Evangelicals and Human Rights

The New York Times has an article today about how the evanglical Midland Alliance, playing up its connection to W (Midland is W's hometown) has played a role in pressing for peace in Sudan and now pressing the administration on human rights in North Korea.

Generally, I think this is a commendable move toward engagement with the world. And it isn't the only one. In 2000 (I think), Christians of all stripes lobbied, successfully, for debt relief for the world's poorest countries.

I have a bad tendency to turn into a sanctimonious liberal on this blog, so let me first say that I commend these folks for caring about more than "expanding their borders" in terms of material wealth, a la The Prayer of Jabez.

But I do wonder why evangelicals only get interested in oppression when it happens to other Christians -- in both Sudan and S. Korea, this religious bond is what motivates. I mean, it's only human to empathize with people to whom you have a connnection, and a shared faith is a strong link.

Still, the parable of the Good Samaritan suggests that being a "neighbor" means loving across cultural and religious lines. The Samaritan, the one who helped the stripped and beaten man, was not even a Jew. That implies that being a neighbor is not a fact of geography, or even common faith, but a title you earn by action.

But these evangelicals are doing more than most of us, me included. For that, they should be commended.