Who Is My Neighbor?: Being a Good Samaritan in a Connected World

by Steve Moore

  “Granville Sharp was one of those Christian fanatics who took the injunction to love one's neighbor literally—who loved neighbors even when they were inconvenient African neighbors trying to reclaim their freedom.”4 Just as Jesus had commanded, Sharp took the initiative to cross boundaries and overcome barriers to show God's mercy by serving others, even when they were not like him and couldn't repay him. Like the Good Samaritan, Sharp took the young slave, Jonathan Strong, to his brother's clinic on Mincing Lane, where he received emergency care. Once he was stabilized, they took him to a hospital and paid for his extended stay. Strong's injuries were so severe that it took four months in the hospital for him to recover.

  As is often the case, this initial engagement with the slave trade came through the service domain, focused on meeting a need. But two years after Jonathan Strong had been rescued by the merciful initiative of the Sharp brothers, he was spotted by David Lisle, the lawyer and slave owner who had pistol-whipped him and tossed him out on the street like human rubbish. Lisle was amazed to discover his property was still alive and now quite valuable. He had Strong kidnapped and put in jail while he sought for a buyer. Word came to Granville Sharp, who again came to the rescue, leveraging his vast network and demonstrating a bulldoglike tenacity that convinced Lisle to release his claim. The incident engaged Sharp's curiosity and catapulted him into a study of English law. His self-taught legal expertise would place him at the center of another high-profile case regarding an African man named Somerset who, though a slave in Virginia, had been brought to London and was demanding his freedom. Building on several years of obsessive study, Granville pressed the case in the courts and won a narrow victory. The judge ruled that Somerset was free without applying the decision to the fourteen thousand other slaves in England. The celebration surrounding the case resounded throughout the abolition movement and beyond, triggering a growing choir of voices who joined Granville Sharp in decrying the evils of slavery. And the echoes of those voices could still be heard when William Wilberforce made his public entrance into the justice domain as an expression of passionate engagement for the same cause.

  ADVOCACY AS A GATEWAY TO PASSIONATE ENGAGEMENT

  Thomas Clarkson entered the abolition movement through an unlikely set of circumstances. As a twenty-five-year-old divinity student at St. John's College, the same school Wilberforce had attended a few years earlier, he entered an annual Latin essay contest sponsored by Cambridge University. The vice chancellor, an Anglican minister named Peter Peckard, had a growing distaste for the slave trade and chose to focus the annual essay on the question, “Is it lawful to enslave others against their will?” This contest was especially prestigious, padding the award winner's résumé for life.

  Clarkson was a devout Christ follower but had not given much thought at all to the slave trade. He was a motivated student who set his sights on winning the highly coveted essay contest with little thought about ending the slave trade. But as he threw himself into hours of rigorous study, the information Clarkson gleaned birthed a wellspring of compassion. The pressure of that wellspring of knowledge gathered steam like a geyser ready to burst forth from the soil of Clarkson's heart.

  Thomas Clarkson's essay won the prize, but he was no longer satisfied with padding his résumé. He was feeling compelled toward action. After completing his studies, he left Cambridge for London on horseback. The information he had gathered for his essay haunted him to the point that he dismounted his horse near Herefordshire. “It was a moment he would remember for the rest of his long life. For it was there and then, on the side of the road, that it first occurred to Thomas Clarkson that if the things he had uncovered and written about in his prize-winning essay were a reality … it was time someone put an end to them.”5

  His first step was to translate his Latin essay into English and distribute it. He had become an unlikely advocate in the abolitionist cause. After publically declaring his decision to a full-time commitment to the cause of ending slavery, “he would from that point forward be unflagging in his efforts to stir up public zeal by distributing copies of his essay.”6 Effective advocacy requires solid information. Clarkson had done significant research for his essay, but the self-directed motivation to keep learning more about the horrors of slavery overtook Clarkson like a raging storm. It is said that before he was through Clarkson had interviewed as many as twenty thousand sailors.

  Others would be invited to contribute their talents to the cause. John Newton was asked to persuade his friend William Cowper to write a poem. He submitted “The Negro's Complaint,” which helped widen the circle of information. An artist named Josiah Wedgwood created an image of a kneeling slave, shackled both hand and foot, looking upward to ask, “Am I not a man and a brother?” This may have been the first logo ever created for a human rights campaign. It was printed on everything from snuff boxes to jewelry pinned by ladies to their dresses and in their hair. It was even made into a letter-sealing fob to imprint the wax used to seal letters.

  Thomas Clarkson came into possession of a slave-ship schematic that showed in great detail how to position slaves to maximize their numbers as human cargo. To slave traders it was a stale expression of business-process optimization with a free market focus on the bottom line. To the growing number of people taking a fresh look at the slave trade, due in part to Clarkson and his network of advocates, it was a “nightmare of understatement.”7 Clarkson meticulously reworked the diagram using the measurements of a specific slave ship owned by one of the wealthiest families in Liverpool. At first glance the images could be anything from meaningless marks to antlike creatures. But upon closer examination the detailed drawing showed people; the smaller ones must be children. It was distributed everywhere, becoming as horrifying as it was ubiquitous.

  The advocacy expression of passionate engagement had cobbled together an unlikely group of artists and poets whose diverse gifting helped build the groundswell of support that paved the way for Wilberforce. At five in the evening on May 12, 1789, Wilberforce would make the speech of his life, speaking extemporaneously before Parliament for three and a half hours. But in spite of his meticulous, logical, and powerful argument, the effort to pass anti–slave trade legislation fell short. Another approach would be needed, one driven by the curious desire to solve a problem.

  DISCOVERY AS A GATEWAY TO PASSIONATE ENGAGEMENT

  The string of legislative defeats, beginning in 1789 and again in 1791, was more than Thomas Clarkson could bear. He eventually stepped away from active engagement in the cause for more than a decade. But as Clarkson exited the stage, another unlikely player arrived in London. His name was James Stephen. When Stephen was a child, his father had gone bankrupt, ending up in a debtor's prison. As strange as it seems today, incarcerated debtors were allowed to take their family with them. James Stephen spent some of his formative years in prison with his father.

  As a young man exploring the nightlife in London, he found himself in a scandalous situation, engaged to two women at the same time, with one of them pregnant. He took the easy way out and fled the country, headed for the West Indies, where he would make a fortune. Upon arriving in Barbados in 1783, Stephen attended the trial of several African slaves who were widely believed to have been falsely accused. They were not only convicted but burned alive at the stake. The horrific sight formed a heartlink between James Stephen and the abolitionist cause.

  Arriving in London, Stephen joined the network of abolitionists known as the Clapham Sect. His study of merchant law had led him to a discovery that would play a significant role in solving the problem Wilberforce had faced in fashioning legislation that would impact the slave trade and still be passed in Parliament.

  The French were at war with England, and most slave ships conveniently sailed under the neutral American flag so as not to be liable to seizure by privately owned vessels commissioned by either the French or English government, to harass their enemy's sailing vessels. James Stephen proposed they introduce a bill that r
emoved the protection of neutrality and authorized privateers to seize the cargo of French ships sailing under the American flag.

  The movie Amazing Grace depicts Clarkson and Wilberforce interrupting Prime Minister William Pitt's game of golf to present this strategy. For the life of him, Pitt could not see why this bill was important enough to warrant a special visit and interrupt his golf or what it had to do with the slave trade. The stealth nature of the bill was its brilliance. Wilberforce explained: “Eighty percent of all slave ships are flying the neutral American flag to prevent them from being boarded by privateers. If we pass a law removing their protection no ship owner will dare allow his vessel to make the journey.” The bill would apply equally to both French and English ships since they both employed the same neutral flag strategy.

  Wilberforce explained to Pitt that while the bill wouldn't put an end to the slave trade, it would cut their profits so deeply that as many as half of the traders would be bankrupt in two years. James Stephen had discovered a plan that was openly anti-French and secretly anti-slave. All that was needed was a boring parliamentarian with a reputation for patriotism to put the bill forward so as to protect the real motives behind it. The bill passed and turned the momentum back in Wilberforce's favor.

  SERVICE AS A GATEWAY TO PASSIONATE ENGAGEMENT

  One of the by-products of the Somerset case that Granville Sharp had successfully argued was the increasing number of “negro beggars” on the streets of London. Also, many American slaves had been given freedom by joining the British forces during the war with the colonies. The work to abolish the slave trade continued, but the importance of meeting the needs of freed slaves became increasingly obvious.

  In 1786 a Committee for Relieving the Black Poor was established; a key player in the formation of the committee was Dr. Smeathman, who had lived on the west coast of Africa and suggested a colony be formed there for freed slaves. The goal was to prove blacks were every bit as capable of governing themselves as the people who had enslaved them. It was hoped a thriving economy could be established to help form a beachhead of freedom. May 10, 1787, several hundred blacks arrived in Sierra Leone as the firstfruits of this well-intended experiment. But across the ocean in the West Indies, other Christ followers motivated by service to God and others had already been at work for more than three decades.

  “The Moravians were extraordinary Christians who … ignored the high-toned sneering of the theologically compromised Church of England religious leaders, and quietly did what their faith in God called them to do.”8 They were committed to obedience, even when it required sacrifice. The leader of the Moravian movement was Count Zinzendorf, who while traveling in Denmark met a West Indian slave named Antony Ulrich. He told Zinzendorf as much about the spiritual need of his brethren as the evils of slavery. “If only some missionaries would come,” said Ulrich, “they would certainly be heartily welcomed. Many an evening have I sat on the shore and sighed my soul toward Christian Europe; and I have a brother and sister in bondage who long to know the living God.”9

  Upon returning to the community he had founded in Herrnhut, Moravia, Zinzendorf shared his passion for missionary service among the slaves of the West Indies. Antony Ulrich came and addressed the congregation, explaining that no one could be a missionary in St. Thomas without first becoming a slave. In fact, Ulrich was innocently mistaken, but the young men who stepped forward to serve did so with the belief they were sacrificing their freedom for the privilege of crossing boundaries and overcoming barriers to show God's mercy by serving others.

  Leonard Dober and David Nitschmann accepted this call and saw the firstfruits of Moravian missionary service. For fifty years the Moravian Brethren labored in the West Indies without aid from any other religious denomination. They established churches in St. Thomas, in St. Croix, in St. John's, in Jamaica, in Antigua, in Barbados, and in St. Kitts. They had thirteen thousand baptized converts before a missionary from any other church arrived on the scene.10

  This epic struggle against the evil of the slave trade did not end in Wilberforce's day. The great strides made by the network of collaborators operating in each of the four domains of passionate engagement helped change the mind-set that had made slavery acceptable and allowed it to survive unchallenged for millennia. But the evils of bonded labor, human trafficking, the oppression of Dalits, and other forms of slavery still exist today. Efforts to chip away at their foundations will require a multifaceted approach that includes service, justice, discovery, and advocacy. It will require a diversity of people with varied gifting who are unified by a commitment to learn more about, engage in, and influence others toward noble, issue-based causes even when sacrifice is required. And it will call forth point leaders like Wilberforce who allow the raw fuel of passion to become a life of purpose.

  Examples of passion-fueled purpose can be inspiring and overwhelming at the same time. A common danger is the temptation to evaluate the worth of one's purpose based on how it compares to others. This is one of the Devil's favorite traps. Some of us are tempted to compare our journey with individuals who we believe are less important and to think more highly of ourselves than we ought. Others are tempted to compare themselves with people whose lives are playing out on a “grander stage” and shrink back. These are like ditches on either side of the road, and the Enemy doesn't really care which one we land in as long as he can get us off track. Remember, it is not the scale of your purpose that matters but the Source.

  Chapter 6

  PASSION-FUELED PURPOSE

  A great purpose is cumulative, and, like a great magnet, it attracts all that is kindred along the stream of life.1 Wilberforce was a great magnet, and the network of collaborators that was drawn to him made all the difference. It was not the strength of his personality that attracted them but the greatness of his purpose. Long before the public victories in his enduring struggle to end the slave trade, Wilberforce had privately surrendered himself to God's purpose for his life, writing in his journal on October 28, 1787, “God almighty has set before me two great objects: the suppression of the slave trade and the reformation of manners.”2

  By the reformation of manners, Wilberforce was referring to a transformation in the habits and attitudes of the day with a distinctly moral overtone. He wanted to make “goodness fashionable.” In spite of the fact that he was an up-and-coming politician, having been elected to Parliament seven years earlier at age twenty-one, Wilberforce's life purpose as defined by the two great objects appears ambitious at best and presumptuous at worst. Yet fueled by increasing levels of issue-based passion, William Wilberforce poured out his life like a drink offering in the pursuit of a God-honoring life purpose. His legacy stands as a powerful reminder of the admonition given by the apostle Paul: “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up” (Galatians 6:9).

  As we have seen in the life of Amy Carmichael, C. T. Studd, and William Wilberforce and his network of abolitionist leaders, God uses life-shaping experiences to establish heartlinks with issue-based passions. These heartlinks, like hyperlinks in Google's PageRank algorithm, help organize and prioritize the passions that fuel a life of purpose. While this process is not new, it is increasingly important today if we are to respond intelligently to the daily barrage of needs a Google-powered and connected world puts in the palms of our hands in real time. PageRanking your passions will help inform decisions about the causes toward which you leverage your time, gifts, and resources in the service of others. But answering the question, “Who is my neighbor?” and finding your way as a Good Samaritan in a connected world will require you to move beyond high levels of issue-based passion toward growing clarity about your life purpose.

  LIFE PURPOSE: THE TRIPLE BOTTOM LINE

  Understanding your issue-based passions opens the door to the highest purpose for your life, connecting your deepest sense of fulfillment with your greatest sense of accomplishment. How can you know if you're pursuing the hi
ghest purpose for your life? It must bring glory to God and serve or add value to others. To reprise a supporting idea from the story of the Good Samaritan, it must be a God-first and others-focused agenda. But it will also connect your deepest sense of fulfillment with your greatest sense of accomplishment. When pursuing your highest purpose, you will never find yourself at the top of the ladder of success only to discover it is leaning against the wrong wall.

  For Christ followers this kind of focused living pays a triple bottom line. When you pursue your life purpose, God receives the greatest glory, you receive the greatest joy, and the kingdom is most strategically advanced on the earth. There is nothing you could do in the time you are granted on earth that will bring God more glory than to fulfill His purpose for your life. In your wildest, most imaginative and creative moment, there is nothing you could envision doing with your life that would bring you more joy and fulfillment than what God has already designed. Regardless of how diligently and persistently you leverage your giftedness, no contribution will be more strategic than simply doing the “good works” God has already prepared in advance for you to do (Ephesians 2:10).

  In pursuing your purpose, you will experience great joy, but it will not be easy. Life purpose is never the path of least resistance, which is why the renewable fuel of issue-based passion is so important. You will need the self-directed commitment to keep learning, engaging, and influencing, even when sacrifice is required.

  DISCOVERING YOUR LIFE PURPOSE: THE THREE VARIABLES