Justice: why don't we talk about justice in church?

Why don’t we talk about justice in church?

Gary A. Haugen, Attorney, and president/founder of International Justice Mission, suggests (3) three reasons why the church is reluctant to preach justice:

  

1.   Pastors are reluctant to preach justice because it’s perceived to bring politics into the pulpit. Partisan politics has no place in the pulpit.

The central focus of preaching should be the gospel not the voting booth. There are many churches that get involved with electoral politics, pursuing candidates from their neighborhood to make changes in oppressive, unjust political systems. However, the purpose of a sermon is to exposit the biblical truth of Jesus and his resurrection, not that Justice and Jesus are exclusive of each other. It takes a pastor who can weave into biblical exegesis Jesus’ desire that humans would be free from the guilt, sadness, anger, confusion, and harm resulting from their sin; instead turning from things like injustice and following him to the cross. 

Jesus had to take for form of a sacrificial lamb in order for true justice to be wrought on humanity through him. Jesus embodies justice and mercy together; his blood paid the ransom for our sin, and makes peace with everyone possible, including God. This amazing mercy was the antithesis to justice although it does not lessen the severity of the justice required to conquer sin. Pastors who talk about social justice in the present day sometimes miss this point about biblical justice in the person of Jesus Christ. The trouble with bringing politics into a sermon is that Christians of both political parties are trying to do the right thing. Maybe the first thing we should do with any candidate is ask them to define their vision of “justice,” and to see that they act wisely in practical matters.

2.   Justice is not always connected to the felt needs of those in the pew. For largely middle-class congregations of North America, injustice is a subject read about in the news, not lived daily.

Big churches like one I can think of in Houston, deal with self-improvement from the pulpit as much as they do anything like “justice.” The pastor I’m thinking of acts as encourager-in-chief not the head of missions. Focusing on the outside world takes commitment, organization, passionate volunteers, and a network of global organizations. Thinking about justice, and acting upon it even in the smallest neighborhood way is more gritty and granular than discussing self-worth, and positive mental attitude. Supporting just causes requires a level of interaction that some churches abhor. They would rather do things within their own congregation than actually have to fellowship with Christians or non-Christians that don’t believe how they do. It gets messy!

Comfortable, middle-class Americans don’t spend much time thinking about justice until it affects them! The idolatry of “comfort” is pervasive in the modern church, so this disconnect is not surprising. For the conversation to turn to justice, our hearts must change. Christians must be so struck with the injustice in their own hearts and what Jesus did to change them that they want to help those who are the victims of injustice, or to right those maladies in the world that are unjust. Progress will come from the inside out, beginning with an awareness of severe problems in the world on more than a conceptual level.

"Here is one choice that our Father wants us to understand as Christians – and I believe it is the choice of our age:  Do we want to be brave or safe? Gently, lovingly – our heavenly Father wants us to know that we simply can’t be both."  — Gary A. Haugen

  

3.   Talking about justice opens the door to despair in our world. The overwhelming quantity and depth of world problems leaves us feeling fatigue and/or paralyzed.

I tend to bounce off that perspective, not because it is incorrect but the larger view is that there is injustice because of the nature of the fall (Genesis). Even though I think Mr. Haugen is accurate, I would argue from a larger idea that injustice is rooted at the foundation of brokenness between each human and God. It is spiritual poverty that causes the relationships in our lives not to work. This is something the North American church is not comfortable admitting! One of the biggest problems in the promotion of justice is that the people who don’t think about justice are actually working through a God-complex. These poor souls are perfectly fine with the concept of justice as long as they are not mistreated themselves; and further that any contribution to injustice begins with looking outside their own hearts for the culprit.

Many Christians tend to think that justice is a problem for someone else, that alleviating injustice (or poverty for that matter) is not an exclusive task of the church. That begs the question, however; who will take up the cause? The government?

If God’s two greatest commandments are to love God with all our hearts, souls, and minds; in other words, our whole being. And secondly, we are to love our neighbor as ourselves (see, Matthew 23 for this restatement of Old Testament commandments). Surely the great commission flows out of this kind of revolutionary love: demonstrated through acts of kindness, compassion, and justice. The mission of God to love his people through us certainly requires that we seek justice in all facets of our life.

The spread of the kingdom of God is to be carried out on earth by His Church, as they have been commanded in the Bible. Through the power of the Holy Spirit within us, having sincere hearts dedicated to justice; Jesus’ followers are to take up the task. Even though it takes work, we are not to sit by idly and give up. The people of God are to reclaim and redeem the world for Christ. “As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.” (Jesus’ command in John 20:21)

©Mark H. Pillsbury