Social Justice - Class 1

Our instructor began this series of classes by asking, “What do you hope to get out of these three sessions”? A few of the responses were, “How to ground social justice work in church teaching”, “Where can I be affective”, “How do I get over the knee jerk reaction of people with picket signs”, and “How to engage the congregation and ignite passion”.

He then suggested that we step back, and understand a bit about social justice. We always use language to articulate social justice, but too often we are using words that have not been adequately explored. Within the Church politic there is a litmus test that divides conservatives and liberals. This is usually because social justice is too often not rooted in Jesus Christ or Church teaching.

Next our instructor asked the question, “What is justice”? This generated more conversation and various suggestions: “It's what we do for the common good”, “Setting conditions that are good for us”, “Right relationship, meaning fair relations with one another”, “Moral righteousness”, “Equality”, “Fairness”, “Protection for others”, “Equal respect”, “Engagement”, and “Equal opportunity and equal dignity”. At this last suggestion he pointed out that equal means “equal opportunity but not necessarily equal outcome”.

There was a diagram on the white board that was never explained. It was a triangle, with the top intersection labeled distributive, the bottom left intersection labeled commutative, and the bottom right intersection labeled contributive. We’ll probably get more on this in a later class.

In community life theory, each person contributes according to their ability and receives according to their needs. Justice under the law, however, is not equal justice; it is affected by each person’s ability to engage the system, who they are and who they know.

It’s important therefore to root justice in Biblical images. Justice in the Old Testament was called Hessed, which is roughly translated to covenantal fidelity. This related to the relationship between God and humans, who were called back to the covenant time and time again by the prophets etc. The task of the Prophets was to proclaim God's word to the community, by calling the people back to God. When Hebrew society was not working, something was wrong and the covenant was affectively broken. The Prophets came on the scene when the life of the community was not intact.

This was the reality that Jesus was born into; remember He was a very good and observant Jew. Hospitality was an important characteristic of the Jewish people, and although Jesus re-interpreted the law he did not ignore the law. He was very clear in his ministry about the importance of table fellowship. Everyone was welcomed at table, including sinners and women, which represented a radical form of equality. We see a new community being born in the final dialog on the cross as He said to his mother, "Woman, behold your son" and to the disciple, "Behold your mother". As a result the community of Jesus adopted this radical form of equality.

Even Paul spoke of this radical equality when he wrote to the Corinthians. Like Paul, we expect Jesus' return, but unlike Paul who expected Jesus immediate return, we expect Jesus to return sometime after we die. Because Paul expected Jesus’ immediate return it distorted his view of social structure. When you expect your world to end soon, bringing eminent salvation, you don't worry about social structure, you worry about the community.

We read in the Acts of the Apostles that as the early church began to grow it experienced inequality. For instance, the Greek widows were not being treated equally; they were living in poverty and not being taken care of. Church teaching began to change to meet these early internal challenges, along with the fact that the early Church was beginning to experience the challenges of a wider society.

The Greeks and Hebrews had very different cultural approaches to faith and practice. In the early Church offerings such as goods and services, were brought to the community and given to the Bishop, who then distributed them to the needy. Working out how to do this helped the early church realize that a vital characteristic of discipleship is caring for the poor.

So then, what is the difference between justice and charity? Charity addresses immediate needs while justice addresses why there is a need. For instance, why are African men over represented in the prison system? Helping one person to overcome adversity is good (charity), helping the system to address the problem is better (justice). To establish justice means we have to ask the bigger questions.

Unfortunately, more often than not we turn to the government to address social concerns. Today we see government as responsible for addressing poverty, unemployment, education, and health care. In this view the role of the Christian community is to provide a voice for social concerns. Our sources for the Church’s teaching on justice and social justice are scripture, tradition, and natural law. We need to be careful however to interpret scripture according to the context of the people. For instance, not only what is being said but also why is it being said.

We discussed the distinction between revealed morality and revealed reality in scripture? Revealed morality is proscriptive, such as the 10 commandments or the teaching on marriage. Revealed reality is descriptive, such as “The Kingdom of Heaven is like a pearl of great value”. Both translate into present day teaching, and they provide images that we can re-apply to present day teaching.

The Church does not teach in a vacuum of course, but uses the context of history and the experience of teaching that has developed over the years. It has developed over time because the situations have changed over time. Tradition is not just about the deposit of faith but is also about customs, which are sometimes referred to as morals.

Natural law is understood to be the conditions under which humans are allowed to flourish. In Genesis we hear, “Let us create human kind in our image and likeness”. The present theological understanding of “in our image and likeness” includes the divine attributes of intellect (the capacity to reason), will (the capacity to decide), and freedom (the capacity to choose). Natural law is sharing in that capacity and those divine attributes.

In natural law there are two ways to interpret reality which are not in conflict with each other. One is the order of nature (sexuality, medical intervention, ecology) and the other is the order of reason (social ethics, the need for schools, the need for employment). With experience we learn as we move forward because we face new challenges that require the application of intellect, will and freedom.

How does the church approach secular society? A long time ago, there was a theory that all power on earth was given by God. The king was given a sacred trust which meant that revolution was wrong (since the ruler was seen according to God's will). However it also imposed responsibility on the ruler, who was supposed to treat his subjects the way God would treat them. Things like revolution caused chaos, so it couldn’t be according to Gods will.

As we moved into the enlightenment period there was a growing sense of democracy as we know it today. It grew out of a view that everyone is competing against everyone else, and the role of government is to quell chaos. Capitalism allowed the acquisition of property as a right and you had the right to acquire as much of it as you want. Added to the idea that revolution was seen as destabilizing to society, majority rule didn't include minorities and we see the beginning of the idea of separation of Church and state.

As the industrial revolution developed people moved into the cities for work which introduced a new form of poverty. With rural poverty people are still connected to the land, but with urban poverty that tie is lost and it is much more hopeless. Finally, the introducion of child labor and a structured form of production resulted in the beginning the Church’s foundational basis for social ministry.

The Popes encyclical in 1871 recognized that labor and capital should work together for the good of both, but because of the disparities between the two, labor should have the right to unionize. It recognized that labor has a right to rest, fair wages, the human soul must be respected within the work place, and that families have the same rights as individuals. Although the encyclical mentioned that private property was essential for stability and recognized that it is an essential element for human dignity, it didn't suggest that it is an absolute right. Today our understanding is we don't own anything and we are entrusted with everything.