Why would a group dedicated to Christian unity talk about justice?

Justice, and only justice, you shall pursue
Deuteronomy 16:20

A recent question on our Facebook page raised an issue that often comes up in our work. We hear it a lot. I'll paraphrase:

Since this page is dedicated to the pursuit of unity among Christians—especially between Catholics and evangelicals—why are you always talking about racism, immigration and so many other issues of life, dignity, justice and care for creation?

It's an extremely important question. One of the issues with unity is that people have different ideas of what it means. The very definition of "unity" itself has disunity!

If you ask someone who is an Orthodox Christian, they will probably hope your vision for Christian unity includes standing with them against the religious persecution and genocide in the Middle East that is currently devastating their churches. What kind of unity doesn't protect their very survival?

If talk to someone who is African-American, they will probably hope your vision for Christian unity includes healing the ongoing sins of racism that continues to fracture our churches and our society and leaves black bodies dead in the streets, rotting in prisons or suffering in near-perpetual poverty. What kind of unity doesn't advocate for their lives, dignity and equality?

The desperately poor people immigrating to the U.S. from Latin America are almost all Evangelical, Pentecostal or Roman Catholic Christians. If an asylum seeker is denied entry and is doomed to die on the other side of the border, then some statement resolving theological differences may not mean a whole lot to them—they aren't going to feel any warm fuzzies over church unity as they will only feel cold exclusion from (most likely) their fellow Christians. The group that steers this page is comprised of Evangelicals, Protestants and Catholics. Therefore, these are our sisters and brothers in the faith whose lives are at stake at the border. That means something.

So that is why this page and many other unity-seeking organizations eventually find that we have to be a voice for these other issues that exclude so many. The above is not an all-inclusive list, as there are definitely other issues that relate just as strongly.

We know from history that so many of the major splits in Christianity were related to—and were often a direct result of—serious differences in doctrine and theology. But what we often fail to recognize is that there have just as often been cultural, racial, ethnic, national and political reasons that have also  undergirded so many official and unofficial splits over the centuries.

I'll even take it a step father: I will go on record as to say that few splits—if any—have ever been purely theological. Every split is probably a combination of at least two of more of these factors.

Well, they say never say never, right? Given the thousands and thousands of Christian denominations, I can't say for sure that there has never been a split which hasn't been based entirely on theological grounds. However, I would suspect that even if it seemed like there were, there were also probably cultural or generational differences dovetailed into the mix somehow. Even some of the most famous splits, such as between Catholics and Lutherans in the 16th century Reformation or between the Churches of the East and West over the Chalcedonian Creed in the 5th century, may have been driven as much by different cultural approaches to language and inflection that could very well have factored heavily into what seemed like theological differences. In other words, it was like both groups were looking at the same coin, but one was describing the front and the other the back. What seemed like irreconcilable differences were perhaps more a difference in perspective rather than content. Again, I'm not suggesting that this accounts for every point of disagreement, but it has been suggested that this could be a factor—and even a major factor.]

So which are the church-dividing issues that matter most to you?  We'd love to hear your input and feedback! Leave comments here or on our Facebook page.

Confusion Over 'Social Justice'

The term "social justice" is very controversial in Christian circles, but it's based on a very simple concept.

It's really just common sense:

Social justice means that you want to live in a just and fair society. 

If you see people are being exploited, abused or held back by oppressive laws or other social conditions, you work to change them. It's hard to follow the fundamental commandment to "love one another" and not try to do something about these factors if you have power to change them.

A lot of people overthink this. They get into debates about whether Jesus' Kingdom is a "political" one, whether people are better served by individual charity or large-scale efforts involving the government or whether Jesus' Kingdom has anything at all to do with earthly laws or social conditions. These are all worthy topics deserving of robust discussion, no question about it. And good people may very well disagree on them. 

But here's the main idea:  You don't have to figure all this out to see that "social justice" is just common sense. If there is a law that hurts some people--or disproportionately advantages one group more than another--it would be a sin on me to just leave it in place if I have the power to influence changing it. My Christian discipleship would demand I do something to remedy this situation. When I go to the voting booth, engage in public debates or raise my voice as a citizen, I do so as a Christian.  I think all of us would agree, regardless of how to regard the Kingdom of God.

If my neighbor is trying to feed his family but waste water from my home is getting into his garden and making his family sick, it would be unconscionable of me to leave it that way. If I'm thinking as a Christian, I would realize this is not the love that Jesus invites us into. The same is true whether this mistreatment is happening to my literal next-door neighbor or to the entire city downstream from a large factory. "Social justice" helps us see that these same concepts apply whether it's on a small or large scale. "Social justice" helps us see that these large scale systems, laws and pressures can impact us in many cases far more deeply than specific behavior by individual persons.

Social justice is just another way saying "don't be a jerk"--but not just in your interpersonal relationships but also in the decisions you support for how society functions on a large scale.

You don't need an advanced degree in Christian theology to understand that.

When people oppose "social justice," I wonder:  How could someone not want a just society? Do you then want... unjust laws and systems?? See how silly that sounds? That makes no sense. Do you want inhumane, unethical laws? Do they want people to get away with poisoning our water, exploiting fellow humans or making it difficult for people to thrive? How can you "love one another" and not work to make the laws the most fair possible? 

Whether or not you think that Jesus's Kingdom has anything at all to do with those laws, it still absurd for a Christian not to do something to improve them if you have the power to do so. If you see your neighbor hurting, you do something about it. It's that simple.

For related themes and for partly inspiring the writing of this post, see the article Social Justice Is a Christian Tradition — Not a LiberalAgenda.

What are Reparations? An Analogy

A number of political candidates have been talking openly about the issue of reparations to the African-American community for slavery, Jim Crow laws, redlining and other discriminatory practices. A controversial issue, no doubt.

Many folks do not understand what reparations are and what they are for. Let me offer this analogy to demonstrate why slavery still matters to this day:

A Wrongful Conviction: An Analogy

A person in slavery is like a person wrongfully convicted and sent to prison with a life sentence. 

The Civil War was the trial that finally got him released from jail after 30 years incarcerated. Hallelujah! 

But no one did any subsequent legal work to finish the job. The man is "free" but still lacks voting rights. The prison record still prevents him from getting loans or meaningful work. His record was never completely exonerated or expunged. He is in a messy in-between state--out of jail but still a second-class citizen with no resources to pursue legal action to get his record fully cleaned.

Getting out of jail was only the first step--a huge one, yes, but only the first step toward making the situation right. How about all the therapy it will take to recover from those years of psychological trauma and forced separation from his loved ones? Perhaps his children grew up without a father, so this trauma is multi-generational. 

How about some kind of integration program to get into schools and jobs and to at least attempt to make up for lost time? That's 30 years of lost wages, lost promotions, lost raises, lost work experience and lost money saved for retirement. Instead, this person rotted in jail for 30 years and is now starting off in entry level work, with a stigma and a spotty record he shouldn't have, all doing this with years of trauma to somehow process without adequate community support.

This quote from author Marianne Williamson sums it up nicely:  "If you kick somebody to the ground, you owe it to them to do more than stop kicking," she told New York radio station Hot 97 earlier this month. "You owe it to them to say, 'Here: Let me help you get back up.'

Reparations for slavery and other discriminatory practices are like the work that happens after getting released from jail.

An Analysis

It's outrageous that we have stalled on this so long. We as a nation have clearly wronged a people severely and deliberately. When the Civil War ended, all debts were not paid by a long shot. Dismantling slavery should have been followed by rebuilding, but we all know how flawed "Reconstruction" was. 

We should have gathered as a people, pooled all our resources and did everything possible to redistribute the wealth that African-Americans had generated and help them get a leg up and get the skills to integrate in society--skills they were long denied. Instead, we denied them access to education, access to loans and access to the voting booth. To top it off, white society blamed African-Americans for "personal moral failure" for high rates of poverty. Unbelievable. 

The wealth of the plantation came through the stolen labor of slaves. That wealth should have been divided up. Instead, what they got was second-class citizen status through Jim Crow laws and unofficial second-class citizens status through racism and white privilege which continues to this day. That is NOT how you treat a group of people who we admit we have wronged. Then they get blame on top of that.

Just trying to heal from 250 years of continual forced family separation is an almost unbelievable trauma. Then add on to that denial of voting rights, prohibition from the educational system, from jobs, from getting loans, from getting the GI BIll, the list goes on and on. Instead, what I hear from white folks on my own page is "they should get over it and grow up." Wow. Try unpacking that sentence. Talking down to folks like they are children.

Imagine if I stole your money, invested it and made more from it, and then I tell you to "get over it." Give me my money back--AND the interest you've built off it--and THEN we'll talk about "getting over it" right? Obviously, reparations are much more than giving a check but you get the idea.

The morality is simple:  When you sin, you first confess it. Then you beg forgiveness both of God and of those you have wronged. Then you worked to correct the wrongs that have been done, to the extent that is possible. And then you work to make sure it never happens again.  And then as a final penance, you "pay it forward" sowing seeds of justice and charity to others going forward. This is basic, common sense. It's what adults should be doing.

Imagine a thief breaks into your home. He steals a thousand dollars. When you find him, he tells you: "Just get over it! Why can't you learn to forgive? Why are you playing the victim? Quit discriminating, leave me alone and I'll leave you alone!"  Well... give me my money back and then we can talk about "getting over it"!

Some folks say that any race-based classification is a perpetuation of racism itself. So giving advantages to African-Americans today would be to further racism, in their opinion. They say "you can't use discrimination to combat discrimination." The problem with this logic is that is favors those who already have all the power and wealth leveraged in their favor. These two quotes below dismantle that rationale quite nicely:

If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality.

― Desmond Tutu

“We must take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. Sometimes we must interfere. When human lives are endangered, when human dignity is in jeopardy, national borders and sensitivities become irrelevant. Wherever men and women are persecuted because of their race, religion, or political views, that place must - at that moment - become the center of the universe.”

― Elie Wiesel, The Night Trilogy: Night, Dawn, the Accident

Racism is Cowardice and Self-Hatred

Picture from linked article.

Racism, cowardice and self-hatred go hand in hand.

Case in point: Check out the nighttime firebombing of the Highlander social justice center in East Tennessee. In predictable form, racists act at night when no one is looking. Historically, they also put hoods on to hide their faces. Nowadays, they troll online using fake accounts from their parents' basement.

People only hide their faces and sneak in the shadows when they are not proud of themselves and what they are doing.

Oh, I'm sure you could point to an incident here or there where aggressive racists showed their faces. But I bet they only did that if they thought the odds were 10-to-1 in their favor. But even still, a few incidents here or there doesn't change the overall trend of how racists like to hide.

To be clear, racists will certainly be passive aggressive in broad daylight. Usually that's also when they are denying that they are racists while doing something very racist. They display racist symbols and mannerisms while playing dumb about it. We've all heard it: "It's about heritage not race." Sure it is. Well, that may indeed be true for some but we know it's definitely not true for many. Their denial is part of the psychological terrorism they are employing.

If you have something to say, then say it outright. Show your face. That's what grown adults do. But racists can't do that because a person has to have self-confidence to do that.

Racism is Self-Hatred

We talk so much of the damage that racism inflicts on others, but we often neglect to mention another tragedy: How sad it must be to be a racist. I mean seriously. These people have nothing better to do than sit around and hate another group? All that means is that they don't believe there is anything interesting going on in their own lives so they have to focus on what someone else is doing. If racists would just start doing something meaningful with their own lives--maybe creating new art, building up a successful business or achieving some goal--they won't have time or energy to worry about what someone else is doing. What they were doing would simply be too wonderful to waste by taking time away to hate someone else who is not harming them.

I was bullied a lot when I was younger. One day it occurred to me:  I must be absolutely amazing because these people have nothing else to do than obsesses over every little thing I did or said. Yes, it was painful and yes, it was damaging. I hate to give them the satisfaction of knowing that, but I'm also not going to give them the satisfaction of living in secrecy about it, either. But in a very unexpected way, it actually boosted my self-esteem and confidence in so many ways! It made me so much stronger than ever before.

You pretty much have to be a coward to be a racist (or any other kind of bully). To all the racists out there, admit it: Deep down, you are afraid that another race is better than you. You are afraid that if you didn't constantly work against them behind their backs that they would out-compete you. Racists have poor confidence in their own abilities. They are desperately afraid of fair competition. Why else would they spend so much time and energy obsessing about another group? Why else would they work so desperately to keep another group down if they didn't fear what that group would do on equal footing? Their actions reveal all this about them.

Do something of your own to feel proud of for a change and then you won't worry about what some other group is doing.

And that's all very sad. Racism is nothing but jealousy and envy hidden very well. And jealousy is just self-hatred--you want what someone else has because deep down you hate who you are and what you have. Racists hate themselves which is why they find it so easy to hate others.  And that's so very sad because every person has so much to offer and so much that is good about them. I have to believe that about everyone.

Love yourself and you will have nothing but love for others.

Yes, racism can and does hurt others. But it is also a sign of how deeply wounded the racists themselves are. How little they must think of themselves.

And that's so very, very sad.

These cowardly racists could learn a lot from the people they try to hate: You'll never find a display of courage more powerful than those of the Civil Rights movement. The racists hid behind dogs, covered their heads with pillowcases and used the bully power of an unfair legal system to add muscle to themselves. Unarmed Civil Rights marchers stood up to all that and won. These firebombers today and yesterday have a sad legacy. Nothing they do compares to the bravery of the people in the Civil Rights Movement. But don't be mad at the Civil Rights movement for this. Instead, be mad at yourselves that you don't think better of yourselves.

I'm angry at racists but I don't really want to shame them here. I just think the whole situation is so sad. I wish racists loved themselves and believed in themselves more. Hating others is never going to bring anyone fulfillment. You are never going to hate your way to happiness. Whatever pain or anger in their own lives is something that need healing, and hating on others is never going to fix that. It will just create more pain but most of all it just creates a loss of potential--for the victims but also for the racists themselves. Individual black people have been seriously harmed, but as a group African Americans have only risen above all of this to be even stronger than ever before. The same cannot be said of racists.

If I love myself, I love you. If I love you, I love myself.

-- Jalaluddin Rumi