Reflection: Going Further Upstream

WCIU Journal: Worldview Topic

June 12, 2015

by William D. Bjoraker

I attended the annual Fuller Forum, at Fuller Theological Seminary in April on the theme of “Justice, Grace and Law, and Law in the Mission of God.” There, Michael McBride, an African American leader, told this story:

“A man and a woman were walking along a riverbank one day. As they were walking, the man saw a baby floating down the river. Alarmed, he jumped in and pulled the baby out. As they continued to walk, the woman saw another baby floating down the river. She then jumps in and saves the second baby. As they continued on, they saw several more babies floating down the river! They both jumped in and pulled out as many babies as they could. But they saw even more babies coming down river. So the woman said to the man, “We must go upstream as far as we can and find out why these babies are being cast into the river and who is throwing them, and how we can stop this!”

Our WCIU mission statement is to “Preparing men and women to discover and address the roots of human problems around the world.” So, we as scholar-activists we must go upstream, to “discover the roots,” not merely continue rescue operations of those downstream, damaged by the consequences of the sources of problems. We must go further upstream than political action, we must address spiritual and worldview issues that form and shape culture.

William D. (Bill) Bjoraker is Associate Professor of Judeo Christian Studies and Contemporary Western Culture at William Carey International University,.