JusticeWorks: Key
Assumptions
Presented by the Rev.
Michael Kinnamon
Protestants for Justice
Action, March 27, 2003
[3-31-03]
1. According to the Psalmist (146:5-9), the
God who made heaven and earth executes justice for the oppressed, gives food
to the hungry, sets prisoners free, opens the eyes of the blind, lifts up
those who are bowed down, watches over strangers, and upholds the orphan and
widow. Surely we who worship this God are called, in turn, to promote
economic justice, to care for the environment, to combat racism, to insist
that all God's children be treated with dignity, and to work for peace.
This, as we see it, is not a left-wing political agenda, but a gospel agenda
that shapes, or ought to shape, the life of the church.
2. Nearly all of us who gather here are
Christians; we have special concern, therefore, for the church and its
mission. I suspect, however, that we all rejoice in the partnerships we have
with people of other faiths or no faith. We take our primary cues from the
ministry and message of Jesus Christ, but we have no pretensions that the
church is the only instrument God uses to effect social change.
3. Over the years, the mainline churches
have at times, through many of you, given effective, faithful witness. But,
in our judgment, the church's witness has often been too timid, too muted -
and increasingly so in the face of financial cutbacks and internal
controversy. The Disciples of Christ, for example, have in recent years
eliminated key national staff positions through which their church was held
accountable to its stated justice commitments. According to the book The
Quiet Hand of God, both the United Methodist Church and the Evangelical
Lutheran Church in America spend roughly 2/10 of one percent of general
church revenues to support the work of their departments on church and
society. All of us struggle with a resolution process that seems to have
little effect on congregational life. To put it simply, our social witness
is not adequate to the imperative of the gospel.
4. We on the planning committee have
noticed that not all Christians agree when it comes to issues of human
sexuality, war and peace, reproductive choice, reparation for slavery, or
environmental protection! As a result, it is often easier to work in
like-minded coalitions than in the church where the same pew may well hold
hawks and doves. Many of our colleagues have even given up on the church;
but I hope I speak for all of us here when I say that we haven't! This
gathering will not dismiss or demean those sisters and brothers with whom we
disagree; but neither will we refrain from giving bold account of our hope
for that day, foreseen by Isaiah, when no child dies young, when no one
labors in vain, and when all God's children live in peace (Isaiah 65:17-25).
And we demonstrate the validity of our hope by working to make it so.
5. Whenever possible, our work for justice
should be done ecumenically. Not only is this more efficient, but life
together, across old boundaries of confession and doctrine, is itself a
witness to God's reconciling power. This does not mean that we devalue the
distinctive insights that come from being Baptist or Disciples or
Episcopalian or Lutheran or Methodist or Presbyterian or UCC. Nor is it our
intent to anticipate a new denomination of the socially committed. Living
ecumenically means that we lift up our voice, together if possible, without
pretending that it's the only one.
6. Much of our witness has been carried
out, for obvious reasons, in single-issue coalitions. The planning committee
gives thanks for these groups, even as we hope that this conference will
help integrate their efforts. We believe that beneath our separate agendas
is a coherent social ethic that should lead those whose primary concern is
justice for the disabled or universal health care to stand in solidarity
with those whose primary concern is international debt relief or peace in
the Middle East. The worst thing we could do would be to compete for
attention and resources in the face of the web of oppression that ensnares
us all.
7. Renewal of the church's social witness
must include, in a major way, those who are preparing for ministry. How many
of you are seminarians or recent seminary graduates? The rest of us
celebrate your presence and the promise you represent. Of course, we also
celebrate the presence of those who have given long-time leadership to the
church's social witness, many of you since the heady days of the 1960s. But
this is a new century. We need new insights, new methods, new energy, and
new leaders.
