Why Justice Seems Antithetical to Western Christianity

There are some major historic reasons for this!

As a two time immigrant Christian to North America from the Majority World / Global South, one of the unique characteristics of Western Christianity that has always rubbed me off the wrong way is its deep discomfort with prioritizing the work of justice as a key element of the mission of the Church.

Even though there are many North American Christians who care deeply about justice issues facing the world today - in my experience, these Christians are the exception and not the norm within Western Christianity. Furthermore, in my experience, even the vast majority of North American Christians who care deeply about justice issues have a difficult time articulating why the Gospel (or Good News) of Jesus compels Christians to prioritize the work of justice. And even if justice is prioritized, it’s often seen as something that is distinct and less important than evangelism or discipleship.

“A church that doesn't provoke any crises, a gospel that doesn't unsettle, a word of God that doesn't get under anyone's skin, a word of God that doesn't touch the real sin of the society in which it is being proclaimed — what gospel is that?”

Bishop Oscar Romero

A few years ago, I had lunch with a North American church planter who was trying to recruit me onto his church planting team. This church planter seemed very keen to have justice-minded people of colour like myself on his plant team. Still, when I asked him what his vision for diversity, equity, inclusion & justice was, he said, “Our first priority is to get services running for a full year. Then, we’ll figure out what justice looks like.” I don’t believe this church planter would have said the same thing about evangelism or discipleship.

So what’s a better way of looking at justice in light of the mission and total task of the Church?

Canadian theologian, Dr. Ron Sider said it best:

“The time has come for all Christians to refuse to use the sentence: ‘The primary task of the Church is…’ I do not care if you complete the sentence with evangelism or social action. Either way it is unbiblical and misleading. Evangelism, seeking social justice, fellowship, teaching, worship are all fundamental dimensions of the total task of the church. They must not be confused with each other although they are inextricably interrelated.”

But why is it that so many Western Christians see the work of systemic justice for marginalized communities as “separate”, “less than” or “a distraction” from the mission of the Church? There are some major historic reasons for this that I’ve stumbled upon in my work mobilizing the North American Church towards global justice work over the past decade.

As Dr. James Cone highlights in his heavy-hitting book A Black Theology of Liberation - theology is never constructed in a vacuum. It’s *always* shaped by human history, culture and experiences. So here are a few historic reasons why justice seems antithetical to Western Christianity:

1. Colonization: Even though the 21st Century Western Church has taken encouraging steps towards correcting the effects of western colonization - for so much of human history (literally centuries), large segments of the Western Church played an active part in enabling the colonization of the Global South. The Catholic Church supported the Spaniards, the Portuguese, the French & the Italians in colonizing large swaths of South America, South Asia, Southeast Asia and Africa. The Anglican Church supported the British Empire in its colonization of South Asia, North America, Africa and Southeast Asia. The Dutch Reformed Church supported the Dutch in their efforts to colonize Africa, South Asia and Southeast Asia. The Lutheran Church supported the Germans in their colonization of Africa. The list goes on and on and on.
   
   It shouldn’t surprise us that the Western Church has very little to theologically offer to a postcolonial world’s understanding of the liberating Gospel of Christ because the Western Church was a primary perpetrator of western colonization across the world.
   

2. Slavery: While slavery has existed across time and human societies, the Western Church took slavery to a whole other level by participating in the Transatlantic slave trade, chattel-based slavery in the Americas and the after-effects of slavery in the United States such as Jim Crowe segregation, lynchings, mass incarceration, etc. Many of the heroes of the North American Church such as Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield were unrepentant slaveholders. The largest evangelical denomination in the United States today (the Southern Baptist Convention) was founded because of southern baptist missionaries being prohibited from owning slaves by their northern baptist brethren. And lest we forget - just a hundred years ago, there were white southerners regularly attending lynching parties right after church services where they mercilessly cheered as innocent Black men, women and children were tortured and hung from trees - much like the brown, colonized, Jewish man that these white southerners supposedly worshiped just a few hours ago.¹

   
   It shouldn’t surprise us that until very recently, the North American Church has largely remained silent on slavery because the Western Church has an extensive history of being culpable in the globalization and franchising of slavery and its continued effects on racial justice everywhere. And even though ethnocentrism is rampant globally, one could also argue that the sin of white supremacy has strongly undergirded the sins of western colonization and slavery to degrees that ethnocentrism everywhere else has not.

3. The Reformation: As my friend, Dr. Kristen Kobes Du Mez points out in her excellent book Jesus and John Wayne - we are our heroes (my paraphrased version). Evangelical Christians worship the ground of the reformers but so many of the reformers were deeply flawed individuals who separated and prioritized “right belief” over “right living” when the Bible does neither. As far as Jesus, the apostles and the early church were concerned - to not love your neighbour is to not love God. And to spit upon the face of your neighbour is to spit upon the face of God - the one whose image is borne by our neighbours. But as far as the reformers were concerned - abusing and killing your theological enemies with the power of the State was perfectly acceptable because “right belief” supersedes everything else. Now of course - there was lot of good that also came from the Reformation (as I was recently reminded of during a Calvin-focused church history tour of Geneva this summer) but we must also do the hard work of wrestling with the evil the Western Church has inherited and exported from the Reformers.

   
   It shouldn’t surprise us that those who idolize the thought and theology of the Reformers and prioritize them over the liberating thought and theology of Jesus, the apostles and the early church are also people who wrestle with the idea of prioritizing justice for our marginalized neighbours as central to the Christian faith. Barring a few exceptions, their heroes were largely silent on this. So why shouldn’t they be silent too?
   

4. Patriarchy: Even though Patriarchy is rampant everywhere, female church leaders and theologians in the Western Church will tell you that Patriarchy in the Western Church is alive and well. I know quite a few North American male pastors who thought their theologically egalitarian churches were anything but patriarchal - until female pastors and elders in newly elevated leadership roles informed them otherwise from their own experiences. The Western Church must do the hard work of coming to grips with how Patriarchy within western culture has seeped into the walls of the Western Church by shaping its theology and practice.

   
   It shouldn’t surprise us that Christianity in the West is seen as a highly patriarchal religion because of how deeply interwoven the sin of patriarchy is within the Western Church. But if Jesus elevated and empowered women, then so must his Body, the Church.

I’d love to meet you!

Now that I’ve sufficiently prophetically offended everyone, let’s move to some more fun news:

I have a couple of exciting speaking engagements this October that I’d love to see you at!

New Leaf Network’s The Table Conference: I have the honour of serving as the keynote speaker at this inspiring Canadian church leaders’ conference. If you’re a Canadian Christian church leader / theologian / academic and you’re looking for a space to build community and wrestle with the new things that God is doing across Canadian Church, I’d highly recommend this conference. You can join us in Waterloo, ON or Online by registering here.²

Evolving Faith Conference: Later that weekend, I’ll have the joy of speaking at Evolving Faith Conference in Minneapolis, MN. Like the New Leaf Network, I’ve also long admired Evolving Faith and its leaders for their heart for those wrestling with the Christian faith in light of the Western Church’s complicity and participation in many forms of systemic injustices against our marginalized neighbours. I haven’t publicly been announced as a speaker there yet so by being a part of this Substack community, you’re among the first people to hear of this. For my US-based friends who were thinking of attending, I’d love to meet and connect with you there!³

1. Dr. James Cone’s The Cross And The Lynching Tree is the best work of Systematic Theology I have ever read. Highly recommend reading this as soon as you can - if you haven’t already!

2. https://www.newleafnetwork.ca/thetable

3. https://evolvingfaith.com/conference