Written by Clara Kernodle<\/p>\n\n\n\n
London, like much of Europe, is an unchristian city full of churches. Heavy stone columns, marble statues and monuments and elaborate mosaics hide one sad fact: these holy buildings are spiritually empty. Few Londoners are practicing Christians, and the nation, like Iceland and Nordic Europe, has been falling away from her Christian heritage for decades. Church is now just a pretty building.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As many English and Bible majors know, England boasts an impressive Christian heritage to which many nations ought to have aspired. Though modern England has put away her Christian past, the foundation upon which she stands is a mighty one of faithful, servant-hearted nurses, politicians, preachers and schoolteachers. It is a foundation not easily forgotten. Last week, our Harding University in Europe (HUE) group took a tour of Old London\u2019s Christian heritage, beginning at St. Paul\u2019s Cathedral. Ben, our guide, is a 50-year-old photographer and evangelizing Christian who regularly reads George Whitefield\u2019s sermons, runs the Twitter account for the great Puritan preacher Thomas Watson <\/em>and has not yet given up London to godlessness. Standing on the corner by the house of the mayor of London, he told us about the most admirable and the most forgotten of the English Christian servant-leaders: Anthony Ashley-Cooper, the seventh Earl of Shaftesbury. Ben pointed \u2018round the corner, where we could barely see the small bronze statue of Eros in the middle of Piccadilly Circus. Little known, Ben said, is the statue\u2019s true name and dedication, which is the Shaftesbury Memorial Fountain. Shaftesbury, who lived from 1801 to 1885, is now forgotten by mainstream and secular England. In his time, however, he was known as the \u201cPoor Man\u2019s Earl.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Unlike many politicians or social reformers of the day, the Christian faith was central to Shaftesbury\u2019s labors. He was not bogged down in anxiety over work-church balance, and wrote that \u201cno man can persist from the beginning of his life to the end of it in a course of generosity or in a course of virtue unless he is drawing from the fountain of our Lord himself.\u201d Christ was the focal point of Shaftesbury\u2019s life, and because of this, his political life was devoted to God instead of ambition, moneymaking or fame. He practiced evangelical Anglicanism and worked to convert the unbelieving English population, clinging fiercely to the God of \u201cwisdom and mercy\u201d while working to improve the lives of the poor and destitute.<\/p>\n\n\n\n During the Industrial Revolution, little boys as young as eight were allowed to work as chimney sweeps\u2019 apprentices. Since no one checked the ages, boys as young as four stood on rooftops and climbed into chimneys the size of a breadbox; small though they were, many got stuck, were injured or even died while working as apprentices. The Earl of Shaftesbury stopped this practice and sponsored free schools \u2014 the Ragged Schools \u2014 for young boys in poverty. Before Shaftesbury\u2019s work, thousands of people deemed lunatics were locked in asylums, chained to the wall by the neck, slept naked in straw, hosed down once a week with freezing water. Shaftesbury alone paid attention. He entered these asylums, saw with his own eyes the situation of the useless and insane, and as he wrote himself, dedicated his life to \u201cthe advance of human happiness.\u201d Shaftesbury\u2019s work resulted in strict recordkeeping, better quality of care and fewer unwarranted detentions. As a member of the opposing party wrote, Shaftesbury was \u201ca ready, steadfast, and willing friend\u201d to the poor and working class. At his funeral, the streets were crowded with the young and the poor. Many of them held signs that said, \u201cI was hungry, and you fed me. I was naked, and you clothed me. I was a stranger, and you cared for me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n We cannot forget England, without which the free American church would not exist. And we cannot forget the Earl of Shaftesbury, who sacrificed power and ambition for the sake of the needy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Written by Clara Kernodle London, like much of Europe, is an unchristian city full of churches. 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