{"id":11129,"date":"2025-08-21T18:48:02","date_gmt":"2025-08-21T22:48:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/socialjesus\/?p=11129"},"modified":"2025-08-21T18:48:02","modified_gmt":"2025-08-21T22:48:02","slug":"religious-institutions-obstruct-justice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/socialjesus\/2025\/08\/religious-institutions-obstruct-justice\/","title":{"rendered":"When Religious Institutions Obstruct Justice"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"Religious
Image by Canva<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

In our reading this week, the Sabbath had become an excuse to object to Jesus\u2019 justice and liberation work. The Sabbath had become an obstacle to justice and liberation, not a conduit for achieving it. Mark\u2019s gospel even tells a story about how folks were waiting for Sabbath to end so they could come to Jesus for healing and liberation:<\/p>\n

That evening after sunset the people brought to Jesus all the sick and demon-possessed. (Mark 1:32)<\/p>\n

Welcome Readers! <\/i><\/b>Please subscribe to Social Jesus Here<\/i><\/b><\/a>.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

This is Part 3 of Christianity, Liberation and Justice<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n

(Read this series from its beginning <\/b>here<\/b><\/a>.)<\/b><\/p>\n

This is a history often repeated: something that was originally intended to be life-giving evolves over time into a death-dealing tool oppressors use to keep oppressed people in their places, denying them justice, and obstructing their liberation.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Can you think of other things that have followed this same evolutionary path? I love that this week\u2019s reading shows Jesus liberating a woman in an act of transgression against the oppressive norms of his own context. He values the woman\u2019s liberation as paramount. It reminds me of a passage in Peter\u2019s epistle:<\/p>\n

Above all, love each other. (1 Peter 4:8)<\/p>\n

Above all.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Provocative Black intellectual and philosophy professor at Union Theological Seminary Dr. Cornel West\u00a0 <\/span>has often said, \u201cJustice is what love looks like in public.\u201d In situations where there\u2019s a scale of competing values, we must esteem how we choose to exercise justice (the public expression of love) above all else.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Our reading this week is about the tension between a person\u2019s liberation and the way a religious institution (the Sabbath) was interpreted to oppose that liberation. The Christian faith tradition also has a long history of using its interpretations of our sacred texts to stand in the way of people\u2019s liberation from injustice. Christianity has always had a dual witness regarding oppression: some advancing it, some fighting it. From the first generation in Acts to today. Some Christians have, Bibles in their hand, opposed the abolition of slavery here in the U.S., or women\u2019s liberation from patriarchy, and the LGBTQ community\u2019s work toward a more equitable society. Liberation and justice are deeply intertwined concepts, each depending on the other to be fully realized. Liberation speaks to the process of freeing individuals and communities from systems of oppression\u2014whether political, economic, racial, gender-based, or religious. Justice, meanwhile, ensures that this freedom is not only achieved but sustained through structures that affirm everyone\u2019s dignity and rights.<\/p>\n

Historically, liberation movements have risen in response to injustice. I\u2019m thinking of the Civil Rights Movement, Indigenous resistance to colonialism, the fight for women\u2019s rights, and more. Each of these efforts began with a deep yearning for freedom but ultimately sought a more just society\u2014one in which the systems that produced inequality were dismantled and replaced with equitable alternatives.<\/p>\n

Justice is not simply the punishment of wrongdoing; it is the active creation of conditions where wrongs are less likely to occur. It involves redistribution of resources, access to education and healthcare, protection of rights, and the amplification of marginalized voices. Justice requires us to confront power and privilege, especially when they are used to exclude or dehumanize.<\/p>\n

Liberation without justice can be fleeting. If a people are freed from one form of domination only to be subjected to another, their liberation is sham. Similarly, justice without liberation is a lie. You cannot have true justice while people remain trapped in systems that deny their full humanity.<\/p>\n

Spiritual and philosophical traditions around the world affirm the essential link between liberation and justice, Christianity with its complicated oppressive history among them. The call to \u201clet the oppressed go free\u201d is not merely a metaphor; it is a summons to act in solidarity with the poor and the excluded. Our gospel must unequivocally state that justice is love made public and embodied in social, economic, and political transformation.<\/p>\n

True liberation and justice require more than empathy. They demand action. They challenge us to listen deeply, to learn from those on the margins, and to use our resources and influence in ways that help us all reimagine a better world. It is not enough to hope or pray for a just society; we must build it, piece by piece, policy by policy, relationship by relationship.<\/p>\n

In this sense, liberation and justice are ongoing journeys. They are the work of communities committed to healing, truth-telling, and the shared belief that another world is possible and a just, compassionate world that is a safe home for all is worth fighting for.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Begin each day being inspired toward love, compassion, justice and action. Free.<\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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