Christians called to confront systemic injustice

HOUSTON—Biblical justice not only requires individual restoration, but also demands transformation of unjust systems, social justice advocate Michelle Warren told a Christian community development conference.

“If you wake up in the morning and the system works for you, you think it’s a good system,” said Warren, advocacy and strategic engagement director for the Chicago-based Christian Community Development Association.

Proximity to the poor—intentionally living as neighbors with people in poverty—provides middle-class Christians a different perspective on systemic injustice, Warren told the No Need Among You Conference. The Texas Christian Community Development Network sponsored the event, Oct. 25-27 at Good Hope Missionary Baptist Church in Houston.

‘Journey to justice’

Warren began her “journey to justice” when she and her family moved into a neighborhood where they were in the minority—racially, ethnically and socio-economically.

As she sought to “be a good neighbor” to those around her, she grew to understand perspectives different from the comfortable, middle-class, evangelical Christian culture in which she had been raised. In time, she discovered she was “arrogant and uninformed” about unfair systems that made life difficult for her neighbors.

“As a Christian, being a neighbor is not a small calling,” said Warren, author of The Power of Proximity: Moving Beyond Awareness to Action. 

In Warren’s case, she said, love for neighbor compelled her to work to fix a broken system that tells undocumented immigrants, “We want your work, but we don’t want you.”

Warren grew to understand the importance of justice in Scripture. Justice means restoration—spiritually, relationally and economically, she asserted.

‘Justice is a biblical word’

“Justice gets a bad rap. … Justice is a biblical word,” she insisted. “If you want to know the heart of God, justice is at the center.”

Christians must move from occasional acts of mercy to a lifestyle that seeks justice and wholeness for everyone, Warren said.

Pointing to the parable of the Good Samaritan, she quoted Martin Luther King Jr.: “On the one hand, we are called to play the Good Samaritan on life’s roadside, but that will be only an initial act. One day, we must come to see that the whole Jericho road must be transformed so that men and women will not be constantly beaten and robbed as they make their journey on life’s highway.”

Transformation of unjust systems demands a long-term commitment, she noted.

“Justice is not on a timeline, and it’s not on a to-do list,” she said. “We have to be committed for the long haul.”

Key components

In a related workshop, Warren outlined eight key components of a Christian approach to community development:

• Relocation. “It’s hard to be a neighbor from a distance,” she said. Proximity to the poor provides Christian community developers “a front-row seat” to witness transformation, she added.
• Reconciliation. The gospel is about building bridges, she noted. Evangelicals recognize the vital importance of reconciling a person to God in Christ. But a justice-oriented approach also seeks person-to-person and people-group-to-people-group reconciliation.
• Redistribution. Economic development and social justice are essential elements of Christian community development, she asserted. Redistribution involves repairing and resetting broken systems, as well as setting right unjust power structures and surrendering privilege. “Redistribution tests our commitment to reconciliation,” Warren said.
• Leadership development. Community development raising a new generation of leaders “from the people, for the people,” she said.
• Church-based. Christ-centered, biblical community development means building a community that worships together and holds its members spiritually accountable. “Church enables us to act like family,” she said.
• Listening to the community. Programs are not imposed from the outside. Ideas arise from the grassroots community. Build on the assets already present in the community.
• Wholistic. It includes mental, spiritual, social, economic, political, cultural, emotional and physical dimensions.
• Empowerment. “Design a plan that ensures transferability,” she said, noting it should not be dependent upon an individual from outside the community. “Do not do for a person what they can do for themselves. Give people responsibility that is appropriate. And follow their leadership.”

This is part of an ongoing series about how Christians respond to hunger and poverty. Substantive coverage of significant issues facing Texas Baptists is made possible in part by a grant from the Prichard Family Foundation.