Social Justice. Social Gospel or Antisocial Gospel

 Some Christians preach a social gospel. 

• They are mainly concerned about helping the poor, the sick and the disadvantaged. 

• They support progressive political parties. 

• They want laws that give women equal rights and equal wages. 

• They want to help refugees and racial minorities.

  On the other hand, they are often rather vague about the afterlife. They avoid talking about the eternal judgement of God.
  
  Then there are some Pentecostals, conservative evangelicals and fundamentalists who focus almost exclusively on biblical teachings about eternal judgement, personal salvation leading to eternal life, biblical teachings on sexuality, marriage and bearing children.
  
  Do I believe the Bible comes from God? Yes.
  Do I believe Jesus is the Son of God who paid the penalty for my sins on the cross? Yes.
  
  For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. Jn 3:16 NIV
  
  For God took the sinless Christ and poured into him our sins. Then, in exchange, he poured God’s goodness into us! 2 Cor 5:21 The Living Bible, Paraphrased
  
  Do I believe in a social gospel? No. The Good News of Jesus is eternal life.
  
  Where will you spend eternity? This is the most important question to answer.
  
  Do I believe in a social gospel? No. But I also do not believe in an antisocial gospel.
  
  Jesus taught that we need forgiveness of sins to go to heaven, but He was also intensely concerned about caring for suffering people in this life.
  
  Jesus healed sick people because he felt such compassion, that it turned his stomach. He did not demand that they repented of sins to be healed, but of course he was grieved when they were healed but did not repent of sins.
  
  Conservative Christians who only care about eternal salvation and strict moral codes are partly right but also seriously wrong.
  
  Progressive Christians who care for people in need are partly right but often also partly wrong.
  
  Jesus taught the essence of the Law of God in two commandments.
  
  Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’
  
  The second is this: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.” Mk 12:30–31 NIV
  
  If you love other people as Jesus does, you will want them to believe and go to heaven, but people will not believe you love them if you do not care about their earthly needs.
  
  When people see conservative Christians only talking about moral codes and eternal judgement, they often conclude that Christians only talk about love but don’t really love.
  
  Christian missionaries in India preached to a community about salvation for years, but without result. When the Christians organised a project the provide the community with clean water, many Hindus became Christians.
  
  When Christians support huge tax concessions for very rich people but oppose government programs to provide affordable health care, many people conclude that conservative Christians should not be taken seriously.

War on Empathy

 There is a war on empathy. Incredibly rich businessmen and politicians are building empires as democracy trembles. In ancient Rome, constitutional government was trampled by a succession of ruthless emperors. In our time, we are seeing self-centred despots attempting to replicate this process.

In the 1960s and 70s we saw rapid advances in racial and gender equality, but it appears that the old ruling classes and would be emperors have had enough. The empire is striking back.
Of course no empire can endure long without a religion.

Vladimir Putin understands this well. He has abandoned communist atheism and embraced the flagship of the old Czarist Empire, the Russian Orthodox Church.

Capitalist predators in the US and elsewhere have joined forces with conservative authoritarian Church leaders. Imperial rulers must have economic and military power but they also need priests.

Hard line conservatives have always resisted racial integration and gender equality, but the tide of history was against them.

But when the human rights activists shifted their focus to gay rights, same sex marriage and unrestricted abortion, the old conservatives saw their chance to seize the moral high ground and turn back the clock 100 years.

Civil rights, racial desegregation, gender equality, fair wages, and universal health care became the targets for the new rulers. Social justice was supposedly not real justice, if justice mattered at all. Mercy and empathy were redefined as weakness.

A great nation with a strong economy became the only thing that mattered. Even the working classes voted for this. Who wants high inflation and mass unemployment?

If the wealthy become even wealthier, they will naturally create a wealthy country which would be good for everyone. So we are told. It is called trickle down economics, except that the trickle is often a very meagre trickle.

Then Christian preachers come to the aid of the rulers.

Jesus said we must love our neighbour as ourselves, but some preachers tell us Christian love is only a personal matter, and nothing to do with politics or governments.

If we only narrowly focus on the New Testament, we can reach this wrong conclusion. However, Jesus was a Jew in Israel. The Old Testament has a great deal to say about legal justice and the responsibility of government to care for the needy.

Then we are told that God’s laws for the Old Testament theocracy do not apply to modern secular governments. It is true that Christians are not subject to the laws of Moses, but the Old Testament laws express God’s principles of law and justice.

Of course we should not execute adulterers, but the Old Testament prophets strongly condemned financial greed and the neglect of the poor. If we isolate politics entirely from God’s clearly expressed ethical principles, we are not applying Christianity to every part of life.

So should the churches try to take control of governments? The historical examples of this have often been horrible. Think of the worldly hypocrisy in Rome after the Emperor Constantine became nominally Christian. Think of the Spanish Inquisition.

The new rulers are telling us that empathy is weakness. Very prominent church leaders are teaching this as a supposedly Christian doctrine.

Of course empathy can have bad consequences. A prostitute comes to a church looking for help. A naive Christian couple take her into their home and the young woman steals the husband’s affections and he leaves his wife.

A woman in a strong missionary organisation studies prostitution for her PhD. Then she becomes a prostitute herself.

These stories are not made up.

Jesus was known as a friend of sinners, but he did not sin. Not everyone can share the gospel in a bar or a brothel, but some Christians can and do so without sinning themselves.

Social Justice and the Gospel

 There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. Ga 3:28 NIV

Why oh why do so many Christians ignore this revolutionary teaching of Paul, this message from God Himself?

In Christ there is not Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, slave and free; but Christ is all and in all. Col 3:11 CSB

Why do so many Christians aggressively support white supremacy and Christian nationalism? Why is there so much political partisanship amongst Christians?

My brothers and sisters, do not show favouritism as you hold on to the faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ.

For if someone comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and dressed in fine clothes, and a poor person dressed in filthy clothes also comes in,

if you look with favour on the one wearing the fine clothes and say, “Sit here in a good place,” and yet you say to the poor person, “Stand over there,” or “Sit here on the floor by my footstool,”
haven’t you made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? Jas 2:1–4 CSB

So many Christian churches have ignored God’s command to love each other as brothers and sisters. Instead, we have prioritised hierarchy and obedience to someone of higher rank.

The founding fathers of the American republic declared that all men are created equal, but President George Washington owned slaves.

The Southern Baptists separated from the American Baptists because they insisted that Southern Baptist pastors should own slaves.

They quoted bible verses to justify their injustice.

Slaves, obey your human masters with fear and trembling, in the sincerity of your heart, as you would Christ. Eph 6:5 CSB

Many conservative evangelicals still twist scripture in a similar way when they demand that wives always obey their husbands, no matter how unspiritual or domineering they might be.

Why do so many conservative Christians overspiritualise the Gospel? Loving your neighbour is reduced to nothing more than preaching at people to get them converted.

We are saved by faith and not works, as they accurately quote Paul.
But they conveniently ignore what James says, James the younger son of Mary and the brother of Jesus.

What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but does not have works? Can such faith save him? 

If a brother or sister is without clothes and lacks daily food
and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, stay warm, and be well fed,” but you don’t give them what the body needs, what good is it?

In the same way faith, if it does not have works, is dead by itself. Jas 2:14–17 CSB

Love Growing Cold

Because lawlessness will multiply, the love of many will grow cold. Mt 24:12 CSB

Gang violence, terrorism, domestic violence, corruption in politics and business, brutal racism, gender confusion, chaotic sexual promiscuity, sadistic pornography, human trafficking, brutal dictatorships, aggressive military powers, wars and fear of war, live birth abortions.

Lawlessness is multiplying.

Mass media and the internet are making us more aware than ever of the horrors in the world.

It is so overwhelming, that we often shut off our emotions or seek escape in entertainment. 

On the other hand, we can get emotionally involved in this or that issue and we get tunnel vision. We cannot bare to face more than a narrow range of issues.

What is the result? Some people are enraged about abortion, but they don’t look at some of the problems that often lead to abortion.

Low wages, poverty, domestic violence, real estate speculation, unaffordable housing, homelessness and prostitution all produce unwanted pregnancies and women who can’t cope with more children.

When we are overwhelmed by the horrors in a world out of control, our emotions become numb or unbalanced and our love grows cold. If we care for unborn babies, but don’t care for the suffering of many pregnant women, it shows our love has grown cold.

If we are upset about corrupt trade unions, but ignore corruption in business boardrooms, it shows we have lost our ability to judge justly. When our love grows cold, our wisdom is corrupted. 

We may be aware of the Bible text about the fruit of the Holy Spirit.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
gentleness, and self-control. The law is not against such things. Ga 5:22–23 CSB

When we become emotionally involved in the culture wars raging around us, it can lead to a loss of tender feelings, the feelings that are the fruit of the Spirit.

Instead, we see the works of the flesh, manifestations of the sinful nature, even in zealous Christians.

Now the works of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, moral impurity, promiscuity,
idolatry, sorcery, hatreds, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambitions, dissensions, factions, … Ga 5:19–20 CSB

We are seeing Christian leaders involved in culture wars but being exposed for secret sexual sins. 

We see zealous Christians engaging in moral self-righteousness, hating cultural, political or theological opponents, Christian factions furiously denouncing each other.

Because lawlessness will multiply, the love of many will grow cold. Mt 24:12 CSB

Some American preachers are trying to redirect people to the Sermon on the Mount, to humility, empathy, love of enemies, but they are fighting a losing battle. So many Christians are absorbing culture wars every day on the internet.

When the pastor preaches humility and gentleness, he sometimes gets a hostile response from the culture warriors in his congregation.

Because lawlessness will multiply, the love of many will grow cold. Mt 24:12 CSB

God and Political Confusion

 The violent conflicts in Africa and the Middle East are terrible, but not new. The political conflict in North America, Britain and Europe is another matter.

National unity and mutual tolerance is fading fast. Conservatives hate progressives, and progressives hate conservatives. Christian churches are being torn apart by internal ideological conflicts which reflect the wider society.

Many British Christians passionately supported Brexit, while other Christians were horrified and wanted to stay in the EU.

When an American preacher preached on the Sermon on the Mount, many aggressively conservative members objected that these pacifist teachings were too weak and unworkable.

Many American conservatives want to support any leader who supports their beliefs, regardless of how authoritarian, dishonest or immoral he might be.

On the other hand, some progressive politicians are allowing live birth abortions and promoting extreme post Christian policies on gender issues.

Christians used to support strong American military defence against potential Russian aggression. Now many conservative Christians are supporting Putin because he goes to church and persecutes homosexuals. They forget that Hitler also persecuted homosexuals and enlisted the support of churches.

There are Christians who support minimum wage laws, legal protection for trade unions, government help for sick, disabled and disadvantaged people, social justice for racial minorities, and equal rights for women, but they also oppose unlimited abortion and post Christian gender ideology. Who can they vote for?

As I lay in bed early this morning, a bible text came to me.

God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.
Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,
though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging.
There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy place where the Most High dwells. Ps 46:1–4 NIV

Everything is shaking. There is an epidemic of homelessness in rich countries because of unjust laws governing tax, real estate investment, low wages and inadequate welfare benefits.

God is our refuge. God is still God. God is not asleep in these confused times.

God is not a left wing progressive and not a right wing capitalist. God is God, and He is good.

Cry for Justice is Biblical

If we are concerned about unrighteousness in personal moral affairs but not concerned about brutal injustice in the public arena, are we really representing God's moral character as Christians? 
Read Micah Ch 2 

1 Woe to those who plan iniquity, to those who plot evil on their beds!
At morning’s light they carry it out because it is in their power to do it.
2 They covet fields and seize them, and houses, and take them.
They defraud people of their homes, they rob them of their inheritance. Micah 2:1-2

Even in our lifetime, so many black people in the USA have been murdered by the police.
In our lifetimes, so many black people in Australia have been legally kidnapped.

Do I condone violent black revenge? No. 

But to call police murder “sad” but black revenge “terrorism” is not fair.

“For I, the LORD, love justice;
I hate robbery and wrongdoing. In my faithfulness I will reward my people and make an everlasting covenant with them. Isa 61:8

Mankind, He has told you what is good and what it is the LORD requires of you: to act justly, to love faithfulness, and to walk humbly with your God. Micah 6:8 (HCSB)

No, he has told you what he wants, and this is all it is: to be fair, just, merciful, and to walk humbly with your God. Micah 6:8 (TLB) 


The blood of Abel still cries out. Are we our black brothers' keepers? Yes, we are.