The Hopeful Activist: An interview with Rachel Walker

Let’s say we see a man on the side of the road. He is beaten, barely conscious. All the wealth he possessed is gone. It’s a dangerous area. People have been attacked here before. Many have kept their eyes down and walked quickly through it. Do you stop to help this fallen man?

In Jesus’ parable, a Samaritan man stops to help another in trouble on the dangerous stretch of road. He shows mercy to this stranger without questioning whether or not he was deserving of care. Jesus then calls the pharisee who questioned him, to do the same.

But what if the attacker isn’t a man. What if it is a system created by the few that cause the suffering of thousands of people. Instead of one fallen man on the side of the road, we see hundreds of men, women and children, beaten and in desperate need of care.

What do we, as Christians, do then?

Well, according to this book I just read, The Hopeful Activist by Rich Gower and Rachel Walker, we mobilise.

I loved the premise of the first chapter.

Here lies the key point: activism — all of it, all our action and justice-seeking and striving and serving — has to come from love.

When I asked Rachel Walker what love meant to her, she said it was wanting the people around us to be fully themselves, and taking actions to uplift them to achieve that.

This involved serving them, encouraging them, and helping them understand who God made them to be, as well as recognising God’s love for them.

For Rachel, love is a practical, relationship-centred concept that goes beyond just feelings; it’s about actively spending time with others, supporting them, and orienting one’s life towards their well-being.

“We can’t love in a vacuum. There has to be some kind of relationship element to it, both with God and with other people,” she highlighted. “It also means allowing people to take care of us as well as looking after others. All parties are involved in giving and receiving support and care.”

Rachel works for a Church of England Parish in Islington, London. She has spent her life exploring the principles of compassionate living and trying to find out what her part in challenging injustice looks like.

In fact, this book came from her search for justice. She had grown up knowing that God was a God of justice but was unclear on what that meant in day-to-day life.

“‘God of justice, saviour to all, came to rescue the weak and the poor’ was a song that we sang quite a bit at church. But what does it mean to practically serve my neighbour?

“It’s got to be more than me putting some food in a food bank. It’s got to be more than me giving some money to a charity. There’s got to be more to this.”

The answer for Rachel was recognising that following Jesus led to some form of practical action, as well as sharing the gospel.

“We can be excellent at communicating the love and grace found in Jesus, but if we’re not then showing practically that love as well, then people don’t experience it. So they don’t see the fullness of how much God is for them, how much God loves them and how much he wants to know them.”

The book talks a lot of Shalom — of peace and restoration of all things. Between us and God. Between me and you. Between us and his creation. While we wait for Jesus to return, the authors claim God has begun a work of renewal.

“I think that the pattern that we see in the Bible is God caring for this world as well,” argued Rachel. “Not just the renewal of it at the end. So I think that there is some element of our calling as Christians to be aware of brokenness and try to tackle it.”

The Hopeful Activist also states we are clearly living in a fallen world. One day God will come again to create a new heaven and a new earth. But we’re not there yet. Nevertheless:

What we do now resonates into eternity — our efforts can be part of God’s restoration project.

When I ask Rachel what she would say to people who would accuse her of being part of the current “Woke” agenda, her answer is gracious.

“Well, in this country we’ve had a long history of Christian activism changing the world.

“For instance, we had Wilberforce, a great Christian activist who helped abolish the slave trade. The establishment of the NHS was described as ‘a piece of real Christianity’.

“Then we also have free schooling for children today, thanks to the creation of schools amongst the urban poor by Christian missionaries in the 1800s.

“There’s so much stuff that we’ve got, that we take for granted, in the UK that is here because of Christian activism.”

In Mark’s gospel Jesus says the following command:

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’The second is this: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”

Mark 12:30-31

The Hopeful Activist suggests that loving God and our neighbour can naturally lead to political activism too.