Watch out for false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are voracious wolves. You will recognize them by their fruit. Grapes are not gathered from thorns or figs from thistles, are they? In the same way, every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree is not able to bear bad fruit, nor a bad tree to bear good fruit. (Matthew 7: 15 to 18)

The language was sometimes strong:

What I am doing I will continue to do, so that I may eliminate any opportunity for those who want a chance to be regarded as our equals in the things they boast about. For such people are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. (2 Corinthians 11: 12 to 13)

I believe this is a topic that most of us miss, and it is very dangerous for us. We can lose ourselves in some modern arguments.

There are some teachers who warn us about this danger: