Deeper understandings Social justice
Church, once silent, found its public voice in mid-20th century them in congregational education.
Editor’s note: This series is intended to be a public conversa- tion among teaching theologians of the ELCA on various themes of our faith and the challenging issues of our day. It invites readers to engage in dialogue by posting comments online at the end of each article at
www.thelutheran.org. The series is edited by Philip
D.W. Krey, president of the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadel- phia, on behalf of the presidents of the eight ELCA seminaries.
By James M. Childs and Katie Day
James Childs: Lutherans haven’t always been clear or consistent about the church’s mandate to be involved in the fight for social justice. Though individual Christians were admon- ished to be good citizens and support a just society, justice was a matter for the civil use of the law entrusted by God’s design to civil authorities. Within the framework of the
Childs Day
Childs is a former academic dean and professor of systematic theology at Trinity Lutheran Seminary in Columbus, Ohio, where he continues to teach as a senior research professor. Day is professor of church and society and director of the met- ropolitan/urban concentration at the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia.
18 The Lutheran •
www.thelutheran.org
church’s gospel mission, the love for neighbor that Christ commanded was to be practiced in one’s personal rela- tions as reflective of God’s love. This love ethic also led concerned pastors and laity in the American scene to develop what is now a vast network of social ministry organiza- tions that serve justice in the sense of meeting the needs of many. However, the separation of love and justice often meant the church was silent in the face of clear injustices. Thankfully, the mid-20th century brought an awakening of the church’s need to speak on issues of justice. The ELCA and its predecessor churches began to produce social statements on a number of justice concerns. These statements were to serve as study documents and guidance for individual Christians, congregations, synods and churchwide advocacy. They make clear that love and justice aren’t separated—justice is the form love takes when responding to need on the societal level. The ELCA social statement “Church in Society: A Lutheran Perspective” makes this connec- tion clear and also makes clear that the work of justice is integral to the gospel mission (
www.elca.org/ socialstatements). It states: “Faith is active in love; love calls for justice in the relationships and structures of society. ... The gospel does not take the church out of the world but instead calls it to affirm and to enter more deeply into the world.” My teaching of Christian ethics emphasizes this connection along with the encouragement to take the social statements seriously and use
Katie Day: As a faculty member in the area of church and society at another Lutheran seminary, I reso- nate with your obvious dedication to teaching about justice. I am from the Presbyterian (Church U.S.A.) tradition and over the many years I have taught here I’ve increasingly appreciated the similarities of our two denominations, not only in our theological approaches but also in the challenges we face.
Simply put, justice is how we love the stranger. But this stranger-love goes beyond the individual acts of charity that churches do so well. For example, most of our congre- gations are involved in some sort of feeding programs for those in our communities and world who are hun- gry. The situation is critical in many places, such as here in Philadelphia where the proportion of those who are euphemistically labeled “food insecure” is approaching 1 in 4. We now have almost 800 soup kitchens and food pantries in the city, most of them in churches and most staffed by volunteers. The urgency of the situation requires of us an immediate compassionate response. But feeding the hungry is not
enough. We have to ask why so many people are hungry right now. We have to do our homework and understand how and why resources are being unevenly distributed. We need to look at policies in our city, state and federal government that need to be changed, not only to make sure school lunch programs are well funded and that food stamps aren’t
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