Should charitable Christian organisations sanitise their institutions of the distinctive truths of their Christian religion in order to receive tax concessions and subsidies from the government?
And How should Christians respond to government regulation that interferes with our ability to freely exercise our faith?
Today when reviewing charities to support, I came across Mission Australia's website. What I read, or I should say what I didn't read, provoked my ire. There is little else that raises more indignation in me than Christians compromising their faith. And in an age of high government regulation it seems many Christian organisations are all too happy to sellout to receive government subsidies.
Below is the email that I sent to Mission Australia in response to what I see as invertebrate compromise.
Hi, I just thought I would send you guys a quick email regarding why I felt that I can not support Mission Australia. I have in the past been a regular supporter, but had to cease supporting financially due to my own tight fiscal circumstances. However, God has recently restored my financial position with even greater blessings than before, thus I have been able to start tithing far greater amounts to use in ways that glorify His great name.
After initially going to your website with great enthusiasm to setup a regular donation, I thought I would review why I wanted to support Mission Australia, and whether your organisation aligned with my goals in donating. So after having read through the main ‘About Us’ page, I quickly became thoroughly disappointed. Did you know that not once are the names God, Jesus or Christ mentioned? Neither are the terms of sin, salvation or grace? I would have expected that the goals and vision of a “Christian community service organisation” would be to spread the Gospel and the good news of salvation through your service, yet there is no hint of that on the webpages that I viewed.
I am sure you aware that these essential themes of Christianity must be part of every Christian’s mission. All of Mission Australia’s stated goals are pointless if they are not rooted in Christ. ‘Pathways to strong families and healthy, happy children’; ‘successful youth’; ‘pathways away from homelessness’; ‘life and work-ready skills’, ‘sustainable employment’. No one can gain salvation through these things, and without salvation these things are pointless. It is only through Christ that these things are of any value.
Maybe you have sacrificed the essentials of Christianity in order to comply with this Government's excessive and intrusive regulations? But where is this approach taught in Scripture? Never did the first Christians water-down their operations to appease the Romans. That is exactly what the Jews did and were duly condemned by Christ for doing so. Instead Christians preferred to face the most horrid of persecutions rather than compromise their faith. The Romans authorities didn’t ask for much, just a bit of harmless incense burning here and there as an act of submission to the sovereignty of Rome, all without having to give up their worship of God. Yet those Christians wouldn’t compromise even that little bit.
But what I see from Christian organisations these days, which Mission Australia seem to be of the same mould, is a willingness to compromise to whatever extent possible to show submission to the sovereignty of the Australian State.
Unfortunately Christ seems to be a distant number two in your allegiances. How else do you explain the total absence of Christian truths in your mission? This is the reason why I can not support your organisation. Christ and His gift of salvation must be the first and primary goal of any Christian organisation, and unfortunately I do not see a hint of that in Mission Australia's website.
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