As a youngster, I loved wandering into religious groups and debating with their leaders.

I was not always searching for truth. Quite often, I was searching for an audience.

One day, after I had delivered what I considered a brilliant argument against some religious belief, a boy older than me took me aside. He was an atheist, and naturally I was eager to impress him with my intellectual fireworks.

He had listened to all I had been saying and then said, “Bob, if you do not have something better to offer, then do not pull down the props that help people live, even if you think those props are not good.”

His words silenced me.

I realised that while I was proudly demolishing beliefs, I had not bothered to ask what those beliefs were holding up. Perhaps a grieving mother found strength through prayer. Perhaps a frightened child slept peacefully because he believed God watched over him. Perhaps a poor man endured another hungry day because faith whispered that tomorrow might be better.

It is easy to pull down a prop.

It is harder to hold up a roof.

I remember those words today as Christian schools, mission hospitals, charitable institutions and voluntary organisations are viewed with suspicion, harassed, attacked or their means of funding are taken away.

Before pulling them down, look carefully at what they are supporting.

Look at the child receiving an education in a distant village.

Look at the patient treated in a mission hospital when no other doctor is nearby.

Look at the orphan given a home, the widow given dignity, the hungry person given food and the dying person given comfort.

Are these institutions perfect? Certainly not. No human institution is.

But are they converting people?

Yes, they are converting darkness into hope, ignorance into education, sickness into healing and despair into dignity.

They do this because Jesus said in Matthew, chapter 25, verse 40, “Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.”

That is not a marketing strategy. It is a command.

Our nation continues to struggle with poverty, hunger, poor health care and unequal access to education. Yet, instead of strengthening every hand that serves the needy, today’s selfish leaders seem determined to slap those hands away because helping the poor does not fit conveniently into their political narrative.

Gentlemen, if you believe these institutions should disappear, first show us what you will put in their place.

Will you build the schools? Staff the hospitals? Feed the hungry? Shelter the abandoned? Comfort the dying?

If you have something better, bring it.

But until then, remember the wisdom an atheist once gave a young boy.

For the sake of petty politics, do not pull down the props.

The roof may fall on all of us….!

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