Category Archives: Social Justice

A Church that wants to be the State

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One of the favourite activities of mainline churches is not, as one might expect, saving people from hell and judgement but pestering governments on how they should run the country. In practice, this usually amounts to leftist agitating, couched in familiar clichés like speaking truth to power, or advocating for the [choose any of the following, alternating as needed to avoid vain repetition]: poor, marginalised, disadvantaged, refugees, migrants, or make poverty history – a less onerous task than simply helping the poor, since it can’t be done.

Part of the problem seems to be that the church is nursing the fantasy that Jesus spent his time confronting secular authorities. Tom Wright says as much in this article [my emphasis]. The fact is, though, he didn’t; Jesus reserved his harshest criticisms for the religious authorities – in today’s terms, people like….. bishops. Although he called Herod a fox, the Pharisees were likened to snakes and cosmetically disguised coffins.

The gospels are not, then, a compendium of detached moral maxims for individuals. Jesus’ sayings find their meaning within the larger story about new creation struggling to be born. ‘Supposing God was in charge,’ Jesus was asking, ‘might it not look like this?’ – as he healed the sick, fed the hungry, rebuked the arrogant, told sharp-edged stories, wept with distressed friends, and (not least) confronted cynical authorities. ‘God’s rule’ poses its challenge to nations and cultures, not just individuals.

[….]

This brings us to the other key point. Along with the absolute priority of looking after the weakest and poorest, the church has a specific vocation. One of the tasks Jesus bequeathed his followers is to hold earthly rulers to account. This doesn’t mean clever clerical soundbites, still less theologians aping one strand of popular prejudice. It means drawing on the sustained wisdom of the worldwide church, across space and time, to remind rulers (often distracted by the next election or referendum) what they are there for. Back once more to the Psalms, the prophets and Jesus’ vision of God’s Rule. At the climax of the fourth gospel, Jesus confronted Pontius Pilate on the topics of kingdom, truth and power. His followers need to do the same.

Jesus’ point to Pilate was, surely, that his kingdom and Pilate’s occupy a different dimension. The church can advocate until all its bishops turn blue in the face but God’s Rule is not going to be established until Jesus returns. Meanwhile, the church might want to consider getting back to the job of saving sinners from hell and judgement.

A New Zealand Anglican bishop does social justice

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The problem with most Anglican clergy who harp interminably about social justice is: first, they tend to use it to replace the Gospel of man’s eternal redemption through Christ’s sacrifice and second, they want everyone else to give their money to the less well off – usually in the form of higher taxes – while living in the lap of luxury themselves. Particularly bishops.

Bishop Justin Duckworth may still fall foul of my first point but at least he gives his own money away, takes the poor into his own house and exhorts his fellow clergy to do likewise: “I would ask that everyone else should be engaged in the moral conversation of when is too much too much.”

So, Anglican Church of Canada bishops whose raison d’etre is prophetic social justice making: how about giving away a sizeable portion of your over $100,000 salaries and taking  homeless waifs into your own homes. Convince us that you are serious.

From here:5d28120131ff01ca8302290dff666541_460x230

Wellington’s Anglican bishop says he may cut his own salary to help fund a “living wage” for cleaners, caregivers and other low-paid workers in Anglican churches and social agencies.

Bishop Justin Duckworth, a dreadlocked, Jandal-wearing priest who was an upset choice as bishop last year, is also challenging other high-income earners to take less to fund higher wages for the 39 per cent of Kiwi workers who now earn less than the living wage, defined by union and church groups as $18.40 an hour.

His current salary is about $63,000, or $30 an hour, plus a house.

“My personal response is in the future I have to look at what I am earning and say, what is appropriate for me to earn given that many people in our society don’t even have enough to participate meaningfully in our society,” he said.

“I would ask that everyone else should be engaged in the moral conversation of when is too much too much.”

The bishop, who has lived his entire married life sharing his family home with people in need such as lost teenagers and ex-prisoners, said he and his wife, Jenny, were also considering how to make best use of the bishop’s official home across the road from Parliament when they move there later this year from the community for recovering addicts and others where they have lived for the past 10 years.

“We have always lived with people. We will do that again,” he said.

Heavens Above! was a 1963 film about an English vicar who also took social justice seriously; it didn’t work out too well for him, but the film, based on an idea by Malcolm Muggeridge – who also had a bit part – was very good.

Here is a clip. Notice an astute child observing that the visiting bishop’s representative has “got a tail like a great big snake; it’s black.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAYCYngNVdM

Liberal vs. Conservative Churches

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There are many differences, of course, but this one might be less than obvious:

A friend of mine who is a liberal Christian made what I thought was an interesting observation about liberal vs. conservative Anglican churches. He was attending St. Hilda’s at the time; one of the things that drew him to the parish in spite of the fact that he is theologically liberal and St. Hilda’s theologically conservative, was that liberal churches constantly talk about social justice but don’t actually do much about it.

St. Hilda’s, he said, didn’t talk about social justice, they just did it.

One example is Food for Life. Poverty is not the first thing that springs to mind when thinking about Oakville; nevertheless, there are poor people in the city – more than one might expect. For many years now, St. Hilda’s has been delivering food to Oakville’s poor. Here is an unsolicited testimonial from one recipient:

 “I just wanted to tell you how much this program means to me.  Things have been very lean and food is often a luxury. A friend told me about the (Food for Life) program at St. Hilda’s Anglican Church. I can count on them every week and they always have a smile for me. They are so supportive and kind I just had to say THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart. Every little bit helps so much. Just so you know that there are a lot of people truly grateful for what you bring to me every Thursday, because it is not just food items – it’s dignity as well.”

What does social justice really look like?

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Liberal churches are keen on promoting social justice. In practice, this means that they attempt to exert pressure on governments to adopt redistributionist policies in order, supposedly, to make poverty history and transform unjust structures of society. This mindless utopianism never works, of course, and, when applied with vigour, results in a cure that is much worse than the disease.

So what does social justice in a Christian context really look like?

Like this:

Thirty years ago, a wealthy Toronto doctor had a revelation: Money, he decided, was his to give away, not to keep.

It was a drastic change in attitude for Dr. Andrew Simone, a Harvard-educated skin care specialist, who was bringing home $100,000 a year in 1975.

“We didn’t have a clue what we were supposed to do,” recalled the now 66-year-old doctor who founded the Canadian Food for Children (CFFC) charity to help feed the world’s hungry.

Before taking on the monumental, Dr. Simone and his wife, Joan, started with the obvious.

They donated their savings and life insurance, worth more than $150,000, to charities like the Salvation Army and Oxfam. They stopped shopping for clothes and sold their fancy cars, furniture and electronics. They welcomed foster children into their home. They told their own kids that life would be simpler from then on, that they would be well cared for, but if they wanted extras they would have to work for them.

“We felt this call to be servants,” said Dr. Simone in a recent interview at the Mississauga warehouse where CFFC donations are stored. He wore a used Toronto Transit Commission jacket that a friend gave him, accessorized with a button that read: “Jesus is the reason for the season.”

Indeed, it is the Simones’ deep Catholic faith that bolsters their spirit and assures them they have found their path.