Worship – a catalyst in how Malcolm Muggeridge came to faith.

January 28, 2008

I read an interesting account recently of how worship was a catalyst in how Malcolm Muggeridge came to faith.

And you know one of the great things about this story? we don’t know who the worship leader was and we don’t know whose songs were being sung – I think sometimes we make idols out of ‘clay things’ in our contemporary western Christianity – I know I do!

Larry A. Taunton from fixed-point.org tells the story of the turnaround from atheism and communism of one of the 20th century’s great thinkers and the person who introduced the world to Mother Teresa.

He writes: Muggeridge was, at various stages of his life, an atheist, a Marxist, a womanizer, a Member of Parliament, a journalist, a spy, a staunch anti-communist, and a Christian apologist. While he is best remembered by his fellow Britons for his television documentaries and an unmistakable lilt, Muggeridge deserves to be remembered for a much more significant reason…

…One Sunday while still in Ukraine, he made the uncharacteristic decision to attend a church service. The place was packed with people from every walk of life. Muggeridge was moved:

Never before or since have I participated in such worship. The sense conveyed of turning to God in great affliction was overpowering…. In their minds, I knew, as in mine, was a picture of those desolate abandoned villages, of the hunger and the hopelessness, of the cattle trucks being loaded with humans in the dawn light. Where were they to turn for help? … Every human agency was found wanting. So only God remained, and to God they turned with a passion, a dedication, a humility, impossible to convey.

You can read the full story here - http://www.fixed-point.org/images/assets/documents/Newsletter_Famine_of_Truth.pdf

Posted by Andy | Filed Under General Musings