What the Bible says about advocacy

For many people church is a place for prayer and worship. A place where a person can receive fellowship and grow in their personal experience of and encounter with God.

Churches also do a huge amount globally to assist poor and hungry people through charity work. Christian congregations give billions of pounds each year to people in need. But some Christians give less money, time and effort to influencing what governments do and to working for justice and against injustice. 

It is a consistent theme throughout the whole Bible that God requires both our faithful intimacy, considered charity and justice worked through in local and wider conetxts.

Some aspects of justice can be changed by individual actions like changing our buying decisions to encourage fait trade, but it when we act together that this is most effective. Many aspects local community, national and international justice can often be achieved only through the mechanism of the widest possible working together - i.e.through influencing government policy.

The biblical prophets such as Isaiah affirm that nations, as well as individuals, will be judged by the way they treat the weakest and most vulnerable among them.

How terrible it will be for those who make unfair laws,
  and those who write laws that make life hard for people.
They are not fair to the poor,
  and they rob my people of their rights.
They allow people to steal from widows
  and to take from orphans what really belongs to them. (Is 10:1-2 NCV)

Jesus robustly challenged many human traditions - even things that had been done for many years - when they were at odds with God's Law. He healed people on the sabbath, for example, even though many people thought he should do it on the sabbath. Religion and government were all mixed up - so Jesus was challenging the law of the land. He did it event though he was seen as a threat and it led to opposition to his wider mission.

Government is not the only to deal with injustice. But it clearly has enormous influence on the public attitudes that create culture and the practices we see that lead to injustice in our Society. 

Public campaigns funded by government have led to big changes such as seat belts saving lives, and reductions in smoking.  In the past in the UK changes in laws saw the abolition of the slave trade, laws outlawing child labour, and massive investment in public health works  such as water treatment that prevented a great deal of human misery.

Our citizenship is a responsibility - will we use it only for pride and pleasure or to promote public justice and reduce hunger?

The freedom of purchasers to exploit vulnerable women and children in the sex industry is incompatible with a Society that refelects God's passion for justice.

If we are to be responsible cisitzens of God's kingdom as well as our local society we must challenge and speak up for those who cannot speak and oppose the trade and the conditions and culture that make it possible.

We call for a new public campaign to end the public scandal of the trafficking of human beings in the UK and other countries for sexual and economic exploitation.

One part of advocacy is petitioning and raising awareness through petitions.  Please complete the petition cards which can be obtained from CHASTE. or download the text available elsewhere onthis site and write your own letter.  We suggest sending a letter to the Home Secretary, your MP and a different letter to your MEP.

Part of advocacy is to speak up for those who do not have a voice or whose voice is not heard. God calls us to speak up for those onthe margins.

Can you follow the God of Justice and be silent?

You can obtain copies of the petition cards by emailing admin@chatse.org.uk

Attachments

    Briefing on Addressing Demand and the Swedish Legislation - attached in pdf format  

    Scans of NFSUK petition - attached below.

    Text version of the petition letter  - attached below.

    Not for Sale letter for you adapt, print and send on your won letter head

                        in rtf format suitable for most word processors including MS Word

                        in open office format

    Notes on a petition campaign in your church  - attached below in pdf format