Political Activism and Christianity

by Regina Lim, 14 April 2011

What’s in the name of being a Christian?  Why do people become Christians or in other words a believer of a particular faith?  A person is born into existence without prior idea or values attached to his or her mind, and life becomes a journey of learning how to relate to others and ideas held by society at large. However some of the norms and values of a society can be oppressive and these will not change unless the people living within the society challenge them publicly.  In many historical movements we learned about the works of pioneers who became the prime movers of revolution that effected meaningful changes for those who experienced social exclusion because of the mainstream values held by the society at large.  Slavery has existed as long as the human civilization but the systematic trading and the institutionalization of unequal bondage came about at the height of European colonialism.  This was by far the most tragic history of human exploitation that was systematically carried out at a massive scale, implicating several generations of discrimination upon the victims throughout the colonies.  It took many years and the courage of the few to challenge such exploitative the socio-economic practices and to instigate mental revolution against the injustices of slave trading.  William Wilberforce was a very prominent figure who fought against the injustices of the slave trade in the late 17^th century in Britain.  His courage to stand up for the victims of slave trade and actively campaigned for the abolition of slave trading was an inspiring truth about how faith played an important role in challenging oppressive norms and motivated a man to strive for justice for all.

William Wilberforce (24 August 1759 – 29 July 1833) was a British politician, a philanthropist and a leader of the movement to abolish the slave trade.  He began his political career in 1780 and became the independent MP for Yorkshire (1784–1812). In 1785, he underwent a conversion experience and became an evangelical Christian, resulting in major changes to his lifestyle and a lifelong concern for reform. In 1787, he came into contact with Thomas Clarkson and a group of anti-slave-trade activists, including Granville Sharp, Hannah More and Charles Middleton.   Wilberforce was persuaded to take on the cause of abolition, and soon became one of the leading English abolitionists.   He headed the parliamentary campaign against the British slave trade for twenty-six years until the passage of the SlaveTrade Act 1807.  Wilberforce was convinced of the importance of religion, morality and education and campaigned for the complete abolition of slavery. That campaign led to the Slavery AbolitionAct 1833 which abolished slavery in most of the British Empire.

The question remains, what does it mean to be a Christian? Is it about the personal consumption of religious scriptures and to accumulate the divine experience for oneself in this lifeworld? And to what purpose can such consumption of spiritualism entail if these religious knowledge are kept within the mental compartment of one’s life?  If we share these, in what form should we communicate? Do we spread the Gospel in the summary of good and evil, or can we make the Gospel a tool of interpretation, to make us more aware of the injustices around us?  Should faith play a role in motivating us to champion the cause of justice and equality to address the plight of those who are discriminated and oppressed?