Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Thought of the Day
Social justice has become a very prominent issue in the church in the past few years. What is the church supposed to do about it? Are we to be involved? What is our role? First, I would like to pose that social justice is an oxymoron. Social justice implies that we, the church, are in a separate class, that we don't need it, that it is only for, "those people over there"(thanks to Scot McKnight for the thought). Not so. We are a part of the system, we are the people that need justice. This indeed is why Christ came-for our justification.
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ReplyDeleteThere has been a dominant trend among North American Protestantism to see the church's mission as entirely or vastly immaterial in nature. We're here to save *souls.* What counts is making sure that *souls* get fixed so that they go to heaven when they die. i'm not completely sure if this has led to strong dualism or has been caused by it (strong disjunct between the physical and non-physical, favoring the latter). i suspect the dualism came first though.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, do i think that Jesus came to save souls? Sure. But what is interesting to me of late is that Jesus didn't show up and go straight to the cross. He spent a large portion of His earthly ministry doing very "earthly" good deeds: healing diseases, feeding the hungry, raising the dead, etc. If the kingdom of heaven is all about saving souls, why do these things? Why raise the dead?--weren't some of them already in "heaven" (or something like it)? Why heal diseases?--didn't the health problems just prove the bankruptcy of the physical world?
i suspect what this may show is that the strong dualism held by some is greatly misguided. --that saving souls is not antithetical to "earthly" good deeds, but rather both are somehow part of the very same mission.
Now, precisely *how* is feeding a hungry person related to making sure they go to heaven when they die? i'm not sure about that one. But i think seeing the fact that they are related (somehow) is an important start.