For example, I am still embarrassed by my inability to answer non-Christian friends who, at the height of the Gulf War, asked me with all seriousness how an international evangelist like Billy Graham could pray on television with George Bush for an American victory. I know there are many fine American Christians who have spoken against the bigotry of large sections of the American church, and publicly challenged the identification of the Christian faith with American civil religion. I also find it hard to believe that any of us can have a truly global perspective on mission. That is God s prerogative. Knowing that 30 percent of Koreans are now Christians, while the corresponding figure in India is only 2 percent, doesn t tell me very much about what God is doing in either country.
Global mission arises out of national mission.
A sense of world history in addition to our national history. My experience is that most Christians, not least university students and graduates from the best-endowed institutions of the West, are pathetically myopic in this regard. Christian teachers need to confront the parochialism that passes for education. A willingness to criticize one s own cultural values and national policies in the light of global suffering and injustice. This sensitivity to human need, and of one s own tacit involvement in structural and personal evils, should be uppermost on the agenda of any organization that claims the world for its parish.