Christianity as a Religion of Justice

A Call for a New Reformation, Part 6

NOTE: Because this November-December series (“A Call for a New Reformation”) is incredibly important to me, I’ve decided to open it up for free through the end of December 2024. If you find this series to be inspirational, empowering, or otherwise valuable and look forward to more, please consider supporting the “Religious, Reasonable, & Radical Newsletter & Community” (learn more) by becoming a paid member for a small monthly fee.

“There's something in the psyche of a child that says the witch at the end of Hansel and Gretel has to go into the oven.”

A seminary professor said that in our Wisdom Literature class. Developmentally speaking, children need to know that the universe is safe. And for the universe to be safe, the bad people need to be punished. For a child, this idea of punishment is integral to their underdeveloped understanding of justice.

As we grow into adults, there is a good chance that our understanding of justice transforms and evolves because it becomes more complex. Not everybody grows in this manner. But for those who do, the concept of justice itself becomes something radically different than some form of hellish retribution.

For those who have adopted or are shifting into a more complex postmodern worldview, their perspective on justice is related to their understanding of the nature of authority, which flows from the margins of society rather than the center.

This is where Divine Justice and social justice interpenetrate one another.

An eye opener for exvangelicals

Listening to the stories of exvangelicals (those who’ve deconstructed and left evangelicalism) on social media, I see a theme. While studying the Bible they discovered something new. It was something they didn’t really learn much about in church: The ministry of Jesus.

You see, in their former religion, Jesus’ ministry really didn't matter. The only thing he was good for was to be a tool to get them the big payout at the end, which is escaping hell and getting into heaven. When they heard about Jesus’ ministry, it was all really about pointing them to accepting Jesus as Lord and Savior, and the significance of that ministry generall stopped there.

As they paid closer attention to the gospels, however, they discovered that Jesus stood for something in his ministry. Constantly, he was giving voice to those who had their voices stolen from them. He was befriending those who had been rejected. He was sharing the wealth of his Kingdom with the poor.

Jesus was identifying primarily not with those at the center of society and the powerful. Rather, he was very specifically and intentionally identifying with those on the margins of society, those who were powerless. As he did so, he stood against those who had social power and used their social power to generate and enforce this marginalization.

It didn't matter whether those in power were political or religious figures. The power—the authority—he incarnated stood against them.

What is the primary reason that exvangelicals deconstructed and left their religion? Because they encountered Jesus for the first time as someone other than a means to a personal, self-interested end.

The importance of orthopraxy

For most evangelicals and fundamentalists, they emphasize “orthodoxy”, which means having the “right belief”. Faith, for them, is bending the mental knee to their church's doctrine. Outside of that, there is no faith. Outside of faith, there is no salvation, only hell.

Meanwhile, exvangelicals have discovered “orthopraxy”, which means having the “right practice”. What you do is the most important thing. Whether or not you are loving others determines whether or not you are loving God. After all, the way to love God isn’t through gathering in worship to sing songs with a praise band. The way to love God is through loving others. This is what they learned through Jesus’ ministry for the marginalized as recorded in the gospels.

When you read the texts, it’s easy to see that Jesus focused most on the issue of accumulating wealth and its use. For him, wealth was not meant to be hoarded. It was meant to be shared. No one should ever have to go without. Those who had accumulated wealth while others had to go without were held responsible for the situation of those in need. The judgment of God was upon them.

What the exvangelicals have noticed is that Jesus’ concern for the poor symbolized his wider concern for all of the marginalized in society.

This is similar to what Ian McFarland talks about in his book Listening to the Least: Doing Theology from the Outside In, as he argues

“a thorough examination of the logic of Christian belief in the sovereignty of Jesus Christ suggests that the church speaks with authority only to the extent that it allows that authority to be called into question by those who have the least to share in it.” (p. 7, emphasis mine)

Divine authority does not primarily flow from those who inhabit the center of power, but rather from those who live on the margins of society.

The risen Christ is found in the flesh of the marginalized. As we treat them, we treat Christ. Will you be like the powerful in the gospels who would abuse and crucify him? Or, will you serve him?

This is the question that the call to orthopraxy poses.

Postmodern culture is experiencing a meaning crisis.

Why have we lost sight of Meaning?
Is there any hope of getting it back?
Better yet, is the loss of Meaning really a bad thing?

If you long for a theological path forward, Drinking from an Empty Glass: Living Out of a Meaningless Spirituality is the book you’re looking for.

From singular to multiple perspectives

Too often, the debate between the primacy of orthodoxy and orthopraxy is portrayed as an either/or choice. For all intents and purposes, one matters, and the other does not.

I think they both matter, and here is how.

Yes, I agree with those who emphasize orthopraxy. They are clearly the most faithful to the call of Christ and heirs to the mission of Christ.

Meanwhile, I think orthodoxy is also important. But, I don't think “orthodoxy” is what others might think it is.

Typically, orthodoxy is seen as official theological pronouncements that require acceptance if one is to be a Christian. For right-wing evangelicals and fundamentalists, this usually means that faith is propositional. The four markers of evangelicalism are typically:

• the centrality of Christ's crucifixion for salvation

• the primacy of the Bible as the revelation of God's will

• the importance of personal conversion to Christ

• the importance of doing good works and spreading the Gospel so that people can get saved.

Meanwhile, we also have the Nicene Creed. This is the historic standard for Christian orthodoxy. It emphasizes strongly that all Divine Persons of the Trinity share the same substance. It also clarifies (for its original context) what Christians believe about God, Jesus, and the church. Back in the day, the Creed was a way to draw a line between theological fidelity and heresy.

In case you haven’t noticed, we don’t live in that world today. Our 21st-century culture is radically different than that of the 4th century.

Thanks to the information age, our world is much more pluralistic than ever. We have learned how to value different perspectives even when they are contradictory. This is certainly an advancement in our collective consciousness.

No longer do we have to fight over whether the Presbyterians, Methodists, Episcopalians, Baptists, Mennonites, or any other denomination have the “right theology” that grants you access to the Divine VIP Room. Now, we can honor each of the traditions and their unique theologies and (believe it or not) even learn from them.

This acceptance of multiple perspectives can help us to understand the new place of orthodoxy in our world.

Belief and action

When the Pharisees heard that he [Jesus] silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, and one of them, an expert in the law, asked him a question to test him. “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” He said to him, “ ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.” (Matthew 23:34-40, NRSVUE)

Love god, love neighbor.

This is the defining call of the Christian, the defining feature of the Christian religion.

But what does that mean?

Whatever that means to you is what you believe about it.

Some Christians believe that loving God and loving neighbor are two separate things. You can do one and not the other. So, it’s possible (if not common) to have faith in God, engage in abusive behavior, and still be in “right standing” before God. After all, as long as you have faith in Jesus (aka, “love God”), everything else is okay, because you are justified before God through the blood of Christ.

I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:34-35, NRSVUE)

Here's an alternative belief about loving God and loving neighbor…

The only way to love God is through neighbor. They are one and the same movement. They are two sides of the same coin.

If this is what you believe, then you cannot love God without loving neighbor. And when you love neighbor, you are loving God.

What I have presented are two antithetical beliefs about what it means to be Christian. What I want you to see is how belief generates behavior.

In other words, orthodoxy generates orthopraxy.

Or, to go back to my second article in this series, the quality of the character of the religion (the theology) manifests in the quality of the connection of the religion (polity and social policy).

A theology can be considered right (orthodoxy) inasmuch as it leads people to love God through others.

A theology can be considered wrong (heresy) inasmuch as it pushes people away from loving God through others.

At least, that is what I believe about orthodoxy and heresy.

This is why the “right” theology is so important. It's not important in and of itself, but rather because of the way it guides our relationships.

Toward an incarnational faith

Then he will say to those at his left hand, ‘You who are accursed, depart from me into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels, for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not give me clothing, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ Then they also will answer, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison and did not take care of you?’ Then he will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’ (Matt. 25:41-45, NRSVUE)

When we think of the incarnation, I suspect most Christians tend to think of God the Son incarnate in Jesus of Nazareth. But in the Christian Testament, incarnation is much more than that.

Christians are called to incarnate the Spirit of Christ in the here and now. We are called to be his hands and feet doing his work in the world. Our fleshly bodies are Temples of Christ.

When we read the gospels, we see that Jesus loved everybody, but he had a special place in his heart for those who had been disenfranchised in society, whether through lack of wealth or status. Indeed, it was to them primarily that he declared that the Kingdom of God had come.

Theologically speaking, the spirit of Christ continues today the work Jesus started a long time ago. That means that we are participating in the spirit of Christ inasmuch as we are loving others, especially the marginalized.

Along with that we have another sense of incarnation in our lives. A common theme in the gospels is that the Risen Christ is found in (“incarnate in”) the flesh and blood of others, especially the marginalized. If it is truly in your heart that you want to serve (love) Jesus, then you will serve (love) others, especially the marginalized.

Indeed, it is through the marginalized of society that God speaks to us most as Christians. It is through the marginalized of society that God calls us to become who we were truly meant to be as Christians.

This is immensely significant for what it means to have faith as a Christian. You see, to claim to be “Christian” while actively turning a deaf ear to the Spirit of Christ who is calling to us through the marginalized would be to turn the Christian faith into little more than a self-deluding lie.

The primacy of Christian Justice

Unfortunately, in today’s dominant form of Christianity, “justice” is equated with sinners burning in hell as punishment. I think this completely misses the spirit of the Christian Testament.

My understanding of justice flows from my belief about divine incarnation. The Christ of God—the Holy Spirit of God—is incarnate in and calls to us through all of creation, especially that which is marginalized.

I would argue that, up to this point, the Christian tradition has prioritized gathering as a worshiping community (love God) over and above supporting the push for social justice (loving the marginalized).

You might think that my agenda here is to invert that dynamic. You might think I want to prioritize promoting Christian justice over worship, orthopraxy over orthodoxy. But this is not the case.

Instead, I want to entirely reframe the relationship between orthodoxy and orthopraxy. This reframing is largely what the call to a New Reformation is really all about. It's about saying that the pursuit of Christian justice IS the worship of the God who is love and incarnate in Jesus Christ.

Indeed, there is no worship outside the pursuit of Christian justice.

Justice is not about retribution, but rather transformation. Personally, it’s about transformation of hearts and minds. Socially, it’s about the transformation of the systems around us.

Within the Christian tradition, that justice manifests through the transformation of the character of the quality of the religion (theology) an the character of the quality of the religion’s relationships (polity and social policy).

The difficulty of discerning Christian justice

When pursuing justice, the true difficulty is in figuring out what the just cause actually is. It is one thing to say that it is about restoring the marginalized to their rightful place. But, what happens when two marginalized communities oppose each other?

A couple of decades ago, the issue of ordaining gays and lesbians in the Presbyterian Church (USA) was the hottest thing on the docket.

Those who supported full inclusion pointed out the homophobia in the system that prevented these children of God from exercising their gifting and calling and demanded we overcome it.

Meanwhile, minority groups within the denomination decried the push as a racist imposition upon their congregations.

This is where the importance of community comes in. We need to have conversations about what “justice” is and what it looks like with one another as part of our discernment. We need to learn how to listen deeply to one another and speak our truth in love in the hopes that we may, through participatory co-creation, open the door to an even greater justice than we could have ever imagined alone.

Recognizing personal limits

For you always have the poor with you… (Matt 26:11a, NRSVUE)

If there is one word that seems to capture the essence of life in America today, it is this: overwhelm.

Everybody is worked to the bone, exhausted, and just doesn't have the bandwidth to take in any more information. How many days of the week do we feel like our primary task in life is just to make it through the day? Living in a context like this, when we’re barely staying afloat ourselves, how in the world are we supposed to work for justice for others?

To be honest, sometimes you need to make self-care your priority. Sometimes you have to temporarily forget about the problems of the world and focus on getting through your own problems. If you find yourself in that situation, that's okay.

When we do have time and energy to focus on the call to justice, however, it's vital that we remember that we are not called to do it alone. This is where the witnessing community comes in.

Everybody has a part to play. Sometimes the main thing is about discerning what your part is. Maybe it is volunteering at a homeless shelter. Maybe it is donating to a food bank. Maybe it is running events or programs that facilitate awareness of the justice issues within the wider community in a way that gathers people to the cause.

The question is, what is your part? How can you personally contribute to the call of justice in your own way? And then, maybe, how can you connect with others who are basically doing the same thing so that your voice and action can be amplified?

The inner work of justice

I believe that the world around us ultimately reflects the world within us. That means that the foundation of social justice is personal internal healing and transformation.

Have you ever heard conservatives decry progressives as “social justice warriors”? Ultimately, their charge is that the progressives who demand their conception of justice reign supreme in society are embodying the totalitarian injustices they decry; they’re just on the other side of the fence. In other words, they are the thing they are fighting against.

Those conservatives are right. And, we progressive should listen up. They are identifying what happens when an underdeveloped spirituality latches on to cause with a perceived divine mandate. Arguably, this is the same dynamic that feeds Christian supremacism.

So, social justice isn't just about doing the work of justice in society. It's also about doing the foundational work of inner justice within one’s self.

And this brings us to next week's article. I hope you will join me.

Peace, Bo
www.evolvingchristianfaith.net

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Credits

• Thanks to NightCafe for the cover art