Washington, D.C., is a city of strong opinions. You don't have to go far to find protesters, picketers, or pundits making their views known in front of a government building. Perhaps that's why most tourists flock to monuments commemorating our greatest leaders and fallen heroes—they remind us of our unity when so much in Washington speaks to our divisions.
The nation's capital seemed a fitting location to talk about the nature of justice and the gospel. While Jesus Christ unites church leaders, there are still strong differences of opinion about how justice fits in the church's calling. Leadership's Skye Jethani sat down with two prominent Christian leaders who live in D.C. While their perspectives diverge on several issues, they also find much they share in common.
After graduating from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School and participating in the Civil Rights Movement, Jim Wallis became founder and editor of Sojourners, a magazine and community focused on the biblical call to social justice. His acts of civil disobedience have landed Wallis in jail 22 times, and his decades of advocacy have helped ignite the current passion among evangelicals for justice.
Mark Dever is senior pastor of Capitol Hill Baptist Church. Before he arrived in 1994, the 143-year-old congregation had seen decades of numerical decline and urban decay. The neighborhood was festering with drugs, poverty, and crime. Dever's leadership helped turn the church and community around. Dever also serves as a trustee at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, and as the president of 9Marks Ministries (9marks.org). These roles have made him one of the leading voices in the New Reformed movement.
Young people in the church seem to be talking a lot about justice. But sociologists Christian Smith and Patricia Snell in their book, Souls in Transition, say that young people are actually less involved in community service and social issues than previous generations. How do you explain that?
Dever: Those observations are probably true. Our congregation includes lots of people in their 20s and 30s. So I have regular opportunities to interact with a different generation than my own. Because they relate so much through Facebook and Twitter, that creates a non-geographic passivity alien to earlier generations. And because many churches haven't reflected any kind of serious community, they've come to understand Christianity to be very private. But I don't believe you should simply follow Jesus privately. Christianity is personal, but not private. This generation needs to have it de-privatized.
Wallis: Half of Sojourners' audience is now under 30. I'm talking to 14-year-olds every week about their faith. So I'm pretty hopeful. There is something happening with faith and justice among the younger generation. What's interesting, though, is that the places I see activism tend to be evangelical campuses or Catholic schools, not the old, left, liberal, secular bastions—they're just partying. So I find a real connection between faith and activism.
Where is the emphasis on justice coming from? Is it a pop culture trend? It is Bono? Or is there something deeper behind it?
Wallis: Bono is a product of it; he's not the cause of it. I know his story of faith, and what happened to him is remarkably similar to what happened to me a long time ago. I was raised in a very evangelical church, but when I became aware of the racism in our city and wanted to do something about it, I was told, "Jim, you have to understand that Christianity has nothing to do with racism. That's political. And our faith is personal."
That's when I left the church and joined the Civil Rights Movement.
God is personal but never private. God knows everything about us and wants a relationship anyway. Why? To sign us up for his purposes in the world. I didn't hear that as a kid. I heard about me and the Lord, not about God's purpose for the world.
Young people today want their faith to make a difference in their lives and in the world. And that's what led me away from my evangelical faith as a kid and back to it later. I discovered faith is personal and yet never private.
Mark, if a young person from your congregation told you she felt the church should do something to combat the racial injustices evident in Washington D.C., how would you respond to her?
Dever: I would start with theology. And I would want to see two clear guardrails in place. First, I'd want to know she understands that we're all made in the image of God. So she must understand everybody is valuable. There's no dismissing people because they're not deemed to be productive members of society.
On the other side is the guardrail of depravity. I want her to understand that people are broken, they're sinful, they've rebelled against God. If Christians don't see that, their expectations of what people can do will be too high.
Assuming she has this biblical anthropology, then I ask this question: Is this something that is uniquely the role of the church, or is this something that all humans made in the image of God are to be concerned about? Is this something an agnostic, a Muslim, or a Jew cares about? Racism, for example, is not merely a Christian concern. It is a human concern. I'm a little reluctant to think that a local church is the right instrument to be devoting itself to solving that kind of problem in society as a whole. That's a community-wide issue, not a church issue.
Racism is not merely a christian concern. it's a human concern. it's a community-wide issue, not specifically a church issue.—Mark Dever
Now, I would be delighted for an individual Christian to be involved in addressing racism in the community. It is especially appropriate for Christians to be involved because of what God has done in Christ. And we would certainly be supportive, as a local church, of individuals doing that. But I would not want to narrow the issue of racism to be something the church itself is called to do, because it's not just Christians who are supposed to be involved in fighting racism. It's a human concern.
That would also be true of health, education, economic, environmental, or governmental issues.
So you'd encourage individual Christians to engage, but you'd be reluctant for the church itself to get involved. What about passages in the New Testament speaking of the church caring for the poor, the orphans, and the widows in the community? Wasn't that a church-wide effort and not just individual service?
Dever: I don't think I see that in the Bible. I certainly see the local church caring for the poor among its own number. We're worse than infidels if we don't do that. We have a special responsibility to make sure our brothers and sisters in Christ don't starve and are cared for. Beyond that it is appropriate to care for the poor outside the church, but that is something for all humans made in the image of God to do, and Christians can certainly help. But the church isn't called to solve societal ills.
Wallis: The people who loved me and raised me in the church were also white racists, and their racism was contrary to the gospel of Jesus Christ. Racial segregation is contrary to the gospel.
Dever: I certainly agree with that.
Wallis: So, for me, overcoming racism isn't social action. It's integral to the gospel. In Galatians Paul says in Christ there is no Jew or Gentile, bond or free, male or female. These are the fundamental human divisions of race, class, and gender that are overcome by the reconciliation we find with God and each other. There is no reconciliation with God apart from being reconciled, as Paul says, to one another. So racial reconciliation and justice are integral to the gospel; they're not optional.
Dever: Jim, I think I agree with you. But let's take Ephesians 3, that beautiful passage on reconciliation. Was Paul telling the leaders in the church at Ephesus to help Jews and Gentiles outside of the church to be reconciled with each other? Or was he saying this is what God is doing inside the church as an amazing display of the gospel?
Wallis: It begins with the church, absolutely. But in Britain, Wilberforce didn't say it was enough for just Christians not to own slaves. He said the whole slave trade was against God's heart and law. Martin Luther King didn't say only Christians should let blacks come to their soda fountains and ride their buses. He sought to change laws and policies for everyone. We should call people to Christ. We should live as Christians. But when there is injustice, we ought to also make the world a better place.
Mark, if the church should be reluctant to incorporate social justice as part of its core calling because it's not something that only the church can do, what should be at our core?
Dever: The proclamation of what God has done is central. That's what we see in the New Testament. That's what I will do, Lord willing, until I die. Now if the proclamation of what God has done has no effect on how I live or what we do as a church, well then, James 2 tells us we've not truly believed.
Having said that, I still understand all of the injustice in the world to be a reflection of our rebellion against God, and that will not be addressed by me getting two people who are rebelling against God to make peace. That's a good thing to do. I'm not in any way opposing that. But Christians alone have a message of how to bring people into reconciliation with God. That's the unique commission we've been given by Christ. I'm not a universalist. I don't think everybody is going to be saved. I do believe there is an eternal, self-conscious torment for those who are in rebellion against God.
We should call people to christ. but when there is an injustice, we should also oppose the injustice and make the world more just.—jim wallis
So it would not be compassionate of me if I did not try to alleviate that greatest of all human suffering, while in no way trying to discourage Jim or others from working to end racism or other evils.
Wallis: I'm with you on the judgment of God. I'm not a universalist either. But the judgment passage in Matthew 25 says the sheep and the goats are separated not based on their theology, or their doctrine, or their church membership, or their position on this or that. It's how they treat those who are hungry, thirsty, naked, sick, and a stranger.
"As you've done to the least of these, you've done to me," Jesus said. It's a scary judgment passage. That passage brought me back to Christ; it brought me back to my personal faith because I saw that faith was not just about "me and Jesus" but about the world.
Dever: As a preacher I know that Matthew 25 is a powerful passage. But I don't believe Jesus is teaching the Jews in that chapter how to come into the kingdom of God. I think he's exposing their hypocrisy by showing how they're not doing these things, and showing them the inadequacy of trying to earn God's favor. Matthew 25 is a picture of the fruit of our faith. It's evidence of faith.
But if I say that righteous acts bring me into the kingdom of God, then I've got to worry about clothing enough people and feeding enough people to be forgiven by God for my sin.
So you're saying justice is an implication of the gospel, but not part of the gospel itself.
Dever: Yes. You have to say that or else you aren't reading the New Testament carefully.
Wallis: I'm saying that social justice is not an option. Preaching forgiveness of sins through Christ's sacrifice is not an option. Both are integral to the gospel. Good news to the poor, physically and spiritually, is integral to the gospel Jesus taught and lived.
When the status quo benefits you, your theology doesn't normally include changing the status quo.— jim wallis
When Charles Finney preached his revivals, he called people to Christ and on the spot invited them to join the abolitionist cause. And they signed up! It was part of his altar call. And now I go to churches and find young evangelicals who care about human trafficking. They're being called to Christ and to engage the fight against modern slavery.
Is there a danger that they will be attracted to the cause without coming to a personal faith in Jesus Christ?
Wallis: Well, sure it's possible. But I don't think there's a danger today of Christians becoming too involved in social justice. Actually I see involvement with justice deepening, strengthening, and awakening their faith.
I feel strongly that we must avoid going down the liberal, social-action road that ends up with no personal faith. But we must also avoid a private faith that is just about "me and Jesus." We must connect personal faith with social justice.
If I serve the poor and seek justice for the oppressed, but I don't verbally proclaim the plan of salvation, can I still call that a gospel ministry?
Dever: No. Certainly not. Acts of obedience and justice are good things to do. I wouldn't discourage you from doing them. But I would ask, "Do you have a plan for letting these people know about Jesus?" Most of their suffering is not what they're experiencing right now. If you really love them, you make sure they know the truth about their Creator and address the sin problem.
Wallis: The first statement out of Jesus' mouth in Luke 4 is his mission statement. "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor." Good news there is the word evangel, from which we get the word evangelical. Is the gospel only serving food to the poor? Of course not. But if our gospel is not good news to the poor, I say it isn't the gospel of Jesus Christ. The world should look at us and say, "This church, these people, they are good news. I'm glad they're here." And that draws people to the One who proclaimed the good news. I've never been anonymous about why I do what I do. It's because of Jesus.
So addressing social injustice helps the church's image and ultimately draws people to faith in Christ.
Wallis: A kid was shot to death on the steps of a church where a friend of mine pastors in Boston. It was a Saturday night and nobody was there. The church asked itself, "Are we responsible for what happens on our steps when there's no one here?"
They prayed it through, decided they were responsible for the steps, the neighborhood, and the city. That led to The Ten Point Coalition in Boston where preachers began walking the streets all night with the kids. Youth homicide went down 70 percent in Boston. And the police chief credited the pastors for taking faith back into the streets.
Now, is that evangelistic? Yeah. Because you're showing people what God cares about in the world. You're showing his character, his heart, his love.
Why did the church ignore matters of justice for so long?
Wallis: The black church never did.
True. Why has the white church not addressed justice issues?
Wallis: When the status quo benefits you, your theology doesn't normally include changing the status quo. For most white, middle-class Christians, the world is working fine. So religion that includes social change doesn't matter. They want to leave things pretty much as they are.
Dever: There's wisdom in what Jim is saying about the sociological reasons. There's no doubt that self-interest is at work. Theologically I would say what's behind that is human sin. Now why has it gone unchecked? Thinking very practically, it's the lack of good expositional preaching; the lack of serious interaction with the text of Scripture. We need to wrestle with Matthew 25. We need to preach from the prophets. Don't adopt a theology that says the Old Testament and the Gospels are just for Israel and Paul's letters are all we need. We have to deal with all of Scripture carefully and bring it forward.
What's the danger of approaching justice as a means of improving the church's reputation in the community?
Dever: We have no guarantee that the world will respect what we do, even if it's right. Jim, you experienced that so clearly in the 1960s.
Wallis: I went to jail 22 times.
Dever: We have no promises that if we do what is right, the world will appreciate it. We should do what is right according to the Word of God, and the consequences are in his hands.
Wallis: In my study I have pictures of all my heroes of faith on the wall. Like Hebrews 11, they are my cloud of witnesses. Most of them were not great success stories. But they were faithful. They showed the world what it means to believe in Jesus Christ. www.leadershipjournal.net leadership www.leadershipjournal.net leadership Personal but Never Private
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