Social Justice Warriors and The Bible
Please stand with me as we go over our current memory Scripture:
Matthew 5:9-12
“Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me.
“Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for they persecuted the prophets who were before you in the same way.”
And our memory Scripture “refresher” verse(s) is(are):
Galatians 2:20
“I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me; and the life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”
Today we will be reading from Micah 6:1-8 (NLT)
Are you a racist?
Are you worried about social justice?
Two of the most prominent anti-racist authors are Robin DiAngelo, author of “White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism,” and Ibram X. Kendi, author of “How to Be an Antiracist.”
According to these authors:
- A denial of racism can be construed as evidence of racism
- Martin Luther King Jr. looked forward to the day when all Americans would, “… benefit from a color-blind land of plenty that provides for the nourishment of each man’s body, soul and spirit. Yet, these authors say that, “… colorblindness is essentially a sign of white privilege.”
- “The only remedy to racist discrimination is anti-racist discrimination. The only remedy to past discrimination is present discrimination.”
- Discrimination heals discrimination???
So, why are we talking about racism and discrimination today?
This past week our DS was at a Church of The Nazarene District Superintendent training conference where she served on a discussion panel about, “The District Superintendent, Racial Reconciliation, and Biblical Justice.”
What did they talk about? I don’t know. But I do know that the Bible has a lot to say about reconciliation and justice.
Please join me in your Bibles as we read: Micah 6:1-8 (NLT)
(Prayer for help)
The title given to this section of Scripture is called in the NIV
“Yahweh’s Case Against Israel”
1
Listen to what the Lord says:
(Yahweh is about to give Micah the complaint to be made against the people of Judah and Samaria. The people who remain in the land have been living lives of cruelty and injustice. They have been oppressing their own people. In this case it was actually true that the rich were getting richer and the poor were becoming poorer. It was basically as if the elite had their foot on the back of the necks of the poor and were grinding their faces into the ground. And, so Yahweh begins to present His case through Micah.)
“Stand up, plead My case before the mountains; let the hills hear what you have to say.
(Yahweh is calling the mountains and the hills to be His witnesses of what is about to be said.)
2
“Hear, you mountains, (Yahweh) the LORD’s accusation; listen, you everlasting foundations of the earth. For the LORD has a case against His people; He is lodging a charge against Israel.
(So, what is Yahweh’s case against His people?)
3 - 5
“My people, what have I done to you? How have I burdened you? Answer Me. I brought you up out of Egypt and redeemed you from the land of slavery. I sent Moses to lead you, also Aaron and Miriam.
“My people, remember what Balak king of Moab plotted and what Balaam son of Beor answered. Remember your journey from the Acacia Grove to Gilgal, that you may know the righteous acts of the LORD.”
(In verses 6-7 Yahweh speaks almost with sarcasm of what the response will be from the people of Judah and Samaria and He goes on to great exaggeration with rhetorical questions when He says …)
6 - 7
“With what shall I come before the LORD and bow down before the exalted God? Shall I come before Him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old?
“Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousand rivers of olive oil? Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?”
(And the response from Yahweh is this in verse 8 …)
“He (Yahweh) has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does (Yahweh) the LORD require of you? To ACT JUSTLY and to LOVE MERCY and to WALK HUMBLY WITH YOUR GOD.”
So, you might ask, what does that have to do with “racial reconciliation” and “social justice?”
Did you know that the word justice appears 130 times in the Bible?
First of all, if reconciliation is needed, the first step is to be reconciled to God.
We can see from the words of the command given by Yahweh the LORD that they needed to act justly, they needed to love mercy and they needed to walk humbly with Yahweh their God!
But the problem was that they were acting with injustice, they had no use for mercy whatsoever and they were arrogant in their walk WITHOUT God!
Somehow, in their minds, they thought that the act of bringing sacrifices to the altar was all they needed to do and that should make all of their unjust, unmerciful actions and all of their arrogant attitudes right!
But, God was calling them to repent, to turn their hearts to the LORD and to start seeking justice and to have mercy on those who they were formerly abusing.
The LORD speaking through Isaiah in Isaiah 1:17 said this …
“Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow.”
Here we see that Yahweh is speaking not only to the nation but directly to individuals as well.
In the social justice movement there is more of an attack on what they call ‘systemic racism’ or systemic injustice.
This is an example of what they might mean …
For instance, the claim of the social justice warriors is that in many companies a non-white employee is paid less than a white employee. And, I am sure that there are many cases where that is true. And, I am also sure that there are many companies that pay their employees according to their abilities, their faithfulness in work and their time with the company.
So, is the racism systemic or is it due to the heart of the individuals who employ the workers?
Imagine this. A white, born again Christian is working in a company where he has been employed for a while and he has been promoted and placed in charge of a department. Part of his duties will be to hire new workers.
Soon after the promotion he is called into the office of the company’s president and told, “We have an unwritten rule here. When you hire workers the starting pay will be $1/hr more for white employees than you pay for non-white workers.” The president of the company goes on to say, “As I said, this is an unwritten rule and this conversation never happened. By the way, I’ll be watching.”
So, what does this white, born again Christian who acts justly, loves mercy and walks humbly with his God do? He must choose to either disobey his employer or disobey his God.
You see, racism boils down to the attitudes of the person’s heart.
Suppose a person goes into a “racial sensitivity training” class that is required not only by the company but by the government itself.
Will anyone come out of the “racial sensitivity training class” with a changed attitude? No. They may come out with the knowledge of how they should act on the job but their ingrained attitude about race relations will not be changed but may actually be aggravated.
Why? Because their heart is not changed.
All discrimination or lack of discrimination resides in the heart.
All yearnings for justice or for acts of injustice reside in the heart.
So, let’s think about our hearts.
Am I prejudiced against any particular race?
A few weeks ago I was looking for a certain automotive tool in Rochester so I entered the name of an auto parts store into our GPS and picked the closest one. I did not know it but the population of the housing surrounding the store I went to was predominately black. There were people working on their cars in the parking lot and it was a pretty busy store. I parked and went into the store and I can tell you that I was somewhat uncomfortable as I was the only white person on the property. People were kind of giving me the “eyeball” but no one was hostile. I did not find the part and I left without speaking to anyone nor did anyone speak to me.
The next store I went to was in a predominately white neighborhood even though it was only a couple of miles away and I felt more comfortable there even though I still did not find what I needed …
Does that mean I am a racist? Or do I have what is called an Affinity Bias which means that we are more comfortable around others who are like us?
When does an Affinity Bias fade? It fades away like a mist when you get to know the person and your familiarity of them increases.
Search the entire Bible and you will find interactions between all races and ethnic groups.
The Jews hated the Samaritans and the Samaritans hated the Jews but when Jesus was giving an illustration of who was a neighbor, who did Jesus choose to rescue the traveler who had been striped, robbed and left for dead? A Samaritan was the hero.
Was Jesus just using the Samaritan to rub the nose of the Pharisee into his racist attitude toward the Samaritans?
Did Jesus intentionally fail to identify the nationality and the race of the man who was beaten and left to die? I don’t think so. Why? Because it should not matter. Neither should it matter to us as Christians IF OUR HEART IS IN LINE WITH JESUS’ HEART!
(Luke 10:25-37)
What else do we see in the Bible?
In Acts 8:26-40 we read of the interaction between Philip and the Ethiopian who was in charge of the treasury of Candace the queen of Ethiopia!
From the Jew’s point of view this man had three strikes against him.
- He was a gentile (Jews thought of the gentiles as dogs)
- He was black (racial discrimination)
- He was surrounded by body guards. It does not say that in the text but you can be assured that the man in charge of the treasury of Candace the queen of Ethiopia did not travel long distances without an official escort
OK, so you see that Philip was up against some challenges when the Holy Spirit told him, “Go south to the road - the desert road - that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” But he went anyway, in spite of those challenges he set aside his differences between him and the man to whom the Lord directed Him. And, what was the result? The Ethiopian was saved and baptized and he took the good news of salvation through faith in Jesus back to Ethiopia with him! Praise the Lord!!!
What about Jesus?
In Matthew 8:5-13 we read of the interaction between Jesus and the Roman Centurion. A Roman Centurion would be a despised and feared man in Israel at that time. He was not only a gentile (racially different) but He was involved with keeping occupied Israel in line at the same time. He WAS the enemy!!!
What did Jesus see? Jesus saw a man with great faith, great compassion and humility coming to Him with a situation that was beyond his own control. Here’s what the Centurion said to Jesus, “Lord, my servant lies at home paralyzed, suffering terribly.”
Now, I doubt if the Centurion knew the Old Testament command to “act justly, love mercy and walk humbly with your God” but he was following it pretty closely anyway. And Jesus healed the servant in spite of the ethnic differences and the cultural differences between the Centurion and Him.
These are just a few examples of what is needed for racial reconciliation and social justice.
Our society does not need “racial reconciliation” classes and “systemic justice” training. The government can’t cure a spiritual heart defect. All of the writers who are writing from a worldly point of view have no clue as to what would REALLY work.
As the apostle Paul wrote in Galatians 3:27-28
“All of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”
So, if there is no longer racial division within the body of Christ then there should be no racial animosity in our hearts toward anyone.
No racial animosity at all!
And, if there is no longer any division according to social status within the body of Christ then there should be no envy or arrogance in our hearts between those of different social standings.
And, if there is no longer any division between God’s defined genders within the body of Christ there should be no arrogance or competition between those of either sex in our hearts.
So, how can this possibly happen?
Matthew 22:37-40
“Jesus replied: ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment.
“And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
And then combine that with Romans 12:2 where it says,
“Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is - His good, pleasing and perfect will.”
This is the change of heart that is needed. This is the only thing that will bring about racial reconciliation and social justice.
From now on we who are in Christ only see two groups, those who are in Christ and those who NEED to be in Christ; the saved and the unsaved. Christ died for us all and we are His messengers.
Let us not fail in the task He has set before us.
Final thoughts and prayer.
