Food For Thought is a public theology & Bible advocacy blog for Eternity from Sophia Think Tank’s David Wilson, who gathers top Christian thinkers to take a closer look at how the Christian faith addresses matters in society at large every week.

In a recent edition of the Saturday Age Vince Chadwick wrote a story about the disenchantment that young people in Australia have with Politics. The article, ‘Australia’s youth burn with passion as politicians fiddle’, pointed out that in general people under thirty feel little if any connection to political parties and are quite disinterested in electoral politics. This has been increasing steadily since 1967. The article quotes Dr Aaron Martin of Melbourne University and author of Young People and Politics: “… under 30’s are impatient at the pace of change and tired of an adversarial system that fosters opposition for opposition’s sake.”

This attitude reflects that of older people as well (I’m putting my hand up in agreement) but I tend to say let’s get involved in the system and try to change it from within while Australia’s young people, at least according to this article and the people he quotes, are leaving the system behind and taking grassroots measures to make a change. Chadwick says quite clearly that the lack of interest in party politics is not a sign of apathy or disinterest in the issues but a commitment to make a difference through other means, including Facebook/Twitter activism and networking around concerns such as climate change and asylum seeker: “…they are engaging en masse with political issues in ways that transcend parliamentary politics. They want politicians to grow up.”

As one of those older people, I am quick to jump up and defend my attempts at trying to change the system from within, whether it be the church, government or business. There is still a place for that and it can be very powerful, but grassroots change movements can be powerful and effective too and our young people should be applauded for their attempts.

Just after reading Chadwick’s opinion piece I read the letter from Paul the Apostle to the slave owner Philemon contained in the Bible and I realised afresh the social change that Paul was calling for in that letter. Onesimus was a runaway slave and he had associated himself with Paul. Philemon was the owner (employer) of Onesimus and had every legal right to punish, even to have tried and sentenced to death, this runaway if he ever returned. Paul calls for Philemon to set aside these legal rights and to think and act relationally instead, to receive the slave back as a brother and to be forgiving in the process.

This is not just a good news story about a forgiving boss and a courageous returning employee. It’s a story that cuts across the whole basis of the system of slavery in its day and calls for the living out of a radical alternative; a different story. It’s a call for grassroots change and it is the way Paul is getting politically involved, seeking to transform the system. Many years later, an ‘insider’ by the name of Wilberforce worked endlessly to abolish the system of slavery in his day, succeeding after many attempts. But for Paul, it was not as an insider that he was working as, but as a change agent at a grassroots level using the influence he had.

There are some who claim that Paul the Apostle never got involved politically, but this letter to Philemon tells a different story. It was the same for Jesus. Some say that He steered away from politics as well, but the stories of Him with women and children and marginalised people and the way He helped them to experience dignity and value and rise to leadership, are grassroots examples of social change that the systems of the day (both religious and political) didn’t appreciate.

I think the young people of today would warm to the activism of Jesus and Paul and would feel encouraged and affirmed in their desires to change the world from the bottom up.

Food for Thought…