Imagine a surgeon—let’s call him Dr. Shirk—looking on as a team of other surgeons operates on a terminal patient.

Deeply distressed at what he sees, Dr. Shirk turns to the doctor next to him in the observation room, Dr. Spong.¹ “They need to stop. They’re not qualified to operate!”

Dr. Spong is not disturbed. “Calm down. These are board-certified doctors, trained in the best schools. They know what they’re doing.”

Unconvinced, the first doctor responds, “This patient is suffering from something which that team of doctors doesn’t even recognize as a disease! How can they help him if they’re ignoring his real problem?”

The other doctor rolls his eyes. “Oh, here we go again. That so-called disease you’re always harping about is a normal condition. We’ve known this for centuries. The real harm comes when we try to suppress what’s natural.”

“That’s insane!” Dr. Shirk interrupts. “You know, this disease affects the ability to reason. I think you should be checked for it. How many more patients have to suffer through it before you’ll admit its existence? You send them home feeling fine, but in reality they’re dead people walking. When will you and your team wake up and truly help these people?”

No longer calm, Dr. Spong turns to face him: “The real question, sir, is when are you going to help them? You and your fellow quacks rant and rave about this alleged disease, and you berate me and my team for our view of it. But at least we’re here! Not once have I seen you around this hospital’s patients. And your office is two blocks away! You say we’re unqualified to help them? Then do something about it yourself!”

Taken aback, Dr. Shirk stammers a bit. “Well, that’s…that’s not my job! My job is to teach, to create an awareness of the disease among my colleagues and my students. And besides, I can’t operate here among doctors who don’t have the same view of medicine as I.”

Feeling a mix of anger and pity toward the old man, Dr. Spong asks: “Let me get this straight. You and your colleagues are the only ones who know how to really help these patients, but you’d rather let them suffer than to work here and risk being associated with people like me?”

“It’s not that I don’t care for them!” Dr. Shirk protests. “I do, and if they were to show up at my office and attend one of my lectures, well then I’d be happy, even overjoyed to help. And I’d love to help you, too. In fact, maybe you’d consider coming to this week’s.”

Dr. Spong shakes his head in disbelief. Turning away, he sees one of the surgeons giving him a thumbs-up sign. “Ah, look. My team is done, and apparently the patient is doing quite well.” He turns again to Shirk and smiles. As if offering a consolation prize, he says: “I’ll tell the patient about your lectures; it’s always good to hear different viewpoints. But don’t be surprised if he doesn’t come. He’s getting what he needs here.”

What comes to mind when you hear the expression social justice? Many of us who label ourselves conservative in theology, and perhaps in politics too, have an almost allergic reaction to the term. We cringe as it conjures thoughts of liberal theology and the social gospel,² liberal politics and socialism.³ We decry the godless ideologies that dominate the pursuit of so-called social justice in our day. We lament the “beneficiaries” of this pursuit, hurting people so often denied the benefit of hearing the gospel, but we hesitate to go to them ourselves. We fear that entering places and engaging contexts so replete with gospel-rejecting activism would compromise our Christianity. So we let concern for them fade to the periphery of our plans for ministry, content with our sincere willingness to help them should the Lord bring them our way. But is this tunnel vision truly Christian?

The remainder of this small article on a big topic will focus on why Christians must pursue social justice, and why Reformed Presbyterians ought, of all Christians, to be the most passionately active pursuers. All the reasons we may give not to be involved are precisely the reasons we must be involved.

We must work to bring about social justice because we are Christians, because we are conservative Christians, because we are confessional Christians, and because we are covenanting Christians.

Because We Are Christians

Recognizing our need to work for social justice starts with seeing beyond, or perhaps behind, its contemporary stigma. When we look to the thing itself, we see that social justice work is not only commensurate with true Christianity, it is required by it.

Simply put, purveying justice is rightly, equitably, and consistently giving to people what is due them. Christians understand that the standard for right, equity and consistency is the character of the true and living God.⁴ Genuine justice expresses the heart of God.

So when justice is bled of its negative contemporary connotations, the question of whether God is concerned with it has an overwhelmingly obvious answer: Yes! God reveals Himself throughout Scripture as a just God who abhors injustice. One of His favorite self descriptions is “the defender of the fatherless and widow.”⁵

And if we ask whether God commands His people to act justly in society, the answer is again obvious: Yes. We are to act in a manner reflective of God’s character in our interaction with all bearers of His image. We are to love our neighbors as ourselves, and our neighbors are, potentially, anyone and everyone.

In the information age, the world has shrunk, bringing many more neighbors within our sphere of influence.

We may be tempted to trim our list of neighbors by hunkering down in the familiar, comfortable social contexts of church and the unbelievers we already know. We may use Paul’s admonition to the Thessalonians to “aspire to live quietly, and to mind your own affairs” as an impetus to insular faith and life. But surely Paul’s command is against sinful disquiet and being “busybodies,” not against being busy trying to know and help others. Turning a deaf ear toward those crying for help is not the quiet that God commands in this passage.

If we are not taking time to hear the hurting all around us, especially when doing so requires mere seconds in our day of instant information, then perhaps our seeking a quiet life is really our pursuit of what Francis Schaeffer called the two horrible values of personal peace and affluence—we want to be unbothered in the pursuit of a materially comfortable, laid-back life.^{6 7}

A biblically quiet and peaceable life is not a life of passivity in the face of injustice. Consider Jesus’ parable of the good Samaritan, and consider all the people who are, in essence, lying beaten and bloody in our path—people who bear God’s image, who’ve suffered injustice and who need help we could give.

Taking his cue from God’s character, Job expresses in striking terms his sense of personal responsibility to the needy: “If I have withheld anything that the poor desired…then let my shoulder blade fall from my shoulder, and let my arm be broken from its socket.”⁸

But what good does it do to meet people’s physical needs if their true need, salvation from sin and hell, goes unmet? The question presupposes a false dilemma. Biblically, the proclamation of the true gospel must be accompanied by tangible deeds of mercy.⁹ Because many in our day who are active in doing the latter refuse to do the former, it is incumbent upon Christ’s true disciples to bring to the needy His Word and the tangible touch of His mercy.

Because We Are Conservative Christians

“Conservative” here indicates the full-hearted embrace of what liberal theology rejects: the deity of Jesus Christ, the fact that salvation is only found in Him, the historicity of the miracles Scripture proclaims, and the belief that Scripture is what it claims to be, the “breathed out” Word of God which is by definition infallible and inerrant.

With these fixed, immovable convictions in place, conservative Christians look to Scripture to understand right and wrong, that which is deviant behavior and that which is according to God’s design. Without such convictions, definitions of justice (and therefore victimhood) are always in flux. To quote Schaeffer again: “If there is no absolute by which to judge society, society is absolute.”

The prevailing winds of societal morality can blow genuine victims of oppression right out of that category. In our nation’s past, black people were considered non-people, or partial people, or at least people unworthy of the same respect and privileges afforded to white people. Unborn children are considered non-people, or people unworthy of life should their existence prove burdensome to one or both parents. When God’s immutable Word does not govern our understanding of justice, we are bound to perpetrate injustice. God’s image-bearers suffer indignity and even death.¹⁰

This nation is discovering that a mere Judeo-Christian ethic is not enough to sustain a just civilization, especially when “Christian” is so loosely defined.

In the run-up to the 2012 U.S. presidential elections, conservative media personalities have expressed frustration with Christians who refuse to view Mormon politicians or pundits as Christians. One popular talk show host said, “It is [after all] the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints” as if the mere use of Jesus’ name was enough to qualify a group as Christian.¹¹ Listening to some conservatives talk about the Bible is like listening to some liberals talk about the U.S. Constitution. They consider the Bible to be flexible in its meaning, especially when it comes to the first four commandments.

But flexibility on the first four inevitably destabilizes the last six.¹² There are strong voices within political conservatism that want the movement to remain neutral on social issues like abortion. More and more, the core values of political conservatism are low taxes and national defense. The faces of contemporary conservatism are increasingly bearing fangs against the gospel of Christ. In its place, they preach¹³ democratic freedom and the autonomy of the individual as the solutions to the human condition,¹⁴ the basis for a just society.

Both theological liberals and political liberals love to talk about loving our neighbors, but their approach is to divorce the second table of the Law from the first. These days, we’re not getting much better from political conservatives. It falls then to Christ’s true disciples, committed to His law and gospel in all their fullness and mutual relation, to proclaim and proactively work to promote true justice in society.¹⁵

Because We Are Confessional Christians

Our historic, extrabiblical confessions of faith provide the church with biblically faithful summaries of the doctrines and duties of true Christianity. While they are ever subject to correction by Scripture, they are intended to anchor us in unchanging biblical truth. The RPCNA embraces the Westminster standards as faithful expressions of biblical Christianity. Consider what the Westminster Larger Catechism(135) tells us is required by the sixth commandment:

The duties required in the sixth commandment are all careful studies, and lawful endeavours, to preserve the life of ourselves and others by resisting all thoughts and purposes, subduing all passions, and avoiding all occasions, temptations, and practices, which tend to the unjust taking away the life of any; by just defence thereof against violence, patient bearing of the hand of God, quietness of mind, cheerfulness of spirit; sober use of meat, drink, physic, sleep, labour, and recreations; by charitable thoughts, love, compassion, meekness, gentleness, kindness; peaceable, mild and courteous speeches and behaviour; forbearance, readiness to be reconciled, patient bearing and forgiving of injuries, and requiting good for evil; comforting and succouring the distressed and protecting and defending the innocent.¹⁶

Note the emphasis on the proactive pursuit of justice, both in terms of our not committing injustice and in terms of our securing justice for the oppressed. We need not look far in our communities to see people needing comfort and protection. The question is whether we are active in pursuing these “lawful endeavours.”¹⁷

Relatively young, self-consciously confessional Christians are now publishing on the topic.¹⁸ But what if this mounting zeal among younger adults proves to fade quickly after it burns bright for a moment in church history? Our historic tatements of faith demand our sustained activity in social justice, even if the current surge of interest¹⁹ in the topic fades away. If the socially conscious youth of the church lack the tenacity and dedication to stick with their current passion, our doctrine-driven confessional standards will still be there to call young and old alike to basic Christian duty.

Because We Are Covenanter Christians

As Covenanters, we sing the Psalms. Consider how the theme of justice floods these inspired praises of God!²⁰ If the work of justice is the song on our lips, it must be the work of our hands.
Some may consider it ironic to appeal to our Covenanter history as an impetus to get involved in culture, particularly in government. Notwithstanding the changing tide of opinion with regard to political dissent, there is still room for those practicing it to be involved in seeking social justice.

We need not run for office or vote in an election to be present and vocal at town hall meetings. We need not endorse our nation’s Constitution to actively defend our right to free speech with regard to the gospel or to interact with government officials sworn to uphold and defend it.

Advocates and dissenters from political dissent can learn much from the example and activity of RPCNA minister James Renwick Willson. Among the issues burning on his heart was the unjust treatment of American Indians, forcefully deported from their homes. Further, Willson took up the cause of missionaries who were denied the ability to minister among them. Willson was also deeply moved by the plight of African slaves in America. He preached and prayed about these matters, and his grasp of God’s character and commands gave him a holy unction to go beyond the pulpit and the prayer closet to direct, personal correspondence with the powers that be, including the President!²¹

It is right to not want to get entangled in social crusades largely driven and defined by godless political correctness. But that’s just it. Why should godless ideas have such sway in ministry to the needy?

If Christ is King of the nations, then He has authority over each and every citizen. More than that, He has authority over the societal substructures that give nations their form and the philosophical systems that move them. We must assert His kingship in these components of culture and accredit our assertions through works of mercy and justice.²²

We cannot be like Dr. Shirk—concerned for the hurting but content to remain within what he saw as the confines of his work. As God’s people, we must go to the hurting.

If God’s people are gone from the marketplace of ideas and nowhere to be found in soup kitchens, homeless shelters, town hall meetings, crisis pregnancy centers, and nursing homes, then how can we expect anything but a co-opting and corrupting of justice in our society?

Hopefully our churches are preaching and teaching the Word of the just Judge of all things. Hopefully we are praying passionately for Him to break the stranglehold sin has on so many in our culture, to meet the needs of true victims of oppression in society, to bring our very nation to its knees in confessing Christ as King. But God would have us do more.

God would have us bring the gospel in word and deed to our neighbors and to the nations. If we are paralyzed in this process, it should be because we are overwhelmed by how much work needs to be done, and not because we are unwilling to do it. Either way, we must get moving.

As a start, we might focus our attention on those who are to benefit from what God defines in James as real religion: ministry to orphans and widows. Adoption, advocating for the vulnerable unborn, visiting widows and widowers and advocating for their proper care in institutions which do not give it—these are ways to get involved in glorifying our just God in His world. We must pray for wisdom, assess our capabilities within our communities, determine how God has gifted us to serve, and get to serving!

In view of the mercy and grace our God has shown us, anything less is an injustice.

Endnotes