While Christians from many denominations and places of worship were present, not all Christians wanted to participate in the march with some fundamentalists making allegations the event was ecumenism under another banner.
The March for Jesus organisers now have a couple of major challenges to face. Firstly, they have to overcome the perception that their real debate is about the concept of Christian unity rather than spreading the Gospel message to an increasingly pluralist community.
The central question is - has the Gospel message of Salvation, known as being ‘born again’ or ‘saved’, been theologically compromised in order to demonstrate a numerical show of strength on the streets?
The organisers maintain there has been no such Biblical surrender; fundamentalists are equally adamant the Gospel message has been watered down.
In the numbers game, the March for Jesus organisers would probably maintain they have been able to muster enough participants to give the traditional Pride parade in Belfast a run for its money.
Another central question for the March for Jesus community is where do they go from the recent parade? Do they go back to their respective places of worship and try to recreate the spiritual revival among their local communities?
Or, will the March for Jesus fizzle out in the same way as past spiritual crazes, such as the Toronto Blessing and the Florida Outpouring, evaporated?
The bitter reality which the March for Jesus organisers and participants must address is that if they are to have a lasting effect, they will have to organise themselves politically. This means converting March for Jesus into a political lobby group.
Practically, it means adopting the same strategy as the Southern Baptist churches in the Deep South of the United States in the Sixties when they persuaded many in the African American community to get registered as voters.
If March for Jesus is to avoid ‘burnt out firework’ syndrome, it will have to organise as many Christians as possible to get not just voter registered, but to actually come out and vote on polling day for candidates who hold a socially conservative agenda on abortion, same sex marriage, and gender identity.
Many Christians adopt a ‘come ye out from amongst them’ attitude to the ballot box, viewing voting as being part of the world they should not participate in.
However, this brand of Christianity cannot complain about the state of society if they are not prepared to participate in the democratic process and elect candidates who are socially conservative. Change happened in the Southern states of America when the African Americans physically voted for pro-civil rights candidates.
I have often posed the question to various Christians - if existing political parties are becoming too liberal, why not form your own Christian Party? The real answer to this question is no, because Christians from various denominations and places of worship are more interested in arguing about Biblical theology than political ideology.
If the reaction from some Christians who criticised the March for Jesus is taken as a benchmark, then the Christians who take an ecumenical stand on denominational co-operation have little in common with the diehard fundamentalists who will slam any event where Catholic clerics have a role.
More bitter medicine which Christianity has to swallow is that churches are perceived not to have the same influence on political parties as they once enjoyed in much of the last century.
For example, the Catholic Church does not enjoy the same leverage over the Dail in Dublin as it did during the de Valera era.
Likewise, the fundamentalist Free Presbyterian Church, founded in 1951 by former First Minister Rev Ian Paisley - later Lord Bannside - does not have the same influence over the DUP, the party which Paisley founded in 1971.
Put bluntly, even Christian lobby groups are perceived not to have the same influence on Stormont legislation. When was the last time organisations, such as the Caleb Foundation, Evangelical Alliance, or the Evangelical Protestant Society, could claim they championed or stopped a piece of Stormont or Dail legislation?
The perception is that Christians seem more interested in arguing about the role of women in church life, dress codes for Sunday worship, translations of the Bible, adult and infant baptism, how many times to have communion during the year, how to get into heaven, and especially what type of music and what instruments are appropriate in church praise.
Perhaps if March for Jesus is to have a lasting impact on Northern Ireland society, the organisers should study why the great spiritual revival of 1859 was such a success in geographical Ulster, resulting in tens of thousands of people becoming ‘born again’ Christian believers.
March for Jesus has certainly proven it can mobilise a significant parade, attracting thousands of followers. Only time will tell if March for Jesus has laid the foundations stones for an 1859-style Christian unity revival, or sown the seeds for more disunity rows within the Christian faith.
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| Follow Dr John Coulter on Twitter @JohnAHCoulter John is a Director for Belfast’s Christian radio station, Sunshine 1049 FM. |
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