When the Scottish missionary, David Livingstone went to Africa in 1841 it was as a medical missionary with full medical qualifications. His Christian commitment is well expressed in his saying, “I will place no value on anything I have or may possess except in relation to the Kingdom of Christ.” His concern for the people of Africa was also evident in his struggle for the abolition of slavery.

The French-German theologian, organist, philosopher and physician, Albert Schweitzer, was a somewhat more controversial figure. But when, in 1913, he went to the part of Africa that is now known as Gabon it was also as a medical missionary. His little hospital at Lambarene became quite a famous place in the history of Christian missions.

I thought of these things some weeks ago when I was idly amusing myself by succumbing to some “click bait” on Facebook. Facebook users will be familiar with what I’m talking about. Items of news or of general interest are presented for you to click on. What you actually get is screeds and screeds of advertising for all sorts of things: from the latest diet fad to the surest get-rich-quick scheme. And – yes – a little bit of attention is also given to whatever it was that enticed you to go there in the first place.

What took my attention in this instance were some artistic impressions of what was called “Absurdities of Modern Society”. Most of these pictures from Spanish artist Luis Quiles I found quite forgettable but one or two were provocative and gave cause for reflection.

The piece of artwork that particularly struck me was entitled “Religion’s ‘helping’ hand in poverty”. It was a grotesque image of an emaciated African tribal youth trying to eat a book that was clearly labelled as a “Holy Bible”. It was grotesque – not because of the depiction of a starving African youth but because of the caricature that all that religion does to help people is give out Bibles.

Here was yet another attempt to discredit Christianity. Well, okay, on the ground in front of him were also other religious books – one of which appeared to be the Koran. But it was the Christian’s Holy Bible that the lad was trying to eat. So Christianity was copping rebuke for neglecting the body in preference for caring for the soul.

So is this indeed a caricature… or is this reality?

I have to be honest and admit that there have been times when Christians got it wrong. The apostle James already warned people in his day about being similarly neglectful of the needs of the body: “If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that?”

Yet it is grossly unfair to portray Christians as being concerned only with Bibles. David Livingstone and Albert Schweitzer are only two prominent cases in point where a concern for the soul was matched with a concern for the wellbeing of the body. Gladys Aylward, a British Christian evangelical missionary went to China but it wasn’t just to give people Bibles. Among other things she ran an orphanage, got involved in prison reforms and fought against the practice of foot-binding of infant girls. Similar comments could be made about Hudson Taylor and a whole host of other missionaries who fought hard to improve the physical condition of those they sought, by the grace of God, to save.

Those who want to discredit the Christian faith as something that is only “pie in the sky, by and by when we die” should really use their brains and do a little thinking. Just remove from our world every Christian school and hospital and shut down every charity that has Christian origins. While we’re at it, stop all further prison-ministry activity by the followers of Jesus and stop all their child-sponsorship programs. The result would be a world that is an even darker place than it already is.

The fact is that those who want to be like Jesus can’t be concerned for the soul while neglecting the body.

John Westendorp