by Lance Waldie

How do you feel about Christians being involved in politics? Some say they should stay out completely while others agree that Christians should be proclaiming the gospel, but at the same time involved in political and social reform.

There are some very godly people in our Christian history who made a difference in their world by getting involved, and I wanted to spotlight four of them. These people’s lives are testimonials to what getting involved can do for society.

WILLIAM WILBERFORCE One man we can look to for encouragement is William Wilberforce. One historian calls him the primary human agent for "one of the turning events in the history of the world." As a member of the British Parliament, and as an evangelical Christian, Wilberforce sought at least two goals: abolish the slave trade in England; bring back God-fearing morals.

The slave trade in England was big-business and the economy flourished through it. The abolition of the slave trade frightened people because it would bring personal financial ruin to many and cause a nationwide recession. But Wilberforce was a fiery young man who was driven to do good. He was more concerned with what God had charged him to do than whether or not the economy was good. At the age of 27 his influence and hard work was greatly feared by the proponents of the slave trade. One Jamaican slave owner said this of Wilberforce: "It is necessary to watch him, as he is blessed with a very sufficient quantity of that enthusiastic spirit, which is so far from yielding that it grows more vigorous from blows."

Though Wilberforce began his campaign to abolish the slave trade in 1787, he did not see the legislation pass until 1807. Furthermore, the final passage of the emancipation did not occur until July 26, 1833.

Wilberforce died three days later. It seemed as though he was born for that very reason. Even the ex-slave trader, John Newton, encouraged Wilberforce to tackle the issue of the slave trade. He challenged Wilberforce to consider that ending the slave trade might be the very reason for his existence. He was right.

In addition to this, Wilberforce contributed to the Christianization of British India by securing chaplains to the East India Company and missionaries to India. He worked with others to secure parishes for evangelical clergy, thus shaping the future of the Church of England. Wilberforce helped form, among others, the Society for Bettering the Cause of the Poor, Church Missionary Society, and the British and Foreign Bble Society.

FLORENCE NIGHTENGALE In 1837 Nightengale wrote, "God spoke to me and called me into his service." God’s call was a burden on her heart to help people through the nursing industry. At that time nurses were unskilled laborers and given to drunkenness and promiscuity.

During the Crimean War Nightengale took 38 nurses with her to the battle front and ended up organizing the barracks hospital, including a kitchen, laundry, and a clean latrine. She provided reading and recreation rooms for the patients, wrote home for them, and provided a safe way for them to mail their pay home. Her efforts were remarkable: the death rate dropped from 42 percent to 3 percent. Even while she was sick she still managed to write a 1,000 page book, created a commission on military health, founded the first military hospital, and a permanent commission on health and sanitation. Under God’s guidance she transformed nineteenth century nursing.

ROBERT RAIKES Have you ever wondered where Sunday School came from? Thank Robert Raikes for that one. Back in 1780 he was moved to action because of the "wretchedly ragged at play in the street." He saw multitudes of children on Sundays, released on that day from employment, "spending their time in noise and riot cursing and swearing..."

Raikes started out wanting prison reform but decided that children must be put on the right path before their evil habits are formed. With this in mind, he started a Sunday School program. On Sundays school began at 10 A.M., had a lunch hour, and concluded at 5 P.M. The Bible was the basis for instruction, and the goal was to prevent vice and to encourage good work habits and cheerful submission to God. Four years after it began (1787) there were 250,000 students. By 1831 there were 1.25 million students in Sunday School. Adam Smith, author of Wealth of Nations, declared that no plan so promising for improving morals had been devised since the days of the apostles.

ELIZABETH FRY One Christian who did work on prison reform was Elizabeth Fry. Filth, brutality, and extreme suffering were commonplace in English prisons. Typically, when a woman went to prison her children went with her. If her sentence was death, and if she did not die of starvation before her execution, her children followed her to the gallows to see their mother’s fate. Fry established an organization that "provided for clothing, instruction, and employment for women; introduce them to a knowledge of the Scriptures; and to form in them habits of sobriety and the like in order to make them peaceable while in prison and respectable when they leave it." Among Fry’s reform goals she read Scriptures daily and distributed Bibles to those who wanted them. Her efforts produced orderly, disciplined inmates who became known for their work ethic. Similar prison reforms spread throughout England because of Fry’s work and her willingness to get involved.

POINT OF VIEW LISTENERS How can we as Christians not be motivated by the works of our predecessors? These men and women accomplished so much. They had Christ in their hearts, politics in their blood, and they worked tirelessly in the heathen byways of the cities so that the gospel could be preached to the poor. We may have advanced technologically since the time of the industrial revolution, but our problems still call for Christian activism in our society and our government. If God is for us who can be against us?