Evangelism: The Missing Indredient
What Lepers and Caskets Can Teach Us
The Rev. Robert Blessing has been a long-time friend since he was a member of my congregation in Seattle. He entered the ordained ministry, served as a missionary in Korea, a parish priest back in the U.S. He has always been an enthusiastic evangelist for Christ. He also served as a military chaplain for two tours in Iraq and several other deployments.
When he announced that he was returning for his second tour and knowing what this was costing him and his family, I asked him why. His response was that the soldiers in Iraq were mostly young men with little life experience and facing terrible situations daily. “I am doing it for them!” he insisted.
During his first tour, he was wounded. He also suffered from PTSD from all he had seen and experienced. Now he spends his time working with other veterans suffering spiritual and moral PTSD. This includes a group in Tijuana who are Mexicans who served with our forces in Iraq and Afghanistan many of whom suffer from PTSD issues too. Rather than provide them with treatment, our government deported them. He continues to argue for help for them.
Right now, he is spending time serving a small congregation in Molokai. While there he took a trip to Kalaupapa, the site of the world-famous leper colony where sufferers of Hansen’s Disease who were erroneously believed to be contagious were sent to die. It was an awful place until a young priest named Fr. Damien arrived. He transformed the place. Here is what Robert learned while there and shared with me.
The priest who serves Kalaupapa today was asked what impact Fr. Damien brought to the leper colony that he served for years. His response was the following; “Father Damien brought three things to the peninsula for the patients; one, was a spiritual presence of God for all the people of all spiritual backgrounds. Two, he built Homes to touch the lives of the people who were living in simple shacks built with lumber from shipwrecked vessels. The third impact which touched all the patients struggling with Henson’s disease were coffins.”
When I heard that I was shocked. What value did coffins bring to a people with such an afflicted disease? His response was dignity. The dignity was that before his arrival, those patients were wrapped up in cloth and thrown in shallow graves, where the wild boar and pigs of the island would dig up the shallow graves and eat the bodies.
I was further shocked. My first question was why did they carelessly toss out the bodies? The response was because they didn’t care enough to care for the bodies. Only the living had some value. When Father Damien provided coffins, he inferred that the bodies of the patients were worthy of dignity, and that gave value to the living.
Then Robert added this. “I felt it was equivalent to the way we honor the soldiers, sailors, airman, and Marines, who were killed in battle. By honoring those who died, we placed value and dignity upon those who are living. What a gift Father Damien brought to the people he served. I believe that one of the greatest ways we can evangelize and share the good news of Jesus. It is to figure out how to provide dignity to those around us who we would like to see the as members of the family of Jesus Christ.”
I was struck by Robert’s insight. So much of evangelism among American Christians is trying to “save” people from hell without realizing how many already live there, and to make it harder, they often are not treated with dignity by many in their communities, including the Churches there, and even the government. Think about the discussion going on now about the homeless in Los Angeles and other places. Sure, many are drug addicted and mentally ill. Is that the new leprosy of our age? What would dignity mean to them?
I think that is what Robert gives to his fellow veterans and especially those our country has abandoned.