Social justice has become an issue that further divides the country between extreme poles of right and left. It is characterized by some like The Heritage Foundation http://www.heritage.org/events/2012/10/takeover as a “quest of the left.” The Catholic Church and other religious leaders, even conservatives, defend it as a movement rooted in scripture.
American youth dealing with city life in the streets feel an urgency to be agents for change, and a drive to join causes that advocate for social justice. They are the same group whose religious affiliations are on the decline according to recent PEW Research Center surveys. Are their motivations spiritually related? Or is the social justice movement only a secular crusade?
Some of the scriptural references are well known:
"Speak out for those who have no voice, for the rights of all the destitute. Speak out, judge righteously, defend the rights of the poor and needy." (Proverbs 31:8-9)
"Learn to do good; seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow." (Isaiah 1:17), a quote that Jesus included in the first sermon in the Synagogue (The UB, 126:4.4).
"Thus says the Lord of hosts: Render true judgments, show kindness and mercy to one another; do not oppress the widow, the orphan, the alien, or the poor; and do not devise evil in your hearts against one another." (Zechariah 7:9-10)
In The UB we are advised, “Being sensitive and responsive to human need creates genuine and lasting happiness, while such kindly attitudes safeguard the soul from the destructive influences of anger, hate, and suspicion,” (The UB, 140:5.16) in its commentary on the significance of the beatitude, “Happy are they who mourn, for they shall be comforted.”
“The Master … did say that his followers should make feasts for the poor and the unfortunate. Jesus had a firm sense of justice, but it was always tempered with mercy.” (The UB, 140:8.12)
Can the fight for social justice find its legs without a strong spiritual foundation? Is religion, personal and institutional, necessary to ensure the success of the quest? Our young agents for social change should also be guided to be agents for enlightenment. “Some callings are not holy and others secular. All things are sacred in the lives of those who are spirit led.” (155:6.11)
In my idealistic dreams, I visualize a new movement partnering with the cause for social justice, one that would establish “the Master’s program,” friendship with God, a campaign to reinvigorate the importance of cultivating an inner life as well as a life of activism for just causes. Such a campaign would begin with:
Step 1: Recognition of the significance of inner life experiences; a willingness to explore them at least during moments of retreat and quiet time, to turn away from the materialistic enticements of the outside world.
Step 2: A consecration of loyalty to decisions, making mind your ally and God your friend.
Step 3: And especially when engaged in non-violent civil disobedience, learning to manage one’s emotional life, especially the mastering of the emotions anger and hate, progressing in self-mastery rather than remaining a victim of one’s emotions.
The conflict between spiritual purposes and the goals of social justice is not new. It has beginnings in ancient Judaism. “The doctrine of immortality also took form at Babylon. The Jews had thought that the idea of the future life detracted from the emphasis of their gospel of social justice.” (The UB, 97:9.28)
The UB text used concepts from Henry and Regina Weiman’s Normative Psychology of Religion, (per Matthew Block’s research, http://www.squarecircles.com/urantiabooksourcestudies/pdf/paper099workinprogress.pdf), in presenting The UB’s Paper 99, section 1 (Religion and Social Reconstruction). Much of this passage by the Weimans can be found there:
“The complexity of society is now so great that the pressure of social need can no longer reach the agencies of control and change as readily as in the past. Great masses of people can be cramped, oppressed, impoverished, without being able to bring their case to such a social hearing as will result in that modification of institutions which will relieve the suffering.... In the past these pressures could be relieved by specific reforms, without thought of reconstructing the social order, because the people who were pinched by a misfitting institution had avenues for making their wants known and the required changes were not so radical as those required today. Consequently relief could be found by reform. Now it must be found, more often, in reconstruction (214-15).”
The group Sojourners has a motto “faith in action for social justice.” Their president, Jim Wallis, wrote recently to promote his friend and former staff member, Adam Taylor and his book, Mobilizing Hope. First a student of Wallis’s at Harvard’s Kennedy School; he then joined Sojourners (http://sojo.net/biography/adam-taylor), and also served a year working in the White House. Of the book, Wallis wrote, “a manifesto for his generation … This important book is a theology for social justice, full of biblical references, reflections, and metaphors that point to God’s intentions and future for the world. This is not an argument rooted in political ideology, but a vision for social justice rooted firmly in the scriptures … it offers a spirituality for young activists, with the mature understanding that if you want to be a person of justice and action, and last for very long, you must also become a person of prayer and contemplation.”
“Jesus worked, lived, and traded in the world as he found it. He was not an economic reformer, although he did frequently call attention to the injustice of the unequal distribution of wealth. But he did not offer any suggestions by way of remedy. He made it plain to the three that, while his apostles were not to hold property, he was not preaching against wealth and property, merely its unequal and unfair distribution. He recognized the need for social justice and industrial fairness, but he offered no rules for their attainment.” (The UB, 140:8.15)
In the end, it is up to us to find the wise solutions to these problems in association with our spirit guidance.
