A voice for the voiceless

Open your mouth for the speechless, In the cause of all who are appointed to die. Open your mouth, judge righteously, And plead the cause of the poor and needy.

 - Proverbs 31:8-9

God’s people have always been the ones who are supposed care for, stand up for, and speak up for those who don’t have any voice.

I am still learning these things. For a good part of my Christian life I was a part of churches who rarely if ever said anything about the less fortunate. In order to not be accused of preaching the ‘social gospel’ we did nothing about the needs of the needy and never spoke out for those who had no voice. We left that to the ‘liberals.’

Even today we don’t hear the church speaking up for those who have no voice.  We do it for the unborn and that is a great cause. But how about the poor and homeless and those forced to flee terror and are looking for refuge? Where are our voices calling out for them?

We can be an awful selfish bunch. We cry out when things don’t go our way or when we think our ‘rights’ might be infringed. We praise the politicians who help us and condemn programmes that help the voiceless. We turn a blind eye to the millions around the world who suffer oppression.

How many of us are standing and pleading the cause of the poor and needy? Who is going to speak up for them?

It is God’s people who are called to do it. We can’t depend on anyone else. Of course we should be giving and helping the poor and needy ourselves, but we also ought to plead for them for whatever help we can get for them.