Hard to Define

Today, I have asked Carol McEntyre, Director of Buckner Community Ministries at First Baptist Church, Knoxville, Tennessee to write about the topic of Social Justice. Please take a moment to read what she has to say, leave a comment, or post a question.
       
        Social justice is hard to define.  In seminary I read countless books and articles about social justice, but I never found a definition that really satisfied.  Social Justice is sometimes defined as fairness, but surely God requires more from us than that.  Even children can learn to “play fair.”  Social justice is sometimes described as giving people equal rights and opportunities.  But who gets to decide when an opportunity is equal?  At least in America, we like to think that everyone has the opportunity to achieve their dreams.  But do they really?  In all my studies on the subject, nothing quite captured my imagination like the words put forth by the prophet Amos, “Let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an everflowing stream.”  In this book of the Bible, Amos scorns the Israelites for turning their faith into pageantry and religious festivals.  He proclaims that God is not interested in their pomp and circumstance, but instead desires justice.  Surly that kind of justice must be something powerful and transforming, not like the puny definitions we often hear. 
       
        In college, one of my sociology professors compared social justice in people’s lives to a deck of cards.  If our lives are like a deck of cards, some of us begin life with a great hand.  Some have loving parents who make sure they get a good education.  They play sports, take piano lessons, and get a tutor if they need it.  However, the people that Buckner ministers to on a daily basis begin life with a poor hand.  Maybe they are born to an alcoholic parent or they are orphaned by AIDS.  Sometimes they become homeless because of a mental illness, or they age out of the foster care system with no family or support system.  The deck seems stacked against them and their hand is a long shot.  That is why Buckner’s work is so important.
       
        Social justice can be hard to define, but it is easily recognized.  This week through Buckner’s ministry at First Baptist Knoxville I witnessed justice rolling down.  One of Buckner’s mentors at South Knoxville Elementary school shared with me that the little girl she mentors, Miranda, needed to go to summer school.  Miranda didn’t want to go to school in the summer and her parents weren’t able to take her.  The mentor knew that without summer school her little would fall behind and that would greatly affect the hand she had to play.  The mentor met with Miranda’s parents and arranged to drop her off at summer school everyday on her way to work.  Miranda’s mentor knew that what was right and true is to actively work to change this little girls cards.
       
        When we use words like “fairness” and “equal opportunity” to define social justice, we limit the power of the term.  Giving Miranda the opportunity to live up to her potential by making it possible to go to summer school is fair and equal.  But if that is where our definition ends, we miss the transformation that takes place in the life of a mentor who believes this child’s future is worth fighting for.  Amos says all the religion in the world isn’t worth much, if you don’t do the right thing.  I think the ministries of Buckner help individuals in need learn to play a poor hand well, while at the same time transforming the lives of those who have been dealt a winning hand.  I can’t seem to define social justice, but I can say that I know it when I see it.

 

Comments

[Dan Freemyer]

Carol,
Your story about knowing the right thing to do and then actually doing it is both challenging and affirming. I think we usually make the concept of "social justice" more difficult to understand than it really is. If it's seen as controversial or difficult or complicated, then we have excuses for not bringing it about. It's harder to dispute simply doing what is obviously the right thing to do.

[Albert Reyes]

Carol, thanks for your article. Good word about doing the right thing.