Social Justice

      Social Justice

By Yadira Yvette

I am a student at Texas A&M University at Corpus Christi, and a few days ago a professor assigned us the reading of "Letter from Birmingham Jail.”  In this letter, Rev. King does an exquisite job of examining and calling into question the topic we talked about on Sunday regarding the role the Church plays in Social Justice. Rev. King said the following:

In the midst of a mighty struggle to rid our nation of racial and economic injustice, I have heard so many ministers say, “Those are social issues which the gospel has nothing to do with,” and I have watched so many churches commit themselves to a completely otherworldly religion which made a strange distinction between bodies and souls, the sacred and the secular.  There was a time when the church was very powerful. It was during that period that the early Christians rejoiced when they were deemed worthy to suffer for what they believed. In those days the church was not merely a thermometer that recorded the ideas and principles of popular opinion; it was the thermostat that transformed the mores of society. Wherever the early Christians entered a town the power structure got disturbed and immediately sought to convict them for being “disturbers of the peace” and “outside agitators.” But they went on with the conviction that they were 'a colony of heaven" and had to obey God rather than man. They were small in number but big in commitment. They were too God-intoxicated to be “astronomically intimidated.”

Rev. King goes on to say the most amazing words about the church at the time of the Civil Rights Movement, but it is also applicable to today's time; he says, "Things are different now. The contemporary church is so often a weak, ineffectual voice with an uncertain sound. It is so often the arch supporter of the status quo. Far from being disturbed by the presence of the church, the power structure of the average community is consoled by the church's often vocal sanction of things as they are."

There are remnants of the appalling injustice of racism in our society today, but there are many other injustices that have spread a choking hand over this world; it is a hand seeking to take the life out of humanity as we know it.  The sad reality is that there is the great sense of complacency that has been too rampant throughout our society. We have let things go by without doing all we can to help those in need, which is exactly what God calls us to do: help those in need. We have been lukewarm in many respects, and Rev. King spoke to this saying, "Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection."

I am happy to be a part of a church that knows when things have to change, and that we must bring the change. As a part of this, I also believe that it is most important that we show this through our actions and in our character. I remember the little morsel that Jackson gave us of this idea in the first class we ever had. He said that someone told him something along the lines of "preach always, and sometimes use words." It is through our actions that people will know who we are as a church, and getting out there is exactly what we must begin doing on a bigger scale!  We are the people of God, and as such we must go where we are needed, speak to whom we must, open our arms to those looking for an embrace, put food in the mouths of those with empty bellies and dry hearts, and above all we must walk where the Lord, our Abba, calls us to walk.

Thank you for bringing us this study, and I sure hope we get to tackle it more often! This is a great class, and I am thrilled to be a part of it!