Stop Complaining and Engage!

Two things of which there is no shortage in this election season: complaining and blaming.

Two things that never really solve a problem: complaining and blaming.

This morning I mentioned to a Chinese friend that I've been watching (and now just listening to) Rage Against The Machine's "Sleep Now in the Fire" on repeat for two days now. (You can see the video below.) He replied that it seemed a bit out of character for someone who loves the blues so much. I explained as follows:

I've been known to call myself a "Punk Rock Christian". Meaning, if faith is not going to shake up your way of looking at the world and what it means to be part of the solution, it's kind of useless and just a feel-good belief. I have a lot of the same anger that a lot of people like Rage Against The Machine do, but I try to channel that into more productive ends.

I don't understand how anyone of faith can look at this world and just decide to sit on the sidelines watching TV and enjoying life. Jesus meant Christians to be forces of good, not members of the status quo. Jesus meant for his followers to engage their cultures. With so much injustice, so much pain, so much evil, how can Christians sit idly by? There is a thing called righteous anger, after all.

But complaining and blaming (online or otherwise) is not what Jesus had in mind.

All Christians are supposed to share the gospel, so I'm going to take that as a given (though I shouldn't). But what else are you doing? Do you not see pain around you? Do you not see a cause to take up? I don't care what it is. Help starving children. Help refugees. Demand equal pay for equal work. Defend black lives and livelihoods. Labor for respect for the homeless. Bring neighborhoods together. Sacrifice yourself for something and someone that doesn't directly benefit yourself, your family, or your friends.

Engage.

Shake up this world order. Shake up the status quo.

Jesus was holy, but when he engaged society, he was considered a renegade, a "punk", by the powers that be. What makes you think it would be any different now?