Not a Christian city

Mar 16 2006

Editor, The News;

I have to say I am not looking forward to the casino debate. I am anticipating a multitude of letters arguing that we are a Christian community, and therefore cannot allow such a thing. I am not even going to give my opinion on the proposed casino; instead I would like to address another issue.
As a Christian who is very familiar with the Bible and the words of Jesus, I would have to argue that we are not a “Christian community.” In fact we are far from it. Just because there is a church on every other street corner, and a large population in our community attends church, that does not make us a Christian community. If you think we are such, consider the following arguments. In a Christian community the food bank would not have to beg for donations, and would never be running short of supplies. In a Christian community a youth shelter with ample beds would have been established many years ago. The one we have now took blood, sweat, tears and years, and only has space for two.

We would have a better homeless shelter. As it is, a homeless person can find shelter only two nights per month in Abbotsford. Tell me how the homeless are supposed to know which will be the two coldest nights in a month? We would also have drug rehabilitation for teens, and more for adults. There would be breakfasts and lunches provided at every school, every day for the children who come to school hungry. If you think we don’t have that problem in Abbotsford, spend a few days in a downtown school, and see how many children come without a lunch. There would be social housing provided by churches. I could go on and on.

We have no excuse for state of things in our community. Our churches are overflowing with people, and many have multimillion dollar budgets. Many have new, elaborate buildings and state-of-the -art multimedia equipment.There is no shortage of money in our churches. Why do so many leave it to the Salvation Army to take care of Abbotsford’s neediest people?In a truly Christian community, every church would be doing what the Salvation Army does. Every church should have it’s doors opened to the needy and be known for it’s social programs.

When Jesus talked about who he would welcome into heaven in Matthew 25, as he separated the sheep (those who would enter heaven) from the goats (those who would not) he didn’t commend the sheep for fighting for social and moral justice, he didn’t praise them for building beautiful churches with wonderful programs, instead, he praised them for feeding the hungry, clothing the needy, sheltering strangers, and taking care of the sick and imprisoned. Jesus said that whatever you do to the least of these, that is what you are doing to him.

If we want to be known as a Christian community, all of us need to join the ranks of those who are doing what Jesus actually told us to do. Let’s start meeting the needs of those in Abbotsford who have the least. While the needs of the least of these in our community are so wholly unmet, how dare we even begin to take a moral stand. It will only be regarded as gross hypocrisy.

S.R. Klassen
Abbotsford