BUT I'M ONLY ONE PERSON!

By Jason Bolster

Even when the news does not warn, "This item may disturb some viewers," there is plenty to disturb us in the media. There are genocides in Kosovo, Timor, Chechnya … where this month? Grievous injustice, crime and cruelty are flashed into our comfortable homes for a few minutes' viewing.

There is just as much evil which the media ignores. Nobody broadcasts the promotion of breast-milk substitutes in the third world, because the perpetrator is one of their major sponsors. Capitalism is praised, although it makes a virtue of greed, encourages competitiveness and hoarding, discourages cooperation and redistribution, destroys the environment and values people according to their wealth.

But what can one person do? We feel powerless, especially when most people simply accept evils as part of life, if they know about them.

Feeling powerlessness is not all bad. To think you could stop it is arrogance. Alone, we can do nothing (John 15:5). Jesus called Himself nothing (Philippians 2:7) and compared Himself to a worm (Psalm 22:6) - do we outrank Him? The Bible disagrees with modern psychology, which argues that if we believe in ourself we could achieve anything. Although this might make the Gospel seem bad news, the Bible has plenty more to say.

King Ahaz of Judah was terrified of an unprovoked attack by two armies: Aram and Ephraim. God told him, "The head of Aram is Damascus [its capital], and the head of Damascus is only Rezin [its king] … the head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is only the son of Remaliah [ie, King Pekah of Israel]" (Isaiah 7:8-9). Rezin and Pekah are one person each! Their armies are only there to surround and protect the kings, because they are too scared to meet you face to face.

I object to UN sanctions that prevent medical supplies reaching Iraqis who are dying of diseases like measles. (These sanctions stop Iraq's weapons of mass destruction. UN inspectors have searched every square inch of Iraq without finding them, but they are there somewhere. Just because the UN has bombed Baghdad several times without retaliations does not mean Iraq lacks a massive arsenal.)

Fear not! The head of the UN is America, and the head of America is only George Bush - one person! Unlike you, he cowers behind military cavalcades and henchman. He even banned UN inspectors from looking at his weapons of mass destruction - but they are to deter rogue states like Iraq.

People succeed in politics or business by being one person. They use each other, then the most ruthless discards the others. So, it benefits them to promote, through the media they own, individualism and competition.

Scripture, however, says that wonderful things happen through working together (eg, Haggai 1:14). We are not saved for individualism. The Lord's Prayer does not say, "My Father … forgive me my trespasses." We, though once disparate, are now a holy race (Exodus 19:5-6, Ezekiel 37:21-22, 1 Peter 2:9-10) and family (Matthew 12:49). If one person is insufficient to oppose another, how many do you need? You are one, I am one, the person on the next pew is one… God's love unites us all (1 Corinthians 10:17, Colossians 3:14), so how can we act alone?

We are not merely united with each other, but also with Jesus (1 Corinthians 6:17, Ephesians 5:32). Power lies not in people, not in wealth, but in His name alone (Matthew 28:18). Only the Holy Spirit enables us to be united, to discern right from wrong and to know what to do (2 Chronicles 30:12).

Without God I notice, as Asaph did (Psalm 73), that all goes well for the "arrogant" and "wicked". I may be tempted to "envy" them, and so "lose my foothold." Perhaps I thought "in vain have I kept my heart pure." I cannot understand "their final destiny" until I "enter the sanctuary of God" and saw Him "place them on slippery ground … cast them down to ruin. How suddenly are they destroyed, completely swept away by terrors!"

Where does that leave us? We could follow Lazarus' example (Luke 16:19-31) and organise a sit down protest, like they did in Serbia recently. (It was illegal for people to speak against Milosevich, just as it was illegal for Lazarus to be anywhere other than his leper colony.) You could follow the example of the widow who made herself a nuisance to the official until she got her rights (Luke 18:2-5). You could simply disobey, like the Hebrew midwives (Exodus 1:15-19), or Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego (Daniel 3). Try vanda … I mean, demonstrating God's holiness like Jesus did in the Temple on Palm Sunday (Matthew 21:12-13). Cry out like the prophets and the apostles (Acts 4:18-20).

But all these things are useless unless God leads us to do them, and they are steeped in prayerfulness and love, even for perpetrators like Saul of Tarsus. Real love shows itself in action (1 John 3:17), which we must do in Christ's name for the sake of the church and the world.

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