Christians have lost confidence in speaking the truth in love (June 2002)

Archbishop Writes

by Peter Jensen

Christians have lost confidence in speaking the truth in love

This year’s Halifax-Portal lectures have caused a flurry of debate following the lectures from myself and Dr George Pell, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Sydney.

In delivering the first of the four Hailfax-Portal lectures I explored the following thesis: the role of the Christian churches in Australia today is to speak the truth in love.

This is what we have failed to do effectively. But on this depends the future of the church and the good health of our society. To fail here is to fail everywhere; to succeed here is to lay the foundation for all that we need to do in God’s name and for his glory and for the good of people. The words of the Apostle Paul challenge us still: ‘the church of the living God…’ he wrote, is ‘a pillar and buttress of truth’ (1 Tim 3:15).

I am aware that this may seem to be a daring and even provocative thesis; indeed there would surely be few who would agree with it. For a number of people outside the Christian community, the church has no role; it would not matter if all churches disappeared. Indeed, the churches are regarded as nothing more than sad remnants of a day when the wowsers ruled this world and it was a grey and gloomy place. Other would be more charitable; the churches are best seen as religious clubs, entitled to exist as do clubs for the study of stamps or steam engines, but of no great significance, except when they try to use their ancient customs to interfere with our lives. Then they must be resisted.

But there would be those who are far closer to the churches, and indeed those who are members of the churches, who would regard my thesis with deep concern. To their minds it suggests a retreat from our true responsibilities in the community, and a retreat all too suspiciously like pietism. For them the churches’ role in the community is to stand witness to the moral, social and political imperatives which may flow from the Christian faith. In fact, it is to do more than stand witness; it is to become actively involved in the political processes which will preserve such values as human rights and the renewal of the environment. More than that, it is to get involved in the lives of people in works of compassion; it is to feed the hungry, care for the sick, and visit the prisoners.

We could say more. Driving such imperatives is often the recognition of Christian failure, not least, for example in mid-20th century Germany. Too often Christians were involved in abuses of civil rights and much worse; too often Christians were passive bystanders to atrocities. There were of course, glorious exceptions, brave souls who dared that others may live. But they were notable as the exceptions; if others had been as brave and as committed, more could have been achieved. Perhaps the atrocities could have been averted altogether. Many Christians are rightly driven by the desire not to fail in our own generation.

And yet, my thesis is: the role of the Christian churches in Australia today is to speak the truth in love. This is as frighteningly narrow as some may already suspect me of being, because I am going to say that the truth of which I speak is not merely truth in the sense of genuine communication, or conformity to reality, or even prophetic criticism of the government; it is first and foremost to be defined as the truth, the truth of God’s word, that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners. That’s the truth; that’s God’s truth; and that is the truth – in one sense the only truth – which it is the role of the churches to witness to in this country, here and now.

I claim this so baldly because the need is desperate; we can no longer afford to assume the truth, or to modify the truth to suit our hearers; we must speak the truth or perish and leave our beloved nation to the gods of this world. If that is all we can do, then that is what we must do; when all else that we may do – when all our works of mercy and our political initiatives – are beyond our strength and wisdom, God’s truth must still be our passion. Urgency at this point is laid upon me, and to speak otherwise, or to be agreeable because I want to be well-received in the churches or the wider community, would be to fail a sacred trust.

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