I am an 80s guy so when I ran across this morsel of history from that time period, I thought I would share a little about it. This isn’t an endorsement, but you can’t change history, and I remember when this all happened.
Ethiopia is located in the Horn of Africa in the eastern region. During the 80s, it had been hit hard by famine. “The worst famine to hit the country in a century, it affected 7.75 million people (out of Ethiopia’s 38–40 million) and left approximately 300,000 to 1.2 million dead. 2.5 million people were internally displaced whereas 400,000 refugees left Ethiopia. Almost 200,000 children were orphaned.”1
“In 1985… the American entertainer and activist Harry Belafonte decided to organize a US [group]. He planned to have the proceeds donated to a new organization, United Support of Artists for Africa (USA for Africa). The organization would provide food and relief aid for the 1983–1985 famine in Ethiopia… Belafonte also planned to set aside money to help eliminate hunger in the United States of America.
“Belafonte contacted the entertainment manager and fundraiser Ken Kragen, who enlisted his clients Lionel Richie and Kenny Rogers. In turn, they enlisted Stevie Wonder, to add more “name value”. Quincy Jones was drafted to co-produce… Jones also telephoned Michael Jackson, who had just concluded a tour with his brothers.”2
Invitations were sent out to 45 music stars. When they arrived at the studio, a sign was taped to the door: Check your egos. “Wonder greeted the musicians as they entered, and said that if the recording was not completed in one take, he and Ray Charles, two blind men, would drive everybody home.”3 Though begun on January 28th, it wasn’t finished until just before sunrise on the 29th. The song We Are The World was released and raised almost $11 million in just four months. The success of the song and the emphasis of relief for Ethiopia caused another $1.5 million to be donated in the same time
period.
Again, this isn’t an endorsement of the genre of music or of any of the musical talent that produced the song. But this does provide us with something we ought to consider.
We must believe that God cherishes unity among the Believers. Psalms 133:1 says, “Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!” Speaking to the church of Ephesus in Ephesians 4:1-3, Paul said, “I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called, (2) With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love; (3) Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.”
Quickly, I want to remind us that unity is never gained at the expense of doctrinal truth and purity. Efforts at unity are sacrificed on the altar of the Word of God. God’s Word must always come first. When it has and does, then we need to “check our egos.” Yes, we all have them and they often get in the way of us enjoying the unity God has for us.
Check your egos sounds easy enough. Musical stars could pull it off for a few hours, although there was a time in the recording studio that they nearly had a mutiny over some lyrics Stevie Wonder wanted included. They were in Swahili and this didn’t sit well with Waylon Jennings and several others. A compromise was struck and some ego bruising had to be soothed.
How can Christians check their egos? How can we have unity in the church? Again, we don’t sacrifice the Gospel, the Word of God, doctrine, integrity, or the purity of the Lord’s church. Instead, we practice Philippians 2:3-5. “Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves. (4) Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. (5) Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus…”
1https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1983%E2%80%931985_famine_in_Ethiopia
2https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/We_Are_the_World
3Ibid.
Images are taken from https://pixabay.com/, https://www.pexels.com/, or https://unsplash.com/images or created in Windows Copilot. According to the websites, they are Royalty Free and free to be used for our purposes.
