Jolinda Cooper's series continues tomorrow-
Where
did it all go wrong? What kind of church are we called under God to be?
This is the ecclesiological question for our times…
Where
did it all go wrong? What kind of church are we called under God to be?
This is the ecclesiological question for our times…
We know that when we search the Scriptures we expose
ourselves to Spirit-inspired change. The seeking of scriptural answers to ecclesiological
questions is no exceptions to this rule. - Therefore we ask, What kind of
church are we called under God to be?
According to Colossians 3:12 ‘as God's chosen
people, holy and dearly loved’, we are to be clothed with compassion kindness
humility gentleness and patience’. Are we that kind of church, that kind of
chosen people? P. 68-9
Shaw Clifton, General (retired) photo of Selected Writings Volume 2
______________________________________
Howard
Hospital / The Salvation Army – where did it all go wrong?
The
Salvation Army (IHQ) states that it exists to share the love of Jesus Christ, meet human
needs and be a transforming influence in the communities of our world.
Its
Mission: The
Salvation Army, an international movement, is an evangelical part of the
universal Christian Church.
Its message is
based on the Bible.
Its ministry is
motivated by the love of God.
Its mission is
to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ and to meet human needs in his name
without discrimination.
Let’s
take these points one-by-one:
Its MESSAGE is based on the Bible. But the Bible
says: (PHILLIPS)
1 Peter
3:8-12
Be good to each other—and to all people.
‘To sum up, you should all be of one mind living
like brothers with true love and sympathy for each other, generous and
courteous at all times. Never pay back a bad turn with a bad turn or an insult
with another insult, but on the contrary pay back with good. For this is your
calling—to do good and one day to inherit all the goodness of God. For: ‘He who
would love life and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his
lips from speaking guile: let him turn away from evil and do good; let him seek
peace and pursue it. For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his
ears are open to their prayers; but the face of the Lord is against those who
do evil’.
Focusing on the events at the Howard Hospital,
did TSA heed the words of Scripture?
_______________________
Its MINISTRY is motivated by the love of
God. But God’s word says:
I John 3:
‘This is how we’ve come to understand and
experience love: Christ sacrificed his life for us. This is why we ought to
live sacrificially for our fellow believers, and not just be out for ourselves.
If you see some brother or sister in need and have the means to do something
about it but turn a cold shoulder and do nothing, what happens to God’s love?
It disappears. And you made it disappear’.
Focusing on the events of the Howard Hospital,
was TSA motivated by God’s love?
____________________________
Its MISSION is
to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ and to meet human needs in his name
without discrimination. The Gospel of Jesus Christ states:
Matthew 4:23 ‘And
Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom,
and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people’.
Focusing on the events at the Howard
Hospital, did TSA fulfill its mission statement by showing to the people of
Chiweshe the example of Jesus?
____________________________
It’s apparent by
the course of events that none of this happened – the leaders did not share the love of Jesus Christ
with these people, they did not meet their human needs and they only impacted on
the Chiweshe community in a purely negative way.
The
Salvation Army’s own Ethics Centre states ‘Recognizing
that many in our society may have poor health, may we also show care to one
another by trying to improve the life and health of those around us – and in so
doing, build a better church, community, town, and country’.
So
what happened - what led to the
complete meltdown of The Salvation Army’s own
code of conduct and its inability to fulfill its own mission statement and its own
code of ethics in this area of God’s vineyard and among His people, our
brothers and sisters in Christ?
I
would respectfully submit that its Vision of One Army, One Mission, One Message
was completely ignored when faced with this very human tragedy.
ONE
ARMY: A God-raised, Spirit-filled Army for the
21st century - convinced of its calling, moving forward together to achieve a
deeper spiritual life and unity in prayer could
not possibly result in the unchristian actions and desperate back-tracking that
occurred.
•
ONE
MISSION: The mission statement says: Into the world of the hurting, broken, lonely,
dispossessed and lost, reaching them in love by all means we will …….stand for and serve the marginalised
Our spiritual leaders did not venture into the world of the hurting, broken, lonely, dispossessed and lost in Chiweshe. They did not reach out to them in love by any means.
ONE
MESSAGE: With
the transforming message of Jesus, bringing freedom, hope and life
-
the
leaders did not communicate Christ unashamedly, nor reaffirm belief in
transformation, or evangelise and disciple effectively and provide quality
teaching resources.
The
‘message’ was not considered. Instead, loyalty
to the Salvation Army organisation was esteemed to be of higher priority than
the welfare of the very people we have been called to serve.
Jesus valued mercy,
morality and love for humanity higher than any secular laws. People and
relationships were and are more important to Him. And He taught that the
holiness of a life transformed by His love breaks down barriers between people.
(So shouldn’t this have happened in the HH case?)
Jesus would not
allow the law of the land to crush compassion, and when it came to choosing one
over the other He chose compassion, and stretched out His hand to touch people to
make them whole again.
- · He cuddled children, laid hands on them and blessed them.
- He grasped the hand of Peter, sinking in the Sea of Galilee.
- · He washed the disciples’ feet, and told us to do the same for each other.
- · He touched the lives of suffering humanity - this healing aspect of His ministry is spoken about often in the gospels.
The Salvation Army
leadership has bowed to pressure to address publically this humanitarian
episode which has touched the hearts of so many readers, and that has to be
welcome. What is disappointing to me as a SA member is the mean-spirited way it
has been done – air-brushing out of its report both the previous CMOs of Howard
Hospital, one – Captain (Dr) Paul Thistle - obviously because of the challenge
he raised and its resulting breakdown in his relationship with SA leaders, but
also of his predecessor, Major (Dr) Jim Watt (R) – who spoke up in Dr Thistle’s
favour. These two men did not deserve to have their distinguished service excluded
from this report. Their contribution to Howard hospital over many years does
them great credit. Because of their ministry, many lives in that community have
been transformed for the better, and the report should have generously reflected
this.
Some of us who have
been following this series may well be skeptical of the report – it may well be
the start of a healing process – but if it is to have any credence at all there
has to be more substance, and more truth. There are conflicting statements – on
page 2 – ‘HH is not exempt from problems or political and social upheaval.
Despite this it is running well and treating patients as usual’. Page 3,
however, states ‘The Provincial Medical Director…said that generally the
situation at Howard is improving. The workload has changed and there has been a
decline in patients…’ These two statements are contradictory, reminiscent of
the IHQ statements at the outset.
The whole sad saga
suggests to me that, basically, the leaders did not do ‘what it says on the
tin’ – they strayed from the message, the ministry and the mission, and instead
of serving suffering humanity, sadly and tragically they gave pre-eminence to
the organisation.
Unless, of course,
they can say differently…..
SA Soldier UK (name on file)
8 comments:
Well said.
I believe IHQ perceived a threat to the organization through Dr. Paul Thistle working outside certain rules. However, he like many other missionaries, was forced to do so, doing independent fund raising because the Army's system failed. The Canadian territory well knew about his independent fund raising. When faced with running a hospital and saving life and limb on a daily basis, Dr. Thistle had his priorities right and did what he had to do to keep the hospital functioning, with no financial resources or little financial resources coming through from the proper channels of TSA.
Instead of dealing with the problems that caused this situation, it was expedient for IHQ to sacrifice Paul and Pedrinah Thistle and the lives of many people of Chiweshe and the normal functioning of the HH in order to save and protect the archaic systems of the organization. Herein lies the tragedy.
Thank you for your interesting and insightful perspective -
Soldier Md. USA
With respect, after weeks on weeks of supporting Dr. Paul Thistle, isn't it time we hear directly from him? Granted, he may not have complete freedom to speak due his Zim circumstances, but unless he chimes in I for one will no longer support this ongoing drama.
SA USA
Anonymous,
And will you make the same request to have the others chime in? Commissioner Chigariro? Major Pallant? General Bond?
Major Watt, who was the CMO at the Howard prior to Dr. Thistle, has chimed in numerous times about this situation. He still has contact with people in and around the Howard Hospital, as are others who have served at the Howard Hospital in one capacity or another.
Dr. Thistle is aware of what is going on, and has communicated with a number of people who have contributed to the HH blog reports. You are correct that his ZIM circumstances prohibit him from direct contribution to this blog. But Dr. Thistle has spoken about Howard Hospital and the people of Chiweshe as recently as his August newsletter (found here: http://fsaof.blogspot.com/2013/09/monday-in-zimbabwe.html).
I, for one, intend to continue to be a voice for those who have no voice (the people of Chiweshe) or whose voice cannot be safely raised (Paul and Pedrinah Thistle).
While the SA's treatment of the Thistles appears to be the genesis of this issue, it has gone well beyond them - they have moved on and are serving God and their patients at Karanda. I happen to believe they were treated poorly, but I would have an open mind if a case were presented that they were somehow "to blame" for this situation.
What hasn't changed is the fact the SA left 275,000 people without the affordable local healthcare they depended on - and did it on 24 hours notice. They then tried to spin this that is was business as usual, and this was just a routine change at HH. One year plus later they are still doing the same thing.
So thank you to the FSAOF for continuing to keep this issue alive and for your attempts to make senior leadership accountable.
A thoroughly disillusioned, active (for now), 4th generation Canadian Salvationist
I agree with Jolinda. Even if you do not wish to 'support' Dr Thistle any longer, whatever that means, you have to question the Salvation Army leaders for their stance in all this - the fact that none of their actions - either before, during or after the decision to oust him was made - bear any semblance to Christianity, neither towards Dr Thistle, his family, nor towards the community of 270,000 people who were already some of the most disadvantaged in society. There was no compassion, no consideration, not a thought about the consequences for the suffering, the dying, those in the middle of treatment, some with post-operative issues - all to preserve the status quo at IHQ and Zim THQ.
What does that tell you?
It tells me a lot.
The fact that Dr Thistle was snapped up by Karanda hospital gives you an indication of the measure of the man, and in one way I admire him for keeping his own counsel, and living out the gift of grace that is ours when we trust fully in Christ - unlike our leaders.
Many people contributing to this HH series have been outraged at TSA leaders' actions on his behalf, and there is no doubt that at Karanda he will find true Christianity, not an idolatrous relationship to a man-made institution.
Even if this all fades into oblivion, which is what TSA wants, especially since they think they have made good by printing the (quite insulting) HH article in ATW, I can never forget it, and while it is unrepented sin, it will forever be a stain on the whole leadership.
Jolinda wrote: ' And will you make the same request to have the others chime in? Commissioner Chigariro? Major Pallant? General Bond?'
I would, if it were one of them to whom the FSAOF has given the incredible support given to Thistle. And, I believe they would have responded to our request for comments.
' I believe they would have responded' - but would you believe them?
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