While social justice may be the evidence and purpose of our salvation, we must be careful with how we live out this particular aspect of our faith. Understandably, many Christians are turned off by social justice because it implies giving people a hand out. With the original intent of humanity in mind we must realize that true social justice is not just meeting the needs of the poor, but engaging the community and fixing the systems that create an environment where people can become poor.
Throughout the course of our lives we will encounter people that are in immediate need. We see the unemployment numbers. There is some hope as this number has dropped slightly but we wonder if that is simply because of people pulling out of unemployment. We see hunger growing in our cities. The homeless are increasing in number. Human trafficking has become a problem in this country especially in major cities. Our natural Christian reaction is to help these people and immediately meet their needs, and rightfully we should. If we are not careful however, we will merely be be treating a cough when the REAL problem is the virus creating this symptom. There is a system that is creating this environment that we must address.
These "systems" lie in the different spheres of influence in the community. There indeed are many systems that need to be addressed in order to create an environment where people flourish and prosper instead of live in destitution. Two that are of significance are the education system and the family. We have allowed these systems to essentially break down. When the education system is built on the principle of how can being educated makes me look better, or gives me a higher status in society, there is no practical relevant skills acquired and the community suffers. When the priorities of schools is extra curricular activities and "national ranking", students lack the resources to be sufficiently prepared. Whatever happened to ensuring that students are on the appropriate reading level, computer literate, or possessing essential life skills in order be productive in society? I guess standardized testing to ensure that the school and its teachers scores go up took it's place.
The family is such an essential sphere of influence in the community. In fact, the family is a community, society, and civilization in its most simplest basic form. This has huge implications. Whatever the health and stability of the average family in the community, so will be the health and stability of the community as a whole. The family will be a microcosm of what the community looks like.
If the family is divided, so will the community. If the family is a place of favoritism of one and the shunning of the other, the community will be that way too. If the family is a haven for abuse, violence, and neglect, the community will certainly not be a safe place. If the average family in the community doesn't know how to responsibly handle their finances.... get the picture yet?
We must engage these two systems and fix them. Its our job! God has entrusted us with the responsibility of governing this planet and bringing His dominion of peace, equality, and justice to earth. We lost that leadership ability at the fall, granted. But Jesus restored us back to that position by His death and resurrection. We are entrusted with building a society on God's behalf. What are we doing to engage and restore the education system in our community? How are we healing and restoring families that are broken?
Lets build up homeless shelters for those with no roof, set up food pantries for those with no food, and establish a safe house for those trapped in human trafficking, but we absolutely can not stop there. We must engage the community and fix the systems that created an environment that allowed these atrocities to occur in the first place. That is REAL Social Justice.
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