When we see things around us that we do not approve of, one of our first instincts as human beings is to complain. Complaining comes more naturally to the human being than breathing itself. Many of us had to be spanked by a doctor to start breathing. I have yet to see the small child who needed coaxing before uttering his or her first critique of the world around them.
Some of the things we feel moved to complain about are trifling. In all honesty – most things we complain about today will be a profound embarrassment to us in the world to come, should we even remember them! But some of the things that we see in the world around us are not trifling. Some of them are quite serious and should not be meekly accepted. Some things (for me things like abortion, slavery – yes, it is still practiced in the world today, – and pornography) require some intentional response and active opposition.
But how should we as Christians respond to things in our broader culture that we simply cannot condone? Two biblical principles bring to mind a prime example of one way to productively engage our culture in a manner that transcends the anger, hatred, and merely destructive critiques that come from every corner of the political spectrum of our day. These principles are: (1) don’t complain, and (2) actually love your enemies/opposers.
Philippians 2:14 commands us to “do everything without complaining or arguing.” The scriptures repeatedly require us to love our enemies and to repay no one evil for evil. (See, for example, Matthew 5:43 and Romans 12:14,17). So how can we respond to injustice or depravity as it occurs all around us? By graciously and respectfully loving those with whom we disagree. Please read that again.
“But that would never work!” you say. “I need to rant against them, ‘cancel’ those who oppose my views, and maybe even burn their house and business down!” Well, allow me to introduce you to a remarkable woman: Anna Sewell.
Anna Sewell was a devout Christian woman who grew up in England in the nineteenth century. She was the eldest of two kids born into a poor family. Her mother, Mary Sewell, was a children’s author who wrote a series of evangelical stories that Anna helped her to edit. During her childhood, Anna suffered a crippling injury that made her dependent upon a crutch for walking and required her to rely upon horse drawn carriages for moving about in public. Throughout the nineteenth century, one of the less well-known issues that many Christians responded to was animal cruelty – especially the cruelties that were directed at horses. As early as 1820, the English Parliament had considered legislation to curb the abuse of horses – but such efforts always failed. And as Anna’s life was drawing to a close, she resolved to do something – to create something – as a way of redressing an ill that she perceived in her world.
Anna, at the age of 51, was bed-ridden and was still living with her parents (she never married). In 1871 she began dictating the story of Black Beauty to her mother. In so doing, Anna Sewell wrote what would become a best-selling work of children’s fiction that has continually been in print since its publication. She also created an entirely new genre of modern fiction. Black Beauty is the first book in which animals are the speaking protagonists! Everything from Wind in the Willows to Watership Down follows the literary track she pioneered. And the book made (in historical perspective) an immediate impact on the treatment of horses in England – and in the English-speaking world generally. Within a few years of the book’s publication in 1877, the cruelties that Anna so mildly and graciously addresses in her story became unpopular and faded away. Horses were no longer subjected to things like bearing reins and arbitrary beatings.
Pick up a copy of this wonderful book. Don’t settle for the movie version or waste your time with some abridged children’s’ edition. And notice the respectful dialogue, the sympathetic portrayals even of some characters who deal harshly with their horses. And notice the balanced and apropos use of scripture as the human cast of characters engage with the issue!
The pen is mightier than the sword. Put more broadly, I would suggest that creation is more powerful than destruction. Everyone can merely complain and critique. Anyone can destroy. And destruction brings only ruin. You can see something you disapprove of in your spouse, your kids, your community, your nation, your church…, and you can give full vent to your complaints and critiques and proceed to metaphorically or literally burn the house down. Anyone can do that. We have all done so at various times.
But what if instead of tearing something down, you decided to actually do something positive – to use whatever gifts and abilities God has given you to build a new reality in which people are able to imagine or experience a better version of their world? A world in which they can be and do differently than whatever they have settled for instead? Anna Sewell, who by the mid-1870s was bedridden and had trouble speaking clearly, spent the last years of her invalid life stammering out the story of a speaking horse. And she was able to inflame the passions of an entire linguistic world to come alongside her in her quest for a more biblical society.[1] And with respect to the estate of horses, she was wildly successful.
Dear Christian, how can you begin creating culture today?
Your Pastor,
Bob Bjerkaas
[1] If you read Black Beauty, you will also see that she was concerned about the rampant alcoholism in London and the way in which the working class was de facto unable to enjoy a day of Sabbath rest.
N.B. The images, in order, are (1) a picture from the front cover of the edition of Black Beauty that I recently purchased from Barnes & Noble – a great valuel and, (2) one of the few photographs of Anna Sewell.