Social Justice

I read this interview with Jim Wallis in Cutting Edge, Winter 2003 - Vol 7, #1.

What would you say to an evangelical church that is beginning to think about moving beyond charity, such as feeding the poor, and to actually working for justice?

I would tell them, "You can’t just keep pulling people’s bodies out of the river without sending somebody upstream to see what or who is throwing them in." When Martin Luther King, Jr. talked about being the conscience of the State, I think he meant, "Don’t just be the servant of the state, meaning that you will clean up the mess caused by bad social policy. Don’t just put a band-aid on the sores of society. Don’t just be service providers—be prophetic interrogators." Why are some of the people shopping in food banks and soup kitchens as a way of life? Those are supposed to be a temporary solution. Why are working moms with children living in shelters as their permanent long-term housing? It’s supposed to be temporary. Domhild DeCamera, the wonderful Brazilian archbishop, said, "When I fed the hungry, they called me a saint. When I asked why people are hungry, they called me a Communist."

Wow.