I've now heard back from them, and the offending statement is very likely going to be rewritten. Excellent.
Yet I'm still deeply troubled by how widespread this type of insensitivity can be.
Here is the statement Jesus made at the beginning of His ministry, publicly declaring His mission (Luke 14:18):
"The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me,
Because He anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor.
He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives,
And recovery of sight to the blind,
To set free those who are oppressed"
I was about to type "earthly mission," but this mission is still ongoing. This very day, He is revealing His truth to the poor. This very day, He is releasing people from captivity. This very day, He is restoring sight to the blind. This very day, He is setting free the oppressed. I know, because I myself have been and in many ways still am the poor, the captive, the blind, the oppressed; and Christ is my Healer, my Liberator, my Saviour -- my only hope.
I rarely rant here about the things that sometimes go on in Christ's worldwide church -- things which misrepresent Him, delight His enemy, and delay His kingdom. But who do we think we are when we speak to human beings as though they were doctrinal pegs on a board? Do we not belong to and answer to Jesus Christ, the Judge of all, the Releaser of captives? He alone is our Head.
Have we been put in charge of separating the sheep from the goats? Certainly not, yet from what the church often conveys to the world, it would appear that we think we've been given this authority. And we go about it using earthly tools, such as politics and religious rhetoric. "Us vs. them" tactics.
Are we not simply the lost who have been found?
Our task as believers is to walk humbly with our God, to give the resurrected, living Christ free reign to live in and through us, thereby revealing to the world what He is like. Our job is to be ready at all times to walk where He wants to go, so that Christ Himself may continue to minister to the poor, the the captives, the blind, and the oppressed of the earth.
Indeed, I myself am the pauper He came to seek out and save, the prisoner He came to set free. If I were not, He would have no interest in using my life. Unless we come before Him in continual acknowledgment of our own spiritual inadequacy, giving Him the right to call all the shots, He will not use our lives meaningfully. We may have a mission or a ministry, but it will not be His.
End of rant.
All glory to Jesus, the priceless Head of the ransomed church: Prisoners, no more worthy of ransom than anyone else. Spiritual paupers, who came to Him with nothing and have received everything.