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There is no other gospel, but a social justice gospel.\u00a0 Any other type would be truncated, partial, a mere sliver or shadow of what the good news encompasses.\u00a0 The gospel, the good news, is a cosmic, comprehensive, reality\u2013that cannot be separated from aspects of justice or its relation to the community of all things (creation), their interconnection and participation.\u00a0 Any other type is woefully inadequate to the teachings and understandings of the very best theologians and scholars of any Christian tradition whether Orthodox, Catholic, or Protestant, of any age.<\/p>\n
What I mean is this: salvation is incomprehensible without social justice, without things being made right between God and people, people and people, creation and people, creation and God.\u00a0 We are told that, \u201cFor in him all the fullness of God was please to dwell, and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross.\u201d- Col 1<\/p>\n
Justice is inherent in the making of peace and the reconciling of all things.\u00a0 Where there is no peace or reconciliation, there is no salvation, no justice, and therefore no \u201cgood news.\u201d\u00a0 They are all of one piece.\u00a0 The \u201call things\u201d is the social part.\u00a0 I am not asserting that the gospel is<\/em> the historical social gospel<\/a> movement; I am asserting the gospel cannot be understood without its inherent social and justice aspects.\u00a0 And any proclamation of the gospel, or teaching, must include these aspects with a view toward seeing their reality reflected in this world and life, not just heaven above.\u00a0 It is why we pray for the Kingdom to come\u2026here.\u00a0 Social work is simply the living out of this prayer.<\/p>\n Of all the Christian traditions, only the modern fundamentalist\/evangelical stream tries to separate the two (a notion James disabused us of some time ago: James 2: 14-17) or views one suspiciously.\u00a0 They are still fighting some sort of battle, mostly in the political and cultural arenas, with the modern secular left, of which coin, they are just the opposite side.\u00a0 Since it doesn\u2019t appear they understand what moderate and progressive Christians are talking about, they assume there is some sort of alignment with, or capitulation to, the secular left as to how social justice is framed or understood.\u00a0 Fear and misunderstanding drive their efforts.<\/p>\n Their most recent effort is seen here<\/a>.\u00a0 Like the Chicago Statement and the Nashville Statement before, what I am mostly struck by in all these is their irrelevance.\u00a0 They will inherit the wind.\u00a0 What I note here<\/a> regarding inerrancy, pretty much sums up my attitude toward these others.\u00a0 Yawn.\u00a0 All they do is reveal how fundamentalism and its evangelical variants are products of modernity.\u00a0 But we knew that.\u00a0 These statements are dusty ideology masquerading as Biblical teaching.<\/p>\n Of course, the writers of these statements will assert the same against their interlocuters.\u00a0 Perhaps they are right.\u00a0 I think a key difference however is that those who raise objections to their work, at the very least, have recognized the modern, post-modern divide, the decades of conversation surrounding hermeneutics, and understand (have attempted to understand) that conversation.\u00a0 Even a sense of that conversation is absent here on the part of these writers.\u00a0 They assume everything is an attack on the Bible, or God, when it is their interpretations<\/em> of the Bible, their understanding of that God, that are the issue.<\/p>\n Having said that, there are two areas in this recent statement, where I feel compelled to point out the incongruity, perhaps even the hypocrisy, therein.\u00a0 First, from the Introduction:<\/p>\n \u201cSpecifically, we are deeply concerned that values borrowed from secular culture are currently undermining Scripture in the areas of race and ethnicity, manhood and womanhood, and human sexuality.\u201d<\/p>\n Why are they not as \u201cdeeply\u201d concerned that values they have borrowed from secular culture are currently undermining Scripture in the areas of capitalism, materialism, nationalism, racism, sexism, hostility toward the stranger, and violence?<\/p>\n I also love how even though all the initial signers are men, they will now tell us the mysteries they have plumbed, the depths reached, as to the experiences of women and what it means to be a woman.\u00a0 After all, who better than a group of men to tell us of such matters.\u00a0 Oh, right, it\u2019s not the, \u201cmen,\u201d telling us, it is the \u201cBible\u201d telling us.\u00a0 Right.\u00a0 Got it.<\/p>\n They go on:<\/p>\n \u201cThe Bible\u2019s teaching on each of these subjects is being challenged under the broad and somewhat nebulous rubric of concern for \u2018social justice.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n First, no, the Bible\u2019s<\/em> teachings are not being challenged.\u00a0 You<\/em> are being challenged.\u00a0 Your<\/em> interpretations, understandings, and teachings are being challenged.\u00a0 Quit confusing challenges to you as challenges to the Bible or to God\u2014they are not the same, you are not the same.\u00a0 If the writers understood post-modernity, they would know this.\u00a0 Second, the rubric, social justice, isn\u2019t really that nebulous:<\/p>\n \u201cHe has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.\u201d- Micah 6<\/p>\n \u201cLove the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these.\u201d- Mark 12<\/p>\n The second area was affirmation number eight, regarding the church.\u00a0 We read:<\/p>\n \u201cWE DENY that political or social activism should be viewed as integral components of the gospel or primary to the mission of the church.\u201d<\/p>\n Did the \u201ccourt evangelicals\u201d get this memo?\u00a0 Did Jerry Falwell, Jr., Robert Jeffress, Franklin Graham, Paula White and the rest hear this?\u00a0 Because this sort of activism certainly seems integral to their current mission.<\/p>\n Further, of course social work (\u201cactivism\u201d) is integral to the gospel and primary.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. And as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and he stood up to read. And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written,<\/p>\n \u2018The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,<\/p>\n because he has anointed me<\/p>\n to proclaim good news to the poor<\/strong>.<\/p>\n He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives<\/strong><\/p>\n and recovering of sight to the blind,<\/p>\n to set at liberty those who are oppressed<\/strong>,<\/p>\n to proclaim the year of the Lord\u2019s favor.\u2019<\/p>\n And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. And he began to say to them, \u2018Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.\u2019- Luke 4 (bold for emphasis)<\/p>\n