If We Are the Body...

There's a Casting Crowns song called "If We Are the Body." Some of the words are as follows:

"If we are the body, why aren't his arms reaching? Why aren't his hands healing? Why aren't his words teaching?"

In essence, as the body of Christ, we are supposed to exhibit God's love to those around us. Churches should be reaching out to their communities. Unfortunately I got a decisive reminder how much we fail in our mission sometimes.

The event that triggered this thought actually came from a week ago, but it still lingers in the back of my mind. For my May Term, I have been learning about domestic violence, including child abuse, spousal abuse, elder abuse, and the various institutions' responses to it. Last Thursday for class we had a guest speaker: a woman who works at House of Ruth, a women's shelter in the Inland Empire. She talked to us about the purpose of the shelter, the women who come there, and the various experiences she's had. The most heartbreaking for me was when she talked about the religious response to their organization.

House of Ruth is named after the biblical Ruth, and started as a faith-based organization, though it quickly changed, she told us. Today they have issues when communication with the faith community around them. She went to visit a local Christian high school to talk about abuse in relationships, and she said she had to talk to many faculty members to assure them she wasn't going to promote divorce in her talks. She told us that she never advocates divorce, as she herself is Catholic. She maintains that she doesn't believe in divorce, but when a wife is being abused in some way, the husband is already breaking the vows and bonds of marriage, and then a divorce is really just a piece of paper. I wholeheartedly agree with this perspective. She continued to tell us about the opportunity House of Ruth had to receive grant money. All they had to do was give presentations at seven churches in the area. They chose one city nearby that has 65 registered churches. They started by mailing to the churches, then calling them, then visiting them to talk face-to-face with them. When it came down to it, only ONE church would allow them to do a presentation.

If we are the body, why aren't we acting like it? People may believe that Christians don't abuse and aren't abused. They're wrong. It happens. And the church should be the primary place for that Christian to go to get help. Even if its not a member of the church, shouldn't the body of Christ be reaching out to the community? Christ didn't ignore the Gentiles (if you don't believe me, look it up in your Bible. A great example is in Matthew 15. Focus especially on verses 26-28)! Why not have a night, even if its not a Sunday, where someone can come and give an awareness talk on domestic violence? Why can't a church implement a ministry to help people cope? One in three women is abused in some way. The church needs to do something. That's all there is to it.