Social Justice: A Response to the Gospel
Ye who spend 95+% of your organization's tithes and offerings on salaries and facilities - whose congregations build fancy buildings with overpriced sound systems and comfortable chairs and ignore the very urban community your building was built in - ye who contribute less than 5% of your annual budget towards meeting the physical needs of other humans - ye who tread upon the weak to defend the wealthy - ye who pledge the allegiance of your congregation to Empire over Kingdom - you have been weighed in the balances and found wanting. You can't take the prophets out of context. You can't love mercy if you love conquest.
"Behold, this was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had arrogance, abundant food and careless ease, but she did not help the poor and needy." - Ezekiel the prophet
A friend of mine was a youth pastor who went to his senior pastor. He said that their church was built in the middle of an urban community in the south, attended by mostly white middle-class families. The church did nothing to help with the mostly black youth community that lived within blocks of their building and he brought this up to his superior. The senior pastor said to him "you're young and naive - I don't think you realize how much work *those people* are".
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A man immigrated recently with his family from El Salvador. He found employment at a church in MN. One of the pastors there secretly called ICE on this man because he was suspicious that he might not have legal status in this country.
"Therefore they have become great and rich.
They are fat, they are sleek,
They also excel in deeds of wickedness;
They do not plead the cause,
The cause of the orphan, that they may prosper;
And they do not defend the rights of the poor.
'Shall I not punish these *people*?' declares the Lord,
'On a nation such as this
Shall I not avenge Myself?'" Jeremiah the prophet
Stop listening to these guys! At least they've made it clear that they are preaching what they've already been practicing for so long. A gospel that is all talk and minimal action. A massive reduction of what interfacing with the Maker looks like - merely verbal - things said, sung or read in the public places. What we call worship has been reduced to melodies and lip service. Personal relationship with the Divine, according to scripture, has to do with selfless love of the poor.
"These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me - they worship me in vain" - Jesus quoting the prophet Isaiah
"Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in action and truth" - John the apostle
Jesus Christ spent a lot of time defending the cause of the oppressed, standing in opposition to the empire, criticizing religious leaders, pointing out hypocrisy and inconsistencies in a religious system that tied itself to an empire.
Jesus' half-brother said, "you see that a person is considered righteous by what they do and not by faith alone". He said that in context of meeting the physical needs of the community. He was talking about a community that organized around social safety nets.
And yet they cozy up to the unrepentant and those who pridefully oppose the teachings of Jesus in order to take the cause of the rich and the powerful - trading the soul and testimony of an entire movement for the fleeting promise of power and representation in petty culture wars. While criticizing any attempt made by those advocating for the poor and powerless
in the halls of political power. They will galvanize and unify in the political arenas in order to maintain and preserve cultural dominance. They will talk about immigration and the need to protect traditional and western anglo ethos - a selective involvement in the political sphere. Is it only allowed when the recipients of advocacy look like - believe like - act like - vote like - pray like - smell like the advocates?
"The contemporary Church is so often a weak, ineffectual voice with an uncertain sound. It is so often the arch supporter of the status quo. Far from being disturbed by the presence of the Church, the power structure of the average community is consoled by the Church's silent and often vocal sanction of things as they are." MLK letter from the Birmingham Jail
As a songwriter - when I read the words of the prophets - I was stopped in my tracks. Am I adding to this noise? Another culture creator that only talks or sings about stuff. I was so moved by the words of Amos and Isaiah and the words of Jesus and his half-brother that I wrote two albums on social justice and counter trafficking. I've spent 10 deployments overseas so far with the counter sex trafficking organization The Exodus Road doing undercover work to find and free slaves.
My activism, my advocacy, my passion for human rights, my longing for better social safety nets, my gentle attempts to spotlight racial inequality, my research into racial reconciliation, my broken heart over inhumane immigration practices and my love for refugees - how do they respond to people like me? I lecture at universities on social justice, I speak on Sunday mornings in church buildings and everywhere my rock band performs. Here's how they respond:
"And we emphatically deny that lectures on social issues (or activism aimed at reshaping the wider culture) are as vital to the life and health of the church as the preaching of the gospel and the exposition of Scripture...Historically, such things tend to become distractions that inevitably lead to departures from the gospel." - The Statement on Social Justice
Distractions? How can following the explicit instruction of the King a distraction? This idea that a community of light can help shift culture is the very premise of the good news of the Kingdom. The idea that people will develop "a kind of dangerous unselfishness" to quote MLK, a contagious courage in the face of fear, esteeming the needs of others above our own, laying down our lives for our neighbors, generously doing for others what we'd love for them to do for us if we needed assistance - this is the very foundation of good news that Jesus Christ talked about over and over again. His gospel was good news to the poor. He said that when we emphasize our good works that those on the outside will see our actions and glorify Him. That's what he was talking about when He said to shine our light - not some bumper sticker or t-shirt or proclamation in your twitter bio or some massive religious symbol or billboard on the side of the highway. He said they will know that we're following Him when they see our selfless love, our action on behalf of the most marginalized - our advocacy for those lacking power and representation in the public places.
"Is this not the fast which I choose,
To loosen the bonds of wickedness,
To undo the bands of the yoke,
And to let the oppressed go free
And break every yoke?
Is it not to divide your bread with the hungry
And bring the homeless poor into the house;
When you see the naked, to cover him;
And not to hide yourself from your own flesh?
Then your light will break out like the dawn,
And your recovery will speedily spring forth;
And your righteousness will go before you;
The glory of the Lord will be your rear guard.
Then you will call, and the Lord will answer;
You will cry, and He will say, 'Here I am.'
If you remove the yoke from your midst,
The pointing of the finger and speaking wickedness,
And if you spend yourself on behalf of the hungry
And satisfy the desire of the afflicted,
Then your light will rise in darkness
And your gloom *will become* like midday." Isaiah the prophet
What are we spending ourselves on? What am I spending the currency of my life on? Isaiah says if we spend ourselves on behalf of the hungry and afflicted than our light will rise like the noon. That's what I want. We are sitting on storehouses of kerosene and yet we've got the candle buried under a bushel. What will I spend the currency of my time on? The currency of my moral capital? The currency of my political capital? On the rich and powerful or on the poor and powerless? The currency of my creativity, my sweat and blood, my imagination, my youth, my art, my songs, my camera lens?
What a beautiful thing to see when the fabled majestic bride holds the torch of freedom up high - the city on a hill shining bright in her glorious good deeds - clothed in radiant white - inspired by the example of the King's life laid down for her - empowered by that Divine spark of new life - the way of the cross - dying daily to selfish apathy and being born anew into a life of generous service.
Will we lay our lives down in service of the King? The King who is a refugee - the King who is a single mother in the inner city -the King who is hungry and thirsty - the King who is a child desperate for foster care - the King who is a child sold into prostitution. Won't you shine your light City on a Hill? The light of the good news from the Kingdom is witnessed in the good works of the Bride - it's the evidence of a community of transformed lives that now devote their time and resources to loving their neighbors as themselves in the most creative and effective ways. And they advocate in the public places for the poor and the powerless to maximize collective impact.
Someday the King will say to you "I know you - well done". He will recognize your voice, not only because of your prayers, but because he's heard you advocating publicly for the underprivileged and destitute. He will recognize your eyes because he's already looked back at you already through irises of a refugee child - through the eyes of the exiled, hungry, imprisoned or impoverished image bearer that you decided to love with your actions. As you recognize the scars in his wrists he will have already seen the calluses in your hands from your toil in the fields of injustice and apathy. You will recognize the rhythm of His steps because you've been in the yoke with the Savior of humanity every time you spent yourself on behalf of the oppressed - part of the incarnate mosaic - a participant of the skin and bones of the Creator during this monumental time in history.
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Sourced in this article:
https://religousnotright.files.wordpress.com/2016/04/church-budgets.pdf
says 5-10% go to local and international "charity" although "charitable contributions" could very easily go towards proselytizing and not towards actually meeting the physical and tangible needs of other humans.
https://religousnotright.wordpress.com/2016/04/26/are-churches-really-charitable/
Study done by the Evangelical Christian Credit Union in 2012
https://www.thelifeyoucansave.org/blog/id/119/christianity-and-global-poverty-a-former-evangelicals-reasons-to-give
https://galileounchained.com/2012/05/14/are-churches-more-like-charities-or-country-clubs/
*"Every year churches collect some $100 billion in donations. But most donors do not know that the average congregation in the U.S. gives only two percent of donated money to humanitarian projects. Some 98% goes to pay staff, upkeep of buildings, the priest's car, robes, salary and housing" - Roy Sablosky, American Humanist Association of Greater Sacramento *
*Christianity Today* is another source. A survey
https://galileounchained.com/2011/11/18/religion-billions-into-a-black-hole/
http://friendlyatheist.patheos.com/2013/11/28/are-religious-people-really-more-generous-than-atheists-a-new-study-puts-that-myth-to-rest/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2017/08/03/christians-are-more-than-twice-as-likely-to-blame-a-persons-poverty-on-lack-of-effort/?utm_term=.d06e1724a239
https://www.vox.com/identities/2018/5/29/17405704/white-evangelicals-attitudes-refugees
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/05/religious-right-real-origins-107133
To read more of Zach's writings, visit www.remedydrive.com/journal
