Social justice has been a hot topic in American culture lately. Glenn Beck recently suggested that good Christians should leave their churches if they teach about social justice. I have several Christian conservative friends who are actually outspoken against social justice. They fear that a form of social gospel will replace personal evangelism as the mission of the people of God. I have several Christian friends who actively embrace social justice issues, and they fear that a personalized form of religion has taken over much of American Christianity and, as a result, Christians have given up on their neighbors and the needs of others in our society.
I cannot fault folks for having a vested interest in ensuring that what is being taught in churches is truthful. I do have some concerns, though, for Christians who are so outspoken against social justice. My first concern is that most of my conservative Christian friends who are so outspoken against social justice issues choose to live in places where they enjoy the benefits of functioning systems. They are disconnected from broken systems and the brokenness of people in need. I would like to ask them why they choose to live in a nice suburban neighborhood (not that I have anything against that). I would bet that they would give a social example for almost every reason they live there: good schools, good housing that gains value, good public works, good police work, functioning local government, good shopping, good potential for economic growth, etc., etc. I would suggest that the Christians who are most passionate about embracing social justice issues are folks who live in the midst of dysfunctional systems in places like the inner city. Their life experiences are the opposite of the suburban friends I just described: poor schools, poor housing options, dysfunctional public works, lack of police presence, dysfunctional local government, no good places to shop, few profitable local businesses, etc., etc. If you can see my point, it is very hypocritical for Christians living in functioning social systems to denounce the Christians living amidst broken social systems for wanting to improve their lives and the lives of others by engaging in social justice. I guarantee that if the Christians living in functioning social systems ever had a complete breakdown in their systems, they would suddenly have a renewed vigor in the value of Christians engaging in social justice. Or, better yet, they could come and live in my inner city neighborhood for a while to see what it is like. Then they might understand.
Second, both words and works have equal value in communicating the gospel message. Sometimes we are called to use words. Other times we are called to use works. One method is not more important than the other. To give an example of this, sometimes when people participate in a neighborhood clean up event or serve food to the homeless, they express disappointment to me that somehow their time was wasted because they didn't have a chance to share the gospel. Actually, they did just share the gospel through their works. Maybe they'll be called to use words in the next situation that God places them, but in this instance of service they did share the message of Christ's love. Jesus did this all the time!
Notice I am not talking about abandoning the revolutionary and subversive message of the love of Jesus Christ. I am talking about engaging even more in utilizing all means of sharing Christ's love. The message of the gospel of Jesus Christ should never be watered down. God chooses to work through us through words and works. Christians should be engaged in both personal evangelism and social justice. For the Bible tells us so...
2 comments:
Bryan
I agree with you, as usual. :)
Methinks that those in the Kingdom who speak against social justice issues don't understand what the term 'social justice' actually means. To many, it means (incorrectly) giving thngs (mostly money and services) to people who rightly need to feel the pinch of the consequences of their own bad behavior and poor choices. They see social justice as enabling bad behavior. If that's what it meant, then I'd agree with them - but that's not what it means.
Others confuse social justice with doing good works - feeding the poor, clothing the naked, etc. Again, these are all good things that we are commanded to do, but that's not what social justice means.
As you know, true social justice is addressing and correcting broken or unfair systems, i.e. bringing our systems into line with what the Bible teaches. Proverbs speaks volumes about the problem of the rich exploiting the poor, about unjust kings and leaders abusing those without power, etc. THAT'S what social justice is, and we have a Biblical imperative to do what we can to change these things. And we can certainly do more than just vote for the 'right' candidate in the next election and feel like 'we've done our part' (although we certainly need to do that).
As I mentioned in my comment to yesterday's blog, I think many (and I sometimes fall into this category when I'm frustrated) feel like we're 'shoveling sand against the tide', i.e. things are so bad that we'll never be able to fix them. But we're not called to be successful - we're called to be obedient. We forget that sometimes.
John V
I love how you ended your comment with your thoughts on obedience. That's a great attitude to have, and hard to achieve in a performance-driven society.
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