Christians are called to justice.
There are endless forms of injustice in society but God has burdened me with the injustice of economic inequality. God has given me a burden not for charity but for justice and Nicholas Wolterstorff in his essay Justice, Not Charity clarifies exactly what this means. (I haven’t read it but Wolterstorff goes even deeper into the meaning of justice in his book called Justice.) The spiritual gift of wisdom is the ability to apply Biblical principles to real life situations, and Wolterstorff, through his gift of wisdom, articulates God’s truth of our Christian (and non-Christian) responsibility for justice along with charity. We should not use one to excuse the other. We must seek justice for the downtrodden and misfortunate. We are called not only to do acts of charity but also to work to remove the injustice that caused them to need charity.
Is this not the fast that I choose:
to loose the bonds of injustice,
to undo the thongs of the yoke,
to let the oppressed go free,
and to break every yoke?
Is it not to share your bread with the hungry,
and bring the homeless poor into your house;
when you see the naked, to cover them,
and not to hide yourself from your own kin?
(Isaiah 58:6-7).The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me,
because the Lord has anointed me:
he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed,
to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives,
and release to the prisoners;
(Isaiah 61:1).
“The passage in Isaiah which Jesus read or referred to spoke not only of sharing one’s bread with the hungry, bringing the homeless poor into one’s house, and clothing the naked, but also of loosing the bonds of injustice, undoing the thongs of the yoke, letting the oppressed go free, and breaking every yoke. One not only tends to the victims of injustice but looses the bonds that make them victims” (Justice, Not Charity).
Christians must understand that charity doesn’t let them off the hook of fighting injustice. “Rendering justice to the victims of injustice requires going beyond aiding victims; it requires attacking the victimizers—be they individual persons, social organizations and institutions, or whatever.” “Christians should not only alleviate the distress of the downtrodden, but become their advocates against those who oppress them” (Justice, Not Charity).
April 23rd, 2008 at 9:13 pm
Amen. this was in my thoughts for some time. the fortunate, these include many celebrities and rich businessmen etc, are giving themselves to charity. it looks good on the resume for sure and may even be quite rewarding to be charitable now a days. in fact, richly rewarded if your acts of charity is seem by the world. however, charity does not free the oppress and charity does not deal with the injustices that impoverishes them. so charity, without justice, allows them to live another day only to be robbed again when they get better.
therefore putting food in the mouth of a weak slave to make the slave stronger doesn’t change his status at all. in fact, the slave becomes more useful to the rich and powerful who were in the first place responsible for their indignity.
when we restore all men into ’sonship’ ( not slaves again) then the kingdom of god has indeed come upon ALL men!
unfortunately, many do not understand that the message of jesus is a political one.
May 3rd, 2008 at 11:53 am
Actually, Yancey points out how unpolitical Jesus was.
See my previous blog:
So where does God fit in Social Justice?
http://www.typeandculture.com/?p=102