I promised, weeks ago now, to translate the critique of the Earth Charter published in the evangelical magazine ARBIL in Spanish. OK, bad of me to promise and not do it, but the fact of the matter is that I got SO depressed reading and re-reading the article that I decline to translate the whole piece in the end. Just now someone thinks I wrote it! But a few comments will hopefully suffice to get the point across:

1. Christians should not be uninformed. How the evangelical community let this article slip through and even endorsed it is very worrying. Salahuja, in criticising the Earth charter, shows great ignorance of the CONtent and INtent of the Charter, as well as the thinking of its supporters. He is clearly not well-read and even worse, doesn’t understand the stuff that he HAD read in the greater context of where it came from. So, in response he becomes and expresses himself in such a manner that leads to the next point:

2. Christians should not be irrational.  When debating issues that are of importance or concern to us, we must always be seen to LISTEN and UNDERSTAND what the other person is saying and where s/he is coming from, and not lash out, taking the opportunity to unleash all our feelings of mistrust and suspicion, which we shouldn’thave anyway to begin with. That leads to the following:

3. Christians should not be fearful or paranoid. All of the above points to only one thing, which Salahuja makes himself, and those who endorse the article, guilty of: paranoia. The suspicion that everyone out there is out to hurt us, belittle us, marginalise us.

But all this happens because of lack of awareness. So, ultimately, (4.) Christians should not be so unaware. Why do we always seem to be the last to catch on to what is happening in the world? Why do we insist on REACTING to what people think instead of SETTING the trend? The world is grappling with issues which Christianity should have solved a long time ago, had its followers – and I am one! – been alert and responsive and not wrapped up in themselves and their perceived superiority.

Instead of exporting Western culture, Christians should have been, for the past century or so, at the forefront of innovation, rectifying social ills, CARING FOR THE EARTH. I can go on about this, and say some very unkind things about the sleeping church. But let me stop here, and exhort: please, church, can we wake up and take the lead rather than be the sorry stragglers always? And please, someone, can you silence Salahuja and educate the people who think he is clever?