There’s a growing divide in the denominational world, and though our autonomy in the churches of Christ prevents the issue from being as prevalent for us as it is for others, the issue at hand is one that we deal with whether we realize it or not.
The division is based on the place of social justice advocacy in the church. As always, it’s important to define our terms, and that’s where the division begins. “Social Justice Warriors” is a term that has been given to those who fight for heavily liberal ideas such as socialism, LGBT rights, discrimination against white people, and more. Naturally, many are going to react strongly against those things, but that’s obviously not what is being advocated by those pushing for social justice in Christendom. We can be guilty of overreacting to extremes and stereotyping people based on the most absurd version of their position, but that doesn’t help us gain understanding. The idea is to find what’s right, not to merely go against what’s wrong. So, the definition of social justice being advocated by many in Christendom typically focuses on issues like racial division, poverty, and unjust laws.
On the one hand, we have those who are advocating for a greater focus on social justice. They have done so by producing books, articles, and videos on the topic and hosting conferences dedicated to ideas like healing racial divides. On the other side is a group who believe that focus is inordinate. Those on that side of the divide recently released a statement outlining their opposition, one that has been signed by over 9,000 church leaders and ministers from around the country. In it, they make this declaration:
“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.”
I agree that the pendulum can swing back too far in the other direction to the point that some have essentially ignored the message of sin and justification to focus solely on social justice, that doesn’t mean discussions on social justice are out of place in the church. One of the critics of the statement humble-bragged that his church gives away 100% of their contributions to the poor in their community, raising the obvious question – what about missions? Shouldn’t the church put money toward saving the lost? So yes, there is a need to be cautious about taking the call for social justice too far.
However, the statement signers’ stance essentially comes down to two points, one implicit and one explicit. The implicit is that there isn’t a problem. Incidents like the recent Botham Shem Jean shooting and how it was handled in the aftermath say otherwise. And even if you disagree, there is a large segment of this country (and the church) who believe there is a problem, and the Christian response must be to consider others as more important than ourselves (Phil. 2:3). We do that by listening to one another and attempting to understand each other when we have differences.
The other point, the case explicitly made by the statement, is that we don’t need to talk about these things because they are a distraction from preaching the Gospel. I think we should object on two fronts:
It’s inconsistent
We don’t “just stick to the Gospel” when it comes to social issues like abortion, and rightly so. It’s a grave injustice that the Scriptures show should be taken very seriously. But the same biblical principle that gives us the impetus to fight against abortion – namely, that life is sacred and eternally valuable – also should lead us to value the lives of the people around us and work to care for them. Where laws have violated the rights of the unborn, we march, we speak out, and we vote. Where laws or enforcement of laws oppress or unjustly target some or put them at a disadvantage, Christians should advocate change there as well. When a person can say “Stick to the Gospel” in the face of discussions about racism, poverty, and the like while doing anything but sticking to the Gospel on our own pet social and political issues, it exposes a rather big blind spot. That’s what those pushing for social justice in the church are trying to point out.
It’s unbiblical
The idea that we should “Get away from social justice and just get back to preaching the Bible” is wildly unbiblical in its own right. The Bible is filled with calls to pursue social justice. God chose Abraham so that Abraham’s household (which includes us, as Romans demonstrates) would “do righteousness and justice” (Genesis 18:19). Proverbs 31:8-9 commands, “Open your mouth for the mute, For the rights of all the unfortunate. Open your mouth, judge righteously, And defend the rights of the afflicted and needy” (NASB). The books of the prophets are absolutely filled with calls to pursue justice along with condemnations of those who had perverted justice or turned a blind eye. Jesus Himself opened His ministry by quoting this section from Isaiah 61 –
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed; to proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD.”
Jesus’ actions toward the poor, the blind, etc. show that His point was not merely focused on people’s spiritual wellbeing, but on the physical as well. James 1:27 ties our care for widows and orphans to our standing before God. Again, it’s simply not true that we can preach the Bible without developing a sense of duty to work for justice in our communities.
There are debates to be had about how justice should be pursued or even as to where injustice is occurring, and those debates might result in people reaching different conclusions. The conclusions we can’t reach, however, are that there is no need for justice or that it’s none of the church’s business.
