Social justice seems to be the cool thing to do these days. Personally, I’m grateful. For far too long, the Church was stacked with hope for the next life and came up empty-handed with hope for this one. The Bible paints a picture of hope for both. In this social justice awakening, non-profits are popping up all over the map with exquisite and detailed programs, statistics, budgets, strategies, etc. It almost seems as though if you want to do something about injustice, you better be prepared to either link up with a non-profit organization that is already doing what you want to do or start up your own non-profit organization to fill the void.
Programs are the new norm for social justice and its killing our efforts. Here’s why:
Programs Address Injustice as an Impersonal Machine
Contrarily, injustice is about people who happen to find themselves suffering in one way or another. Alleviating suffering is good, but if we forfeit personal connection in the process, we’re merely shooting ourselves in the foot. What good would it do to give a loaf of bread to a man who, in addition to being hungry, is desperately lonely, but fail to have a conversation with him or offer him the gift of friendship? Hunger may kill the body, but loneliness will choke the soul (and it will result in a loss of appetite!).
Programs Treat Symptoms
Imagine feeling sharp shooting pains in your chest and left shoulder and, upon seeing the doctor, you’re given a prescription for pain medication and sent home. My guess is that you wouldn’t think the doctor did a very good job and the reason is because you know that pain is a symptom that something is wrong and deadening the pain without fixing the problem doesn’t make sense. And yet, that’s precisely what many of our programs do with injustice – treat symptoms. We’re prescribing Tylenol for brain tumors and putting band-aids on broken limbs.
Programs Are Not God’s Goal
If they were, we would have to write Jesus off as a fool. Never once did he go about campaigning and raising funds, setting up facebook pages, and twittering his way to justice. But he did talk a lot about what it looks like to be a follower of a God who cares deeply about justice and how to enact that in one’s daily life.
And that’s exactly what Christian justice requires: men, women, and children who become neighbors to other men, women, and children in need. And that doesn’t require any sort of partnership with a non-profit organization or program. If the parable of the Good Samaritan teaches us anything it is that justice is a matter of doing something, no matter how small, about the needs that are already crossing your path.
PS – The Evangelical Leaders Forum is coming up on October 8th and 9th – see our latest press release about it here.
PSS – We came up with some simple ideas that anyone can do to address injustice. The list is on our website under the resources section: check it out.
I think before a person can say that the Church needs to be more involved with ‘social justice’, this term needs to be defined. It’s being thrown about hither and yon, yet very rarely is it defined.
Is it equal justice for all? In the Islamic faith, social justice that is spoke of in the Five Pillars of Islam requires that a person give to the poor. However, if you were to look further into this you would see that in certain sects of the Islam faith, the views of women and men are much different. Women are not only not equal to men, but are very much subservient to men. So, their view of ‘social justice’ will not be the same as that of Christ contained in God’s Word. Yet, they do believe in taking care of the poor.
I’ve noticed in what was written here, that the working of the Holy Spirit is completely missing. If a person is a born-again Christian sealed by the Holy Spirit, they don’t need ‘community’ to urge them on towards good works. They are Spirit led and the body of Christ, when it is doing what it ought to be doing, will naturally take care of those in need. Not only meeting their ‘social needs’ but more importantly, giving them the answer to their spiritual need to repent and accept Christ as Savior. So, in that you are correct, it’s not a program and it shouldn’t be a program if all are doing what Holy Spirit is prompting them to do. The Body of Christ functions together without program.
By: Catherine on October 6, 2009
at 4:52 PM
Hi Catherine,
Thanks so much for your comment. It is true that social justice is different for Christians than it is for non-Christians. Of course, for us, the goal is wholistic care: for the body and the soul. You’re absolutely right that the Body of Christ should be addressing the spiritual needs of people. I didn’t specifically address that because it seems like the Church is rather good with that. There’s no shortage of preaching! But there does seem to be a shortage of meeting physical needs and we need to remember that Jesus did both.
Regarding the role of the Holy Spirit, any neglect to mention his role was unintentional. In no way am I suggesting that Christian social justice can be done apart from the Holy Spirit.
I will contend with one point. You said:
“If a person is a born-again Christian sealed by the Holy Spirit, they don’t need ‘community’ to urge them on towards good works.”
I would clarify and say that we need both the Holy Spirit and the community to urge us on towards good works (and other things, too!).
Thanks for the conversation!
By: leavethebuilding on October 6, 2009
at 10:35 PM
Well, since y’all brought it up… Heb.10:24 – “And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds.” We need to both encourage and receive encouragement toward good – probably because we still mess up. Y’think?
We too easily confuse giving to God with donating to some program or organization. Maybe we want to since that’s the easy task. I’m becoming ever more convinced that giving to God more likely involves the giving of ourselves to one another, and perhaps “stuff” if needed.
By: Kathy Bradley on October 8, 2009
at 5:34 PM
[...] from the viewpoint of the leave the building cause. As I wrote on October 6th about the heart of social justice being in the everyday, ongoing love of personal people (rather than programs), Kathy Bradley [...]
By: Top 10 Comments of 2009 « A House Church Blog on January 26, 2010
at 8:34 AM