Social Justice and the Church

Two nights ago, I attended a panel on “Passing the Buck: Confronting Poverty in America”, which was part of the Veritas forum. The first panelist, Richard Parker (who incidentally is teaching a class I’m auditing now called Religion, Politics and Public Policy at the Kennedy School), gave a quick run-down of America’s experience with poverty and inequality since the Puritans. His main thesis was that while the Bible instructs us to “render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s”, that command was given in an era where the government was external to the people, something that has fundamentally changed since the onset of democracy. Rather than view the government from a detached perspective, there is instead a need for citizens to engage the government in order to address the problem if inequality in society.

Jim Wallis, author of God’s Politics, pointed out that when you asked people what they think about Jesus, they would probably say stuff like “he stood for the poor people,” or “he was compassionate and loving” or “he was for peace.” Unfortunately, when you ask them what Christians or the church stand for, you’ll probably get a different answer.

I reckon that these two views pretty much sum up the situation that Christians and the church are in today. There is no question about whether the God is concerned about social justice; the only problem is that we are unwilling to take that concern seriously. As part of the minority in the world that does not have to worry about where our next meal is coming from, and as part of the minority in our societies that can afford to think about taking an overseas trip, we often come up with fancy theories to justify the persistence of inequality. We blame the free market and proclaim that big government would disrupt productive efficiency. We may even start thinking that we somehow deserve to be in this economically superior position. In the midst of all this, we start to forget that it was not by virtue that we were born into the families that we were. We could very well have entered the world in the midst of one of the several ongoing wars throughout the world. So before we start feeling all benevolent when we give $5 to the guy with the Dunkin Doughnuts cup outside Walgreens, we should perhaps seriously reconsider our attitudes towards poverty and social marginalization.

During the forum, one member of the audience pointed out that when a woman poured an alabaster jar of expensive perfume on his head, the disciples saw it as a waste of money, but Jesus instead rebuked them saying, “The poor you will always have with you….” (Matthew 26:6-13) The question was whether this should affect our approach to poverty. Wallis immediately pointed out that many people have taken this verse to mean that no matter what one does, inequality will always exist, but a better interpretation is probably that his disciples will always be amongst the poor, because that is where the Church is needed most.

Ok, so what is the point of all this? A few summers ago, I wrote a short piece about community service in lieu of my brief time at Food from the Heart in Singapore. On hindsight, I am really glad that I wrote that short essay because it reminds me of my tendency to engage in NATO (no action, talk only). Wonderful ideas get you nowhere if they are not followed up with concrete service. I look back at these past couple of years and realize that despite being aware of the situation, I’ve spent more time looking out for my own needs as opposed to the needs of those around me. I have no illusions that after I post this write-up, I will suddenly become this mega-altruistic social worker, but I would invite any of you who feel this post makes any sense at all to begin thinking critically of the world in which we live, and not to take social injustice to be part and parcel of life.