Last
week, in one of the most bizarre (and that is saying a lot) incidents in the
evangelical world in recent months, the venerable relief organization in the
span of a few days, affirmed and then repudiated the practice of same-sex
marriage as acceptable for its employees.
World
Vision (USA) President, Richard Stearns, in a baffling interview published in
Christianity today, made the argument that essentially in the name of “Unity”
World Vision would not take a position on same sex marriage, and that they
would express their lack of a position by changing the long standing employee conduct
policy. [Of course it is simply ridiculous
on its face to claim you are not taking a position and then to express your “neutrality”
by changing a written policy, sending out press releases and sitting for
interviews to explain your non-position position, but I digress.]
And
while Stearns expressed hope that this newly expressed “neutrality” would not cause
donors to abandon the organization, he made clear that he understood the risks
involved and was willing to take them in order to focus on unity and what they perceive
as their primary mission.
"I don't want to predict the reaction
we will get," he said. "I think we've got a very persuasive series of
reasons for why we're doing this, and it's my hope that all of our donors and
partners will understand it, and will agree with our exhortation to unite
around what unites us. But we do know this is an emotional issue in the
American church. I'm hoping not to lose supporters over the change. We're
hoping that they understand that what we've done is focused on church unity and
our mission."
But
in the ensuing 48 hours it became very clear that many of World Vision’s donors
did not see the organizations new policy as neutral but rather as provocative
and a clear rejection of the authority of Scripture. And donors began to vote with their dollars,
as The Religion News Service reported, to the tune of $840,000 in just two days.
And coincidentally World Vision reversed their position stating:
“In our board’s effort to unite around the
church’s shared mission to serve the poor in the name of Christ, we failed to
be consistent with World Vision U.S.’s commitment to the traditional
understanding of Biblical marriage and our own Statement of Faith, which says,
“We believe the Bible to be the
inspired, the only infallible, authoritative Word of God.” And we also
failed to seek enough counsel from our own Christian partners. As a result, we
made a change to our conduct policy that was not consistent with our Statement
of Faith and our commitment to the sanctity of marriage.” [Full text of their
statement available here]
While many expressed thankfulness and
relief at this reversal, to my eye it only underscores the true problem with
World Vision, pragmatism. World vision
has been clear over the years that their mission is not to spread the Gospel,
but to feed starving people. And that is
a noble endeavor, and for that they should be commended. However that alone does not make them a
Christian ministry.
A Christian ministry must be built on Christian
convictions and convictions simply do not change in two days. No matter what anyone’s position is on this
issue it is an unavoidable conclusion that World Vision’s policy change
(neither of them) was not based on principle, let alone Christian
convictions. It sounds a lot more like
they are being tossed to and fro like spiritual children (Ephesians 4:14) and
that they have been taken captive by vain philosophies of men instead of
submitting themselves to the will of God (Colossians 2:8). As Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount “you
cannot serve both God and money” (Matthew 6:24) yet it seems that when the
donations began to dry up they made the decision to change their policy, which tells
me their original decision was not based on any deeply held (if very wrong) convictions, let
alone convictions about church unity.
World vision has a long history of
compromising on core Christian beliefs.
No belief is more foundational to the Christian life than the unshakable
belief that Jesus is the Way, The Truth and the Life, and that no one comes to
the Father except through Him (John 14:6) and that all believers are tasked
with spreading this message wherever they go (Matthew 28:18-20). But in the name of providing services in Muslim
and other closed countries World Vision has jettisoned the great commission. Time and again Stearns and other
representatives of the organization have given interviews in which they
emphasize that Word Vision has a strict no proselytizing policy. It has morphed
from the Christian relief society founded by Belen Pierce into an effective,
but essentially secular charity, in the name of increasing its reach.
A Christian ministry is a ministry that
proclaims the name of Christ. It shares
the Gospel and cares more for the eternal souls of the lost than the contents
of their belly. That doesn’t mean that
feeding the hungry and starving is unimportant, it is very important, but for
an organization that calls itself a Christian ministry meeting physical needs should
be secondary to meeting spiritual needs of the lost. Jesus speaking of the cost of discipleship
said He would be ashamed before the
Father of anyone ashamed of Him now, essentially saying that someone who is
ashamed of the name of Christ and of the Gospel has no relationship with Him
(Mark 8:38). Based on their lack of
conviction, history of pragmatism, and jettisoning of the great commission I am
forced to conclude that World Vision is no longer a Christian organization but that
it is a secular charity that pragmatically appeals to Christians as a source of
income.
Does that mean that Christians should
withdraw their support of World Vision?
Not necessarily, it is a matter of Christian liberty. There is nothing sinful or untoward about
supporting secular charities. I support
some secular charities, and I do so with a clean conscience, but I do it with
my eyes wide open. I don’t confuse my
support of the Biblical Archaeology Society or Trout Unlimited with supporting
a Christian ministry, and no one should confuse supporting World Vision with
supporting a Christian Ministry either.
When it comes support for World Vision,
prayerful consideration should be given to any decision to support them or to
withdraw support from them, such a decision will impact real human lives that
are in true distress. The children they
feed are very real and really hungry.
But while they are doing good work, they
are not reflecting the love of Christ on the people they serve. You have to claim the name of Christ in order
to proclaim and reflect His love. You
can’t serve the poor in the name of Christ if you are unwilling to speak
it. If the events of last week made
anything about World Vision clear, it is that their Christianity is merely a
pragmatic label they use for fundraising.
And that is the real problem with the organization.
[If you desire to support a Christian
organization that is not ashamed of the Gospel, the local church, or the name
of Christ, please consider Children’s Hunger Fund.]
