"In spite of...proud claims of miraculous transformation, the polls showed that members of the movement divorced their spouses just as often as their secular neighbors. They beat their wives as often as their neighbors. They were almost as materialistic and even more racist than their pagan friends. The hard-core skeptics smiled in cynical amusement at this blatant hypocrisy. The general public was puzzled and disgusted... . Others wept. ... This...is roughly the situation of Western or at least American evangelicalism today." Ron Sider, The Scandal of the Evangelical Conscience (page 12)

God calls us to action-and that action arises from our worship, where we come to understand that God calls us to both charity and justice: Since there will never cease to be some in need on the earth, I therefore command you, "Open your hand to the poor and needy neighbor in your land." Deuteronomy 15:11 Take away from me the noise of your songs; I will not listen to the melody of your harps. But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream. Amos 5:23-24

The quote above comes from the "Introduction" to Ron Sider's new book (Baker Books, 2005). It is one example of the prophetic concern that many are voicing about the significant problems in today's Christian church.

The object is not to point fingers or to shake our heads in disgust or to give in to an "ain't it awful" mentality. The point, as I see it, is to take seriously the words of Jesus: "First, take the log out of your own eye" (Matthew 7:5, NSRV), and "Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven" (Matthew 5:16, NSRV).

I will admit that I had trouble writing this column. Having put "Part 1" on last month's column, I knew I had to follow up with at least a Part 2. My problem was not that there is not much to say. Rather, it is that in some ways it's difficult to fit what I want to say into the context of "Balancing Acts," which is: Identify a problem and then show how to bring both faith and works to bear on the problem. It is assumed that there will be easily identified actions that can be suggested and that these can be associated with appropriate Internet links to facilitate the reader's engagement. But this particular "problem" does not lend itself to point-and-click solutions.

Perhaps I should not be dealing with this more systemic issue, but I can't get past the conviction that before we, as the church, can actively call on the culture and the government to right wrongs, we need to be sure that our own house is largely in order.

Therefore, for this month, I would like to deviate somewhat from the prescribed format and simply give some food for thought in the form of some of Sider's sobering statistics and an early church example. The links cited with some of the statistics provide more detailed information and analysis from the Christian research organization, the Barna Group. Consider the following: