Last week, a member of St John’s sent me an email asking me to clarify a phrase I had used in the sermon – “Social Justice.”
This particular phrase was brought to public attention last year when a prominent TV personality and political commentator condemned the phrase as antithetical to Christianity, as “code words” for Communism and Nazism. He then urged his fans and followers to report their pastors to church authorities when they use the phrase and to “run as fast as you can” from churches and denominations that use the phrase.
I am particularly appreciative that one of you approached me with your questions — especially when the phrase has been politicized and become a source of further controversy, contention and division in the community. I am appreciative because asking the question gives us an opportunity to engage in open dialog, learn from one another and grow in our faith.
The email asks three questions. Let me respond to each of them.
What does the Bible say about Social Justice?
While the literal phrase does not appear in the Bible, it has been around since before the Civil War. The phrase ‘social justice’ entered the Christian lexicon in 1840. Luigi Taparelli, a Jesuit priest, coined the term basing it on the teachings of the 13th century Bishop, Thomas Aquinas. The theological concept ‘social justice’ is essential to understanding Justice and Righteousness in both the Old and New Testaments.
Together, the Hebrew tsedeq and Greek dikaios appear nearly 700 times in the scriptures. Tsedeq in the Old Testament and dikaios in the New are both rendered as either justice or righteousness in English. Therefore in the Bible, justice and righteousness mean the same thing: Just Righteousness or Righteous Justice. Biblically, Just Righteousness is one of the fundamental characteristics of God; in the Kingdom of God, God is a righteous judge; the people of God are commanded to “let [righteous] justice roll down like waters, and [just] righteousness like an ever flowing stream.” (Micah 5:6)
If we look at all 700 instances of this word, we find the full mean-ing to include five distinct yet interdependent ‘justices.’ One of the five is ‘Social Justice.’ Biblically and theologically ‘Social Justice’ cannot be fully understood apart from the others. Similarly, Just Righteousness or Righteous Justice cannot be fully understood without considering ‘Social Justice.’
What do I mean by the phrase Social Justice?
Just Righteousness is inherently social. That is, it is about the communities and societies in which we live. In addition to righteousness, our individual behavior, God insists that Israel as-a-nation become a just society. Righteous Justice is not only personal and individual, but also corporate and social. Inherently political, ‘Social Justice’ focuses on God’s involvement with the structure, policies and actions of a nation or society — the social dimensions of life.
In God’s world, all human beings are equally children of God (Genesis 1:27 & 2:7) and have an inherent right to equal status not only in the eyes of God but also in the eyes of society. This right derives directly from God and not from legal, constitutional or other provisions of a society made by human beings. In the words of the Declaration of Independence: “All [human beings] are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, and that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”
We commit an injustice when we discriminate against another based on any identity other than an individual’s basic humanity. Social structures, laws and customs that establish barriers and impede any individual or group from being fully human are fundamentally unjust. No one “chooses” their gender or race or the family they are born into; no one “chooses” sickness or disability. There is nothing we do to fall into one or more of these classifications. Social Justice demands that we actively seek to treat all people as children of God regardless of their “social identity” or membership in one of these groups.
The scriptures tell us that humanity inevitably builds social networks, communities and nations that relegate people to a social hierarchy of classes and groups. Some groups live at the bottom and others at the top of the social ladder. All societies engage in “identity politics” that limit and constrain identity to race or gender or age or … (you know the list.) In scriptures, such divisions in the human family are sinful and inherently unjust.
Because of sin, the scriptures tell us God has commanded that special care and attention be given to those typically at the bottom of the socio-politico-economic ladder: the poor, women and children, foreigners and strangers, the persecuted and oppressed.
Israel as a nation is instructed to put social and political structures in place that provide for the poor, the widow, the orphan and the foreigner, structures that limit the accumulation of wealth and forgive debts. Jesus is known for including the poor, widows, the sick, the disabled, tax collectors, children, women, foreigners and non-Jews.
Social Justice is the work of endorsing, advocating and promoting everyone’s God-given identity of being human. Social Justice is the work of combatting, resisting and removing man-made social constructs that limit human being.
What is the United Church of Christ Stand on Social Justice?
The UCC has inherited a long and proud tradition of social activism from all of its predecessor bodies. The UCC has typically been out in front, promoting ‘social justice’ an advocating Just Righteousness for oppressed and marginalized minorities long before other Christians and the culture as a whole came on board.
Here are a few examples of UCC ‘firsts.’
1608 Oldest Publishing House in Continuous Operation in North America
1620 “Pilgrims” Seek Spiritual Freedom Come to the New World
1636 Oldest U.S. Institution of Higher Education — Harvard
1700 The First Abolitionist Pamphlet in America
1773 First Published African American Poet
1773 “Congregationalists” Plan Boston Tea Party
1785 First Ordained African American Pastor
1798 “Christian Church” Formed to Seek Liberty of Conscience
1810 First Foreign Mission Society in America
1812 First Foreign Missionaries to India
1817 Introduces American Sign Language
1817 First School for the Deaf — Gallaudet
1814 “Evangelical Church” Opens the Communion Table to All
1833 Femme Osage Church Torched Because of Open Table
1839 “Congregationalists” Defend Africans on Slave Ship Amistad
1846 First Integrated Anti-Slavery Society
1853 Ordains First Woman Pastor
1957 Birth of UCC Unites Diverse Spiritual and Ethnic Traditions
1959 Historic Ruling that Airwaves are Public Property
1972 Ordination of First Openly Gay Minister
1976 First African American Elected to Lead Integrated Church
2005 Advocates Marriage Equality
The UCC advocacy of equal justice and equal justice for all is a hallmark of our denomination. The UCC has historically stood at the center and built bridges between a radical secular humanism on the one hand, and a radical Christian fundamentalism on the other. In almost every case, the Church has been surrounded by controversy and criticism by is social justice advocacy. The secular left criticizes the UCC for being too Biblical and too spiritual; the fundamentalist evangelical right brands us as unbiblical heathens and enemies of faith and morality.
D Gene Kraus 