Social Responsibility

It’s never been so easy to figure out where your friends stand on social issues. Just log on to Facebook on any given day, and you’ll find any and every cause being championed by your friends—often causes that are in opposition to each other.

Even your Christian friends may have differing views on what social responsibility involves. Take environmentalism, for instance. Some may see it as focusing on “Mother Earth” and taking attention away from God, while others may seek to honor and obey the Creator by finding renewable energy sources and conserving open space.

Women have always been involved in social-responsibility issues, and often their faith has been a driving force.

The Bible tells of Joanna, who was a financial supporter of Jesus’ ministry (see Luke 8:2-3). Long before she fully realized who Jesus was, she personally saw the importance of what Jesus could do for people when he cured her ailments. She took on the responsibility of funding Jesus and his apostles so they could help others as they had helped her.

Ida Scudder was an American doctor who became a medical missionary to India around the year 1900, fighting against the diseases that many of the women there contracted. She realized that she couldn’t do it by herself, and so she founded a medical school for girls (which later went coed) to ensure that future generations would have medical care.

Then there’s Jessie Ames, who organized women to speak out against racism in the South in the 1930s. Through their efforts, big changes were made.

Jesus had a lot to say about social responsibility. Even more important, he was the best example of a socially responsible person we have. He fed the hungry, healed the sick, looked beyond a person’s nationality or race, practiced nonviolence, and literally gave himself to save the world.

A debate has raged for some time: Is it more important to help people or to preach the gospel to them? The service-filled lives of countless women and men in Christian history make it clear how shortsighted that question is. We honor Christ by helping those he helped. And we help people by sharing Christ with them. We must never ignore people’s spiritual needs, but neither should we downplay their physical needs. Jesus calls us to minister to both.

The godly care about the rights of the poor; the wicked don’t care at all.

Proverbs 29:7