Christians against social justice?

“I’m a Christian who is against social justice,” is what one Christian basically said in a recent discussion about Christians’ role in social justice. To be honest, the comment made me sad. It made me sad because I know that there are a number of church-people out there who would agree with this statement even though it is in direct opposition to the teachings of the Christ they seek to follow.

How could Christians be against social justice? Have they been so politicized that they have forgotten that caring for the orphans and widows, looking after the aliens among us, and standing against oppression are biblical ideals that are both encouraged and commanded in the Bible?

Jesus himself said, “The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me
to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to release the oppressed,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” — Luke 4:18-19

From a theological perspective, I think the big problem is something called dualism. Ancient Greek philosophers taught that there is a divide between the spiritual and the material. Plato, for example, taught that the soul is the real person and that true freedom means being released from the prison of the material body. Largely as a result of this kind of thinking, a lot of Christians have opted to focus on caring for the “soul” and decided that looking out for the needs of the body are irrelevant.

However, the Bible teaches the salvation of the whole person and the resurrection of the body. Ancient Hebrew thinking, which influenced biblical thought considerably more than Greek thought did, knew of no distinction between body and soul. And when Jesus ministered to people, he fed the hungry whilst also ministering to their eternal needs.

Jesus ministered to the whole person, and anybody who claims to follow Him is obligated to do the same.

Years ago, a number of Christians reacted against a dualistic faith that went to an extreme. Calling itself a “social gospel,” it sought only to minister to outward physical and social needs. Rightly recognizing that they were missing the heart of the Gospel, many Christians reacted by going to the opposite extreme and deciding that they would have nothing to do with social needs and simply minister to the “spiritual” needs of the people.

They were equally in the wrong, though. Either extreme misses the heart of Jesus, who was sent to bring good news to the poor and to release the oppressed — not just in a “spiritual” sense but in tangible, practical ways.

To stand against social justice is to deny the heart and mission of the God of justice, the same God who said these words in Holy Scripture so many years ago:

“Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:
to loose the chains of injustice
and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free
and break every yoke?

Is it not to share your food with the hungry
and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter –
when you see the naked, to clothe him,
and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?” — Isaiah 58:6-7

Many Christians in America have fallen into a unique problem with a political Christianity wherein they put the platforms of their political parties above their faith. As a result, depending on which political party they belong to, they tend to gravitate toward one heretical extreme or the other.

Some say that it’s all about personal morality, while others say it’s all about social justice. Both miss the heart of Jesus and condemn their expressions of Christianity to the realm of irrelevance. Those who say it’s all about personal morality present a Christianity that offers a “pie in the sky” but hardens its heart to the needs of hurting, hungry people all around the world. Those who say it’s all about social justice forget that true justice can’t happen in a world where sinful, selfish hearts are not changed.

May God bring Christ-followers together across America and around the world who are willing to let Jesus’ love shine through them in a holistic, realistic way. May we remember to tell people about the personal redemption and eternal life made available through the blood of Jesus Christ, while at the same time demonstrating the heart and compassion of Christ in the ways we respond to a broken world in need.

The belt of grace

In the ’90s, I was involved in work in a country I am calling Muldanesia. As this is a true story, the names of people and locations have been changed. While working in this country, I saw many people come to Christ and lives changed.

However, a problem arose with a man I will call Lonny. For a couple of years, I worked very closely with him whenever I visited this country. He was in charge of coordinating the work I did there.

Then he became very ill with a contagious disease. The missionary in charge told me to replace him with another pastor who could serve as the coordinator of the work I would do there in the future.

I chose Alan, a young man I had come to know and really trust over the previous few years. He had worked with us on our evangelistic teams, so I promoted him to the leadership of those teams for our next visit.

It turned out that Lonny didn’t like Alan at all. There were personality conflicts that had long existed below the surface between them, thus Lonny was deeply offended by being replaced with Alan.

Lonny started spreading rumors about me. A good friend of his was the leader of churches in one district, and he turned that man against me. The next year, when I was making plans to work in that district, I was informed I was no longer welcome there.

It didn’t stop God’s work from happening. We just moved our work to another district and saw great success there.

noun: (in Christian theology) the free, undeserved mercy and kindness of God shown to creation; the opposite of sin (Søren Kierkegaard)

However, it really hurt. I had considered Lonny a friend yet, he had not only gotten angry at me for a decision I had made, he had spread stories about me and turned others against me.

I didn’t say anything to Lonny about it at the time, but the betrayal hurt deeply. I prayed about it and, in my heart, I did manage to forgive the man. I just hoped and prayed that God would do something in his heart one day.

A few years later, I spoke at a university where Lonny was doing further study. I shared a sermon about Isaiah Chapter 6 and the things that happen when we genuinely encounter God in our lives — not when we encounter church or religion but when we really encounter God in some genuine way. At the end of the meeting, a lot of people responded to a challenge to get their lives right with God.

To my surprise, Lonny was one of them. I was surprised to see this man, who had turned against me so publicly, humbling himself to the point of responding so vulnerably under my teaching ministry.

After that, Lonny and I were reconciled and continued to have a good friendship throughout the years to come. One time, when I was speaking at an event in Muldanesia just a few years ago, he was attending and kept telling me, “Chris, I have a gift for you. I want to be sure and give it to you before you leave.”

On the last day there, he came to my room with a belt. It was covered in beads and had my name spelled out on it. It had to be one of the ugliest belts I had ever seen! But it was special to me because it showed genuine love and repentance. I kept the belt and was very grateful for the heart that gave it to me.

Not too long after that, Lonny became seriously ill again. One day, I was surprised to hear the news that he had died. He wasn’t old at all, so I really was surprised.

I wore that belt when I preached on Sunday. A couple people made fun of it, but I wore it proudly in memory of my friend. I told his story to the church and explained what the belt meant to me. It represented grace, and it represented God’s power to change a heart.

Lonny was not the only person who ever turned on me like that through the years. I know what it’s like to be gossiped about, betrayed, and rejected. Unfortunately, that’s something I think we all experience in this broken world. We can’t control how other people respond to us. Some may change their attitudes in time, but there will also be those who won’t. All we can do is pray for those who have hurt us, forgive them so that we are not overcome by bitterness, and be willing to love them if and when they return.

In the meantime, I will always remember that belt of grace. I, myself, have betrayed God and rejected Him more times than I care to remember, but He’s always welcomed me back into His arms. It’s a wonderful thing to remember that grace still exists and people still can be changed by it.

Sorry Pat Robertson, but that’s not a Christlike response

“Something happened a long time ago in Haiti, and people might not want to talk about. [Haitians] were under the heel of the French… and they got together and swore a pact to the Devil. They said, ‘we will serve you if you’ll get us free from the French.’ True story. And so the Devil said, ‘OK, it’s a deal.’ But ever since, they have been cursed by one thing after the other.” — Pat Robertson

A spokesman for Pat Robertson’s ministry has since issued a statement attempting to backpedal this shocking statement, but the reality is that the statement implied the Haitians went through the recent earthquake because they deserved it. The comment, unfortunately, displays the same spirit that the late Jerry Falwell exhibited in 2001 when he blamed 9/11 on “the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People for the American Way.”

Is there any merit in their statements? First of all, let me say that I understand where they are coming from. I wholeheartedly disagree with them, but I understand where they’re coming from. They’re coming from a particular theological view, based largely upon a specific interpretation of the Old Testament, that sees God as a God who avenges sinful nations. They expect judgment from Him whenever they see people living in ways that they believe to be against the morals of the Bible.

There are a few problems with their logic, however.

1. “ALL have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” and “the wages of sin is death.” Those words are from the Bible (Romans 3:22-24 and 6:22-23) and what they tell us is that, from God’s perspective, we ALL deserve God’s judgment. Where we get off deciding for God that certain groups of people are more deserving of it than we are, I do not know, but such an attitude is definitely not biblical.



2. “It is not God’s will that any should perish.” This verse from the Bible shows God’s heart for people. In the Old Testament, we see His judgment exerted upon nations that have turned against Him. We can’t deny that. However, even in the Old Testament, we see that God was already working out a plan wherein people could be saved from the judgment they deserved. And that plan was made available to EVERYONE, regardless of what nation they were born in!
3. “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.” Although, according to the Bible, we are ALL deserving of judgment, Jesus took the judgment for our sinfulness in our place. He paid the price for all the junk in our lives, and then He rose again. Now He’s alive, and He says to EVERYONE who will believe in Him that He will forgive them and give them the gift of eternal life. Those who focus more on blame and threats of judgment than upon grace seem to have forgotten that we now live in the age of the New Testament, on the other side of the cross!

Rather than trying to cast blame when bad things happen, we need to realize that we live in a broken world and that we need to demonstrate God’s LOVE in every situation. The best thing we can do as followers of Christ is to pray for Haiti and seek out ways we can demonstrate His love in practical ways by helping the people who are hurting. This is the best thing we can do for ANYONE who is suffering. That’s part of what following Christ is all about.

Invictus

A movie entitled Invictus was recently released. It is an interesting title based on a compelling true story. However, my subject isn’t the movie but the famous poem to which its title refers, written by William Ernest Henley in 1875:

INVICTUS

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

It is said that Henley wrote those words in defiance of fate at the time his leg had to be amputated due to tubercular infection. He battled illness most of his life and later suffered the loss of a daughter, whose untimely death came at the age of 5. Henley died at the age of 53 and was buried in the same churchyard as his daughter.

I truly believe that this poem is a classic work of art. It’s beautiful, and I admire it for its beauty. Yet, it represents an idea that is proven time and again to be a false one. In the midst of trials in his own life, Henley tried to stand up against the forces that seemed to conspire against him and he refused to bow to anything that threatened him. He tried to see himself as invincible — which is what the title that was later given to the poem means — in the midst of life’s challenges. A brave sentiment without a doubt and, of course, he knew it wasn’t true. His poetry was more a beautiful wish than it was a statement of fact. Life was sometimes too cruel for him to avoid the ultimate truth:

However hard we try, none of us will ever be able to master our fate.

There are too many things that are completely out of our control. Henley, himself, learned it time and again and, in the end, he died as all of us do.

The Bible says, in Hebrews 9:27, that everyone is destined to die once and after that to face the judgment.

The unavoidable truth is that, no matter how hard we try to fight the inevitabilities of life and death, there are many things we simply cannot avoid. No matter how much anti-wrinkle cream we employ, age still overcomes us eventually. And, no matter how many funerals we avoid attending, our own funeral is one our bodies are not likely to avoid.

We are not the master of our fate and, if we try to be the captain of our soul, we will eventually find that we are only capable of captaining it into ultimate shipwreck. Our souls are not ultimately unconquerable because even the strongest soul cannot ultimately escape death.

I am thankful, though, that we don’t have to be lords of our own lives. There is ONE who has a plan for our lives and, if we allow HIM to be the true captain of our soul, we have the assurance of eternal life with HIM. That, of course, is the very God who made us. We are not the master of our ultimate fate, but HE is.

Let HIM pilot your soul. Let HIM take HIS rightful place in your life. If you do then, no matter how rough the seas may be along the journey, you CAN rise up in defiance of evil, pain, and even death itself because you can know that these things will NOT have the ultimate victory.

This is what the Apostle Paul said in the Bible:

“Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. — 1 Corinthians 15:55-57

These words are also poetry but, in my opinion, they are even more beautiful than the words of Henley. Why? Because, unlike the false hope of Invictus, these words are also truth. Even the sting of death itself is gone when once we trust our lives into the hands of God.

The reality is that the words of Henley don’t need to be changed much to be true for the follower of Christ. Whereas his words marked defiance of the inevitable, when once we know the true Captain of our souls we can cry out very similar words in the certain hope of the eternal.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
Christ is the master of my fate:
He is the captain of my soul.