Garth George: Sorry, Helen, we're getting our own house in order

COMMENT

"What would your response be if the Prime Minister were to ask you what contribution can the Church of Jesus Christ make to create a society that would be regarded as a model for the world?"

That was the question put to me by a men's group at an Eastern Suburbs church when they asked me to speak to a Saturday morning breakfast meeting a few weeks ago.

It came about after a member read an article recording that the President of the Ukraine had asked the leaders of each Christian denomination what contribution it could make to the restoration of Ukrainian society.

To which one leader replied that, inter alia, his church could make no contribution because it was the church's job to prepare people for the next world and not to get entangled in the things of this world.

Which is a bit strange, really, since Christianity is very much a programme of living which, if carried out well, ensures that the next life will take care of itself.

My initial reaction to the question was that it was unanswerable.

Parliament, after all, is the temple of worldly power while the Church is that of spiritual power and, except in prayer, the twain can never meet.

Granted, there are politicians who happen to be Christians, and Christians who decide to be politicians, but all they can do is provide light and salt in the dark and rotten atmosphere of the halls of worldly power.

My second reaction was that until it got its own house in order and made itself so attractive as to draw those outside it in, the Church had nothing to offer anyone. Considering how some churches have allowed themselves to become polluted by the philosophies of the world - feminism, New Age spiritualism, political correctness - they no longer have much to offer their own adherents, let alone anyone else.

So I began to look at some of the things worldly power has wrought in this nation that have led to a degeneration in morality and consequent unravelling of the fabric of society and which the Church might think need a second look.

The first was the change to the matrimonial laws, creating no-fault divorce and taking judicial matters of separation, divorce, maintenance and custody out of the public eye.

Thus was marriage made just another disposable commodity and one result has been serial monogamy, leaving in its trail more and more broken homes, illegitimate children and solo parents.

Then came the abortion law reform which was intended to make abortion available only to those with a genuine need or reason but which soon became open-slather abortion on demand which has led to tens of thousands of potential New Zealanders' lives being snuffed out before they were born.

And I am persuaded that the increase in child killing and abuse and paedophilia which scars our land flows from that decriminalisation of abortion. If we have no regard for the welfare of the unborn child, why should we care about those who are lucky (or unlucky) enough to be born when they, too, interfere with our lives?

The decriminalisation of homosexuality drove another nail into the coffin of social cohesion, which has at its fundamental building block the reproduction of the species by sexual intercourse between a married man and a woman within the security and nurture of the nuclear family.

Alongside those three cataclysmic developments, things like lowering the drinking age, decriminalisation of prostitution, the proliferation of "human rights" et al are hardly worth mention.

So what does the Church do? Go back to the Prime Minister and demand that all this be undone? That would be ridiculous, not the least because too many leaders and adherents either agree with it, or let it happen with little more than a whimper.

There is no going back. Today's Church must carry out its calling in the world as it is, not as it would like it to be. It must do what it can to ensure that the results of the breakdown of society are ameliorated, at least for those whom it brings into its fold.

In any case, it is up to individual Christians, not their corporate bodies, to make a difference. Christianity is first and foremost a personal thing, strictly between the Christian and his or her Lord.

Thus it is incumbent upon all Christians to strive to achieve the one and only thing that will make them so attractive that they, and thus their Lord, become irresistible to others - and that is to subject themselves so utterly to God that he can make them Christlike.

There is, however, one thing the churches could do which would have a huge effect, not quickly but in the years to come, and I put that to the breakfast gathering with all the earnestness at my command.

But since the Bible enjoins us to be shrewd as serpents and harmless as doves, it's not for Prime Ministers to know.

* Email Garth George

* Garth George will be on leave for the next three weeks.