International development cannot be considered apart from issues of justice. When "Dictatorships, Coups, and Terror" (the title of lesson 18) strike the earth, and people search for justice not only politically, but socially and economically as well, does the church have an answer? Do we have any message than to offer a "pie-in-the-sky, sweet by and by" as some non-believers view heaven?
I believe we do. And I believe we must articulate that message in a way that is distinct from secular organizations that also claim to advance justice. Lessons 18-19 stirred a lot of thinking in this area. Again, there are more questions than answers at this point. Liberal and Catholic theologians have spent a lot more time addressing these factors than the evangelical church, and so it is understandably going to take a lot of thought and prayer for evangelicals to know what role God wants us to have in the search for earthly justice. This is just a snapshot of some of the thinking I've done on the subject in recent weeks.
Why bother? We know that true justice will only come at the final reign of Christ. We know that in a fallen world, all our efforts will be flawed. Why not focus on spiritual needs and point people to the ultimate rescue to come, rather than spending time and energy on earthbound justice? That's a basic question, and a lot of evangelicals have decided to do just that - focus on heaven at the exclusion of earth. Interactions with individuals are opportunities to evangelize, nothing more.
One of the most condemning comments I read came from Nelson Mandela, imprisoned in South Africa for his fight against apartheid. Mandela watched and grew concerned as evangelical leaders embraced the ruling South African government and failed to consider the challenges faced by Africans under apartheid. He observed that only the communists treated Africans as humans and political equals, leading many Africans to equate freedom with communism. Christians missed a major opportunity to demonstrate God's heart toward the weak and outcast. Today, apartheid is broken and South Africa is learning to walk in political freedom, but a strong liberation theology dominates much of the thinking of Africans. Evangelicals missed a golden opportunity to love people, glorify God, and impact long-term theological development among His church in South Africa.
Our Western mindset tends toward compartmentalizing. We separate church from state, sacred from secular, earth from heaven. Much of the undeveloped world makes no such distinctions. What happens in heaven affects earth and what happens on earth affects heaven. Therefore, every earthly action has evangelistic opportunity, and every conversions affects earthly actions. 1 John teaches us that loving God and loving others are inseparable parts of our walk with Him. Micah 6:8 speak of God's expectations as justice, mercy, and love for Him. Pursuit of authentic justice has historically been part of the Christian experience and should once again be part of evangelical church life.
What is justice? Sometimes we don't always know what "side" to support. We don't know what true justice looks like in a given situation. This sometimes leads to inaction, and other times to knee-jerk reactions.
We need to take a step back and study justice in light of Scripture. What does Scripture emphasize when it talks about God's justice? What does God make a point of underscoring in Israel's governing laws? Such a study is far beyond the scope of this post, but we can draw some general principles from the laws He states and the pictures He gives through men like David, a man after God's own heart.
We see that He seems to emphasize things that were counter-cultural. Taking care of widows and orphans, loving strangers in the land - these things weren't done by the nations surrounding Israel, and they probably didn't come naturally to Israel either. For example, cultural anthropologists tell us that the innate reaction to strangers is fear and assumption of bad motives. God's law goes the direct opposite of what we are hard-wired by sin to do.
We see that He seems to emphasize actions that are intentional. David went out of his way to find someone from Saul's lineage to whom he could show kindness. Mephibosheth - weak and wounded - was carried to David's table and seated where he thought he didn't belong. We rightly see this as a picture of God inviting us to His banquet table in our broken state. But evangelicals have often ignored that it equally reflects the heart God wants us to have - to intentionally seek out those we can love with His love who are living on the fringes of society.
We also see that He emphasizes justice that protects the right people. Romans 13 has caused a lot of confusion among Christians who see abuses of authority by governmental leaders. But in the context of the whole counsel of God's Word, we see Romans 13 not as justifying the wrong actions of governmental authority, but as defining their right actions: They are charged by God to fight against evil and give approval to what is good. When government approves what is evil and fights against what is good, it has violated God's purpose for its existence and will have to answer to God for its actions.
What that means for the church, especially in a democracy, is that we must seek to advocate for protection for the right people. We have a responsibility to line up on the side of good, every time. And we must be willing to practice that justice ourselves, like the early church did when they rescued babies left to die in the wilderness. Our governments are ultimately part of a fallen world system and won't always get it right. But the church can fill a void by actively practicing justice that protects the right people. I have in my mind a picture of two families right now: One took in two children with 30 minutes notice because the mom was going to abandon them to DHS without someone to adopt them. The other has traveled to Ethiopia and China to adopt babies left in orphanages, one of which is a blind, developmentally disabled boy. Both families put feet to the words of social justice. They are living out protection of the right people; I shudder to think where those 4 kids would be today without their intervention. We must be politically engaged, but we can't rely on government. We have to be the church, every day.
We also have to guard against our human tendencies. For example, we have a tendency to elevate the successful, the wealthy, the winners. Does a custodian have equal chance of becoming an elder in your church as a wealthy business owner? If not, then we are subtly practicing economic injustice. We have a tendency to judge "the other side" more harshly than our own. Do we automatically defend our preferred party line, assuming that the other side has nothing to say? If so, then we are subtly practicing political injustice. As one author wrote: "Seeing what we expect to see is a common human ailment." We have to get outside of our tendencies.
Finally, we see that God provided a perfect picture of justice - Jesus. Jesus came to show us what the kingdom of God is like. He didn't just talk about healing in heaven - He demonstrated it to outcast women and lepers. He established the church not as an end, but a means. We have to represent the kingdom of God as Jesus did: challenging the powers of evil and demonstrating the supremacy of God's kingdom. That requires engagement and conviction. When we recognize we are equipped in the course of our duty as citizens to carry the kingdom of God wherever we go, the church becomes a history-making force ... not in pronouncements but in people.
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