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Church and Advocacy
Leslie Nathaniel |
| During my early years at University in Bangalore and Delhi, I was confronted and challenged by advocacy as a concept and an action. This shows that the term has now been in use for quite some decades. In the late 1960s development circles and social activists moved this concept forward. Even today, in the 21st century the term is still used in a diversity of church and development contexts. Since advocacy continues to be used today, I would like to reflect on what advocacy is, its background, and why the church must advocate. So let us first of all look at what we mean by advocacy. |
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| What is Advocacy? |
| In advocacy we are looking at the following challenges: To empower the voiceless by creating space for their voices; To plead on behalf of/be alongside a person or a group treated unfairly; To work for change in unjust policies, practices and structures along with those affected by unjust situations; To take a stand for justice – not be neutral. |
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| Background: the Context of Advocacy |
Keeping criteria such as the above in mind, social activists took sides with the poor, the needy and those being dominated by the powerful. They took up crucial issues on behalf of the downtrodden including economic, social and political structures and systems responsible for them. Some prominent issues in the Asian context were the violation of human rights, the international debt crisis and child labour.
Advocacy also challenged western governments and their societies that it was their performance or inactivity that contributed to the misery of a large section of the people in the so- called ‘third world’. Many in the West did take up the cause of the downtrodden. They have spoken on behalf of others, and certainly good work has been done. The voiceless began to regain their voice through advocacy. In India, for example, it helped bring to light the plight of oppressed groups such as women, children, dalits and tribals, and defend their rights.
When we do advocacy, we are compelled to commit ourselves to a particular cause or issue. This has to be pursued with passion and vigour, or advocacy looses its sting and so its efficacy.
If one is committed to advocacy, one needs to be aware that in the context of globalisation today, the challenge we face is far greater than in the past. Today, capital can be shifted easily, and geographical boundaries no longer hinder its movement. Multinational firms can change their locations freely. These firms in search of easy profit are on the constant lookout for inexpensive labour, an untroubled labour environment where raw materials and natural resources are readily available and cheap. It is common for components of machines and tools to be produced in different countries and the completed product put together in yet another. The world market is the all-powerful economic driving force. What needs to be produced and how this is to be accomplished is dictated to by the world market. This global market rarely considers what the basic needs of the people really are. What the global market produces is for export and for the consumption of the rich. Today in all nations in North and South an all too visible boundary divides the rich from the poor. Large groups of people remain cut out of the global economic development. To these belong the unemployed, the old, those of limited means in the North, those in agricultural areas, those in slums in the large cities, as well as tribals and dalits in the South.
We also observe in today’s world how large firms are getting richer on the one hand, and on the other hand small firms, farmers, a large number of craftsmen, artisans, and the normal working class struggle to come to grips with their day-to-day needs. Perversely the stock exchange booms when the employees are made redundant.
The global economy today enhances the accumulation of wealth in the hands of just a few with the help of speculation and credit. They need not even lift a finger beyond clicking the computer keys.
Heavily indebted countries are forced to procure finances on the international market. Due to the fact that foreign debt can only be repaid in hard currency, the indebted countries are forced to organise their economies in such a way that income generation is coupled to export or additional credit. This explains why debtor nations concentrate on the cultivation of, for example, coffee, cocoa etc. instead of catering to the basic food needs of the people. This situation also continues to keep indebted nations dependent and trapped to an endless credit cycle.
The global context today furthermore hinders the easy transfer of labour. An effective workers’ lobby has not much of a chance in this situation, and people are left without a unified bargaining power.In the past, in countries like India, for example, one could, recognise the capitalist groupings, since one could put ‘a face, a name and a location’ to them. In today’s context, capitalist groupings are not limited to just one location, one country, one particular business or manufacturing unit, or to a group of persons. Neither do they always belong to families. They have become as someone once said faceless, nameless and multinational, transcending geographical boundaries. Efforts in advocacy today have therefore become quite cumbersome and often impossible. The deprived and weak are left without hope. They are broken and exploited in the North and the South, though there is a big difference in the ratio of those affected between the North and the South.
In this situation, therefore, the question is often raised as to who is going to advocate whose case? No longer is it a question of ‘developed’ countries supporting ‘under developed’ countries.
Advocacy today has become a more wide-ranging concept in both its action and dedication. Every Christian should be committed to engage in its activities. |
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Advocacy Issues
There is a diversity of advocacy issues that come to mind. There will also be quite some overlap when dealing with the issues. I list some of them below |
| Religious freedom Human rights: |
| Child labour |
| Slavery |
| Sexual exploitation |
| Misuse of power and money |
| Discrimination against asylum seekers |
| Exploitation of migrant workers |
| Violence against women |
| The death penalty |
| Juvenlie imprisoment and execution |
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| Social transformation: |
| Health including HIV-AIDS |
| Drugs at affordable prices |
| Peace and the creative management of conflict |
| Poverty |
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| Globalisation: |
| The arms trade |
| Landmines |
| Environmental concerns |
| Global economics |
| Trade justice |
| Debt relief |
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| Theological Basis of Advocacy |
Advocacy is a commitment to the good of one’s neighbour with a readiness, in the gospel sense, to lose oneself for the sake of the other. Advocacy is undoubtedly a Christian virtue.
There are many suitable passages in the Bible to guide our actions. I would, however, refer to only a few here: |
| 1. Matthew, chapter 25 verse 40. “Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me.” There are four points of the advocacy message in this verse. Firstly, Jesus identifies himself with the poor and the neglected. Secondly, Jesus considers that acts of solidarity are done to him through human beings. Thirdly, any good deed has its weight and is done to God. This is what I call a positive action. Lastly, any good act not done demonstrates a neglect of God. This is a negative action. This mandate needs to be taken seriously if we wish to obey the call of God to proclaim the Gospel through word and deed and to transform individuals and communities bringing them into the fellowship of Christ. |
2. There is another threefold biblical model, which I consider important:
Firstly, there is a reference in Judges, chapter 6 verse 6, which points to how crucial it is to be heard. The Midianites humiliated the Israelites. The Children of God cried to the Lord for help. They let their voices be heard together. It is important to note that this was crying together. It was a ‘united voice’. It transforms advocacy into solidarity, since it was not just one crying on behalf of the other.
Secondly, I refer to 2 Samuel 16:12. This passage has a great sense of urgency about it. David had fled from Jerusalem. He was running away from his son Absalom’s conspiracy. When David came to Bahurim, a man from the house of Saul, named Schimei, the son of Gera, began cursing David for all his deeds, saying, be gone, be gone, you man of blood, you worthless fellow’. In this situation David did not resort to further acts of violence, but appealed to the Lord to see his affliction and redress it that very day. There are two advocacy points here that are relevant. One is the realisation or seeing one’s own misdeeds clearly, and the other is the need to deal with the matter without any delay.
Lastly, I refer to St. John’s Gospel chapter 5 verse 8. The episode is familiar, but worth noting here. At the Sheep Gate in Jerusalem there is the pool called Bethzatha with five porticoes. In these lay many that were sick, blind, lame and paralysed. It is said that when the water of the pool was troubled, those who were able to get into it could be healed. Jesus noticed one man who had never been able to get into the pool for thirty-eight years, because he had no one to put him into the water at the right time. And even as he was trying to get into the pool, another got in there before him. Jesus said to the man ‘Rise, take up your pallet and walk’. It is the ability in faith, in spite of numerous barriers, to recognise in the one that is crippled and marginalised the potential to stand, carry the burden and walk. Jesus empowered the man to independence. One of the aspects of advocacy is to also see in the downtrodden and suffering peoples this potential. They are not objects, but people with potential, who have been oppressed. Advocacy can be our response to God as a sign of our being faithful to him in this twenty-first century. |
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| Why the Church must Advocate |
| The church has a commitment to a mission that expresses God’s love for every human being. This can only be effective if there is a passion to deal with the needs of the whole person – spiritual, economic, social etc. If this is to succeed the church needs to also revisit the way in which it relates to the state and civil society. The church should be a bold voice amongst its membership, the wider Christian fellowship, and the society in which it exists. It is duty-bound, in prophetic tradition, to tirelessly speak out against injustice in society, in economic institutions, amongst those who rule as well as within its own membership and structures. Micah chapter 6 verse 8 contains guidelines of what God requires. In an unjust world, in which people are not of importance and the fundamental relationship with God has been neglected, Micah’s threefold advocacy is ‘to do justice, to love kindness and to walk humbly with your God’. Bishop Samuel Amirtham, a former Bishop of the South Kerala Diocese calls this ‘integrated spirituality’: a passion for justice, compassion for the people, and communion with God’. |
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