Movement Magazine: Issue 159

Something that crosses my mind quite regularly is the
question of what it means to be a Christian in a secular age.
As an American, I come from a place where Christianity is
still quite dominant culturally, but here in Glasgow, it is a
different story. For many people I know, I am their token
Christian friend and sometimes even their token religious
friend. In some ways I feel that this shouldn’t matter, that I
should be comfortable standing up for my faith. But being
the token Christian matters for how I live out my Christian
faith.
Being a Christian is part of why I am highly involved in
social justice causes. My current work is with Living Rent,
a Scottish tenants’ union that fights for radical structural
change to the housing system. We focus on reclaiming
illegally charged fees to tenants, forcing bad landlords
to carry out repairs, and most recently calling upon the
Scottish Government to implement a ban on all evictions
during the winter months. Overall, we call out and face
up to the violence that is inherent in a housing system
beholden to the whims of the market where housing is
conceived as real estate rather than as a home – we want
“Homes for People, Not for Profit.”
These are my good works, my supposed ‘acts of Christian
charity’. But I am not doing it for the sake of charity, either
as an activist for Living Rent or as Christian. One of the
key principles of Living Rent is that we empower tenants
themselves – we don’t merely provide a service to fix their
housing situation. We come alongside them, and through
collective direct action empower people to take part
in the struggle against those who neglect some of their
most basic needs, whether that is their landlord or the
government.
Part of how I have made
sense of my faith and activism
is through liberation theology.
Earlier this year I was given an
article by a priest at my church comparing two different
types of praxis for a theology of liberation. One called
for the formation of basic ecclesial communities (mostly
via the church) and the other called for the formation of
basic human communities. Both strove toward realising
liberation and justice in the world here and now. But in a
secular context, it seems to me that the call to dismantle
injustice is more effectively realised when Christians join
and strengthen basic human communities.
Living Rent is for me a basic human community that works
to rectify injustice at the local level. My faith is just as fully
lived out when I am occupying a landlord’s office as when
I’m singing hymns – though I’m pretty sure there isn’t
much difference every time I hear the Magnificat’s call to
“cast down the mighty” and “lift the lowly”. My church is
a place of nourishment, a place that doesn’t necessarily
attach itself to particular causes but rather validates and
encourages its congregants in their work to realise justice
in the secular world.
I am continually reminded of St. Theresa of Avila’s words
“Christ has no body now but yours” -the work of Christ is
not done and we are called to continue it. It is a radical
call, one that pulls us away from our comfortable lives and
into participation with the ongoing process of liberation.
The more I involve myself with activism, the more my faith
strengthens. For as Jürgen Moltmann said, “the more a
person believes, the more deeply he experiences pain over
the suffering in the world, and the more passionately he
asks about God and the new creation.”
Do you have a story of Faith in Action to share? Get in touch with Emma, our Faith in Action Project Worker,
by emailing emma@movement.org.uk
22 MOVEMENT Issue 159