What is Social Justice?

While talking with a friend the other day, I used the term “social justice.” When she asked what that meant, I really didn't have a good answer. I'm a member of the Social Justice Committee of the local Catholic church, a member of the League For Social Justice group on MySpace, and I could probably talk about social justice all afternoon. But I couldn't define it in just a sentence or two.

I did a little web searching, and asked everybody I thought might have a good definition of social justice. Wikipedia says, “Social justice refers to conceptions of justice applied to an entire society. It is based on the idea of a just society, which gives individuals and groups fair treatment and a just share of the benefits of society.”

At the website of the Social Justice Training Institute, I found this: Adams, Bell and Griffin (1997) define social justice as both a process and a goal. “The goal of social justice education is full and equal participation of all groups in a society that is mutually shaped to meet their needs. Social justice includes a vision of society that is equitable and all members are physically and psychologically safe and secure.”

A friend from the Social Justice Committee gave this definition for social justice: “Social policies that allow all people to live with dignity, including access to adequate food, clean water, shelter, security, healthcare, meaningful work, and the freedom to participate in government.”

According to Rachel Brewer at The Centre for Social Justice, “Social justice involves the struggle to create societies where income, wealth and power are collectively shared rather than concentrated in the hands of a powerful few.”

H.G. Wells and friends, in their Declaration of Rights, tell us: “Every man is a joint inheritor of all the natural resources and of the powers, inventions and possibilities accumulated by our forerunners. He is entitled, within the measure of these resources and without distinction of race, color or professed beliefs or opinions, to the nourishment, covering and medical care needed to realise his full possibilities of physical and mental development from birth to death. Notwithstanding the various and unequal qualities of individuals, all men shall be deemed absolutely equal in the eyes of the law, equally important in social life and equally entitled to the respect of their fellow-men.”

Erika Nonken, Public Information Assistant at the Unitarian Universalist Association, says social justice is working to [or actions that] make society more just.

All these are good definitions, but this quote from Archbishop Helder Camara really helped clarify social justice for me, distinguishing it from charity: “When you give food to the poor, they call you a saint. When you ask why the poor have no food, they call you a communist.” Social justice means asking the hard questions. Merely feeding the poor is charity. Charity is fine, but it doesn't address the question of why the poor have no food. Social justice asks the question, finds the answer, and works to see to it that, from now on, the poor will always have food. Social justice asks why some schools have 30 year old text books while others have the latest texts and a computer for every student, then works to make sure the latest texts and computers will always be available in every school.

There's an old story that takes place in a village on a river bank:

One summer in the village, the people in the town gathered for a picnic. As they leisurely shared food and conversation, someone noticed a baby in the river, struggling and crying. The baby was going to drown! Someone rushed to save the baby. Then, they noticed another screaming baby in the river, and they pulled that baby out. Soon, more babies were seen drowning in the river, and the towns people were pulling them out as fast as they could. It took great effort, and they began to organize their activities in order to save the babies as they came down the river. As everyone else was busy in the rescue efforts to save the babies, two of the townspeople started to run away along the shore of the river.

"Where are you going?" shouted one of the rescuers. "We need you here to help us save these babies!"

"We are going upstream to stop whoever is throwing them in!"

Social justice means going upstream to stop whoever is throwing babies in the river.

Happy Armistice Day!

Happy Armistice Day! I know, you think it's Veterans Day, but it started out as Armistice Day, the commemoration of the signing of the cease-fire agreement - or armistice - that ended, on November 11, 1918, The Great War, The War To End All Wars, the war we now call World War One.

A proclamation by President Woodrow Wilson in 1919 made the 11th of November an annual celebration. Wilson's proclamation ended with these words:

To us in America, the reflections of Armistice Day will be filled with solemn pride in the heroism of those who died in the country's service and with gratitude for the victory, both because of the thing from which it has freed us and because of the opportunity it has given America to show her sympathy with peace and justice in the councils of the nation.

The “thing from which it has freed us” was, of course, the war; the bloodshed and killing.

In 1926, Congress recognized Armistice Day with a resolution including these words:

“it is fitting that the recurring anniversary of this date should be commemorated with thanksgiving and prayer and exercises designed to perpetuate peace through good will and mutual understanding between nations.”

I like the original intent of Armistice Day: to recognize the armistice which ended war, to give America an opportunity “to show her sympathy with peace and justice in the councils of the nation”, and an opportunity to “perpetuate peace through good will and mutual understanding between nations.”

Unfortunately, “The War To End All Wars” didn't end all war, and in 1954 Congress changed Armistice Day to Veterans Day, a day to honor the veterans of all wars. I don't mind honoring our war veterans, I suppose, I just don't want to make any more of them.

I'd like to see us make November 11th once again a day to celebrate that moment when the world believed it had just ended The War To End All Wars, and I'd like to see us work to make those dreams of peace into reality. I'd like to see us make November 11th once again a day when the councils of the nation show their sympathy with peace and justice. I'd like to see us make November 11th once again a day when we work to perpetuate peace through good will and mutual understanding between nations. I'd like to relegate Veterans Day, and war, to the dustbins of history. Instead of war heroes, I'd like to honor peace heroes. I'd like to bring back Armistice Day.

On Ted Haggard

I feel kind of sorry for Ted Haggard.

Ted Haggard is the founder and senior pastor of the 14,000 member New Life Church in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and President of the National Association of Evangelicals. Or rather, he was, until it came out last week that he is also a homosexual and has been involved in an adulterous homosexual relationship for the past three years.

Teg Haggard didn't suddenly change one day late last week. If he was qualified to be senior pastor of New Life Church and President of the National Association of Evangelicals last week, then surely he is qualified for those positions this week. One's sexual desires, and what one does with them, do not define a person.

The discovery of one's shortcomings, and I'm referring here to Haggard's adulterous relationship and his lies and denial of it, not his homosexuality, also do not define a person. Ted Haggard was an adulterer, a liar, and a deceiver last week, just as he is an adulterer, a liar, and a deceiver this week, yet last week he carried out his responsibilities as pastor and NAE President to everyone's apparent satisfaction. The discovery of his status as adulterer, liar, and deceiver does not change who he is, nor does it affect his ability to carry out the tasks that he carried out to everyone's satisfaction last week.

So, why is Ted Haggard no longer the senior pastor of New Life Church and President of the National Association of Evangelicals? If you believe that homosexuality is a sin, and that adultery and deceit are sins, then Haggard is a sinner. But, as Jesus said, “let he among us who is without sin cast the first stone” (thus ensuring that no stones will be cast). May he who is without sin also be the first to ask Ted Haggard to step down from his leadership positions. If being a sinner was grounds for removal from one's job, we'd all be unemployed and nothing would get done.

So, let's acknowledge that Ted Haggard is a sinner, as are we all. Let us then acknowledge that Jesus loves sinners – every one of us – and let us continue to love Ted Haggard as Jesus does. Let's let Haggard get back to the work he does, knowing that he has done that work well in the past regardless of his being a sinner, and knowing that he can continue to do that work just as well now that we acknowledge his status as sinner as he did before we acknowledged his status as sinner.

Let us from this day forward acknowledge that all of us, like Ted Haggard, are sinners, and that Jesus still loves every one of us and expects all of us to love one another in spite of our being sinners. Let us not judge each other on the basis of the sins we know or believe the other has committed, but rather on the status of each one of us as a child of God.

And let us pray that those who choose to treat homosexuals differently than they treat other people – and that includes Ted Haggard and many of his followers - will recognize that the homosexual could be anyone: your neighbor, your brother or sister, somebody you work with, or even the senior pastor of New Life Church and President of the National Association of Evangelicals.