There is no shortage of material on the internet that focuses on the social justice roots and message of the Christian faith... Those core teachings which inform the Christian journey towards a world of equality, justice, and freedom that resulted in some of the greatest changes in the world as well that which has been all too easily forgotten by those claiming to be Christians. For my part, these quotes and Biblical passages I will be presenting are not meant to be comprehensive, but instead are those which I personally hold dear and that which provokes and empowers me to act on behalf of social justice.

The Cry for Justice

There are several books of the Bible dedicated almost completely to crying out against the injustice of the world. To me personally, one of the most profound of those is the book of Ecclesiastes. It also happens to be one of the voluminous, which makes it hard to focus in on a specific passage or two. However, there is one that most typify the message of the philosopher who wrote this book:

Then I looked again at all the acts of oppression which were being done under the sun. And behold I saw the tears of the oppressed and that they had no one to comfort them; and on the side of their oppressors was power, but they had no one to comfort them. So I congratulated the dead who are already dead more than the living who are still living. But better off than both of them is the one who has never existed, who has never seen the evil activity that is done under the sun. (Ecclesiastes 4:1-3)

Proclamation of Good News

And [Jesus] came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up; and as was His custom, He entered the synagogue on the Sabbath, and stood up to read. And the book of the prophet Isaiah was handed to Him. And He opened the book and found the place where it was written,
"THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD IS UPON ME,
BECAUSE HE ANOINTED ME TO PREACH THE GOSPEL TO THE POOR.
HE HAS SENT ME TO PROCLAIM RELEASE TO THE CAPTIVES,
AND RECOVERY OF SIGHT TO THE BLIND,
TO SET FREE THOSE WHO ARE OPPRESSED,
TO PROCLAIM THE YEAR OF THE LORD'S FAVOUR."
And He closed the book, gave it back to the attendant and sat down; and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on Him. And He began to say to them, "Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing." (Luke 4:16-21)

It is difficult to pin-point the exact social justice teachings of Jesus, because almost His entire body of teachings and actions are an exhortation and proclamation of social justice. He came to preach the good news to the poor, release to the captives, sight to the blind (physically and spiritually), and freedom to the oppressed, all encapsulated in the year of the Lord's favour: Jubilee. Even His teachings about Himself are tied inexorably with His proclamation of the good news, because He Himself is the good news. He came to save us from our own evil and to usher us into the Kingdom of God: the reconciled way of life in humility, simplicity, justice, peace, and love.

But there is a "Manifesto of the Kingdom", which Archbishop Oscar Romero - an El Salvadoran Catholic priest assassinated for speaking out against the government's treatment of the poor - pointed to in this beautiful statement of defiance and protest: "Even when they call us mad, when they call us subversives and communists and all the epithets they put on us, we know that we only preach the subversive witness of the Beatitudes, which have turned everything upside down."

These Beatitudes, the Manifesto of the Kingdom of God, are found in Matthew 5:3-10:

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
Blessed are the gentle, for they shall inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.
Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

The Call to Action

Nice ideas, but they weren't intended to be kept on paper (indeed, they weren't even originally written down). As Harry Emerson Fosdick, a pastor involved heavily with the Social Gospel Movement in the early half of the 20th century, said: "Whatever else loyalty to the [Bible] may mean, one element must be put first: the spirit and quality of Jesus were meant to be reproduced in his followers. Nothing is Christian which leaves that out or makes that secondary."

And when we don't act, there are terrible terrible consequences. Martin Neimoller was a Lutheran pastor in Germany during World War II, who following the war, tendered this poem to the official body of his church. It is entitled "Declaration of Guilt":

In Germany, the Nazis first came for the Communists,
And I didn't speak up
Because I was not a Communist.
Then they came for the Jews,
And I did not speak up
Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for the Trade Unionists,
And I didn't speak up
Because I wasn't a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for the Catholics,
And I was a Protestant
So I didn't speak up.
Then they came for ME…
By that time
There was no one to speak up for anyone.
To make sure this doesn't happen again, the injustice
To anyone
Anywhere
Must be the concern of
Everyone
Everywhere.

This view was not merely a 20th century invention either. In the Bible, the letter written by one of Jesus earliest followers, James, wrote this call to action: But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror; for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was. But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does... Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world. (James 1:22-25, 27)

Christ Himself acted in ways that would get Him easily slandered in the media, not the least of which being for one provocative incident of civil disobedience. While personally I am not disposed towards civil disobendience, I do not condemn it on the grounds of Jesus' own actions... One fine day, He had seen enough of corruption and commerce and disordered priorities in the Temple in Jerusalem:

And Jesus entered the temple and drove out all those who were buying and selling in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who were selling doves. And He said to them, "It is written, 'MY HOUSE SHALL BE CALLED A HOUSE OF PRAYER'; but you are making it a ROBBERS' DEN." And the blind and the lame came to Him in the temple, and He healed them. But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that He had done, and the children who were shouting in the temple, "Hosanna to the Son of David," they became indignant... (Matthew 21:12-15)

One thing that really strikes me about this full account of the cleansing of the Temple is not merely that it was an act of civil disobendience, but how it was joined in by the lame and the children. After reclaiming the Temple, it seems to almost have taken on the same party-like atmosphere that happens at successful protests in our current day.

Another verse, from the Old Testament, sticks in my head as well, as a sign of exactly how seriously God takes justice. Ezekiel 16:49-50 is notable for explaining why God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah... It wasn't for homosexuality, contrary to popular contention. But this passage does carry a condemnation that should be very sensitive to the ears of those of us living in the 1st World: "Behold, this was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had arrogance, abundant food and careless ease, but she did not help the poor and needy. Thus they were haughty and committed abominations before Me. Therefore I removed them when I saw it."

Boldness in the Face of Fear

Of all the things a Christian is promised, a life of ease is not one of them. In fact, quite consistantly, Jesus warns His followers of the suffering they will endure for the sake of the Kingdom of God. He tells us that many will come against the reconciled and just way of life God wishes us to live... Kings, governments, family members... Deitrich Bonhoeffer, a Lutheran pastor martyred by the Nazis in the Holocaust, observed that when Jesus bids us, He bids us come and die.

Yet with these warnings come hope... The first hope is that God will always be with us. As He suffered and died for right in the person of Jesus, so too will He be with us, strengthening us to suffer and die for His sake.

"Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves; so be shrewd as serpents and innocent as doves. But beware of men, for they will hand you over to the courts and scourge you in their synagogues; and you will even be brought before governors and kings for My sake, as a testimony to them and to the Gentiles. But when they hand you over, do not worry about how or what you are to say; for it will be given you in that hour what you are to say. For it is not you who speak, but it is the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you." (Matthew 10:16-20)

Jesus also ends the Beatitudes with a statement about persecution:

Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me.
Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great; for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you. (Matthew 5:11-12)

We are not alone in our struggles, for Jesus Himself promised to be there when He called us to go out: And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." (Matthew 28:18-20)

Proclamation of God's Victory

The second hope is the knowledge that God has already won! In His manifesto, Jesus proclaims that the meek will inherit the earth, that those who hunger and thirst after righteousness will be filled. When He was killed on the cross for what He taught, all seemed lost. But when He defeated death by ceasing to stay dead, He conquered and defeated the powers of oppression and greed and hate and violence. He and His way won! Even if our living in accordance with the Kingdom of God costs us our lives, we know that it will not have been for nothing: the Kingdom will arrive, God has already won.

"For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth;
And the former things will not be remembered or come to mind.
But be glad and rejoice forever in what I create;
For behold, I create Jerusalem for rejoicing
And her people for gladness.
I will also rejoice in Jerusalem and be glad in My people;
And there will no longer be heard in her
The voice of weeping and the sound of crying.
No longer will there be in it an infant who lives but a few days,
Or an old man who does not live out his days;
For the youth will die at the age of one hundred
And the one who does not reach the age of one hundred
will be thought accursed.
They will build houses and inhabit them;
They will also plant vineyards and eat their fruit.
They will not build and another inhabit,
They will not plant and another eat;
For as the lifetime of a tree, so will be the days of My people,
And My chosen ones will wear out the work of their hands.
They will not labor in vain,
Or bear children for calamity;
For they are the offspring of those blessed by the LORD,
And their descendants with them.
It will also come to pass that before they call, I will answer; and while they are still speaking, I will hear.
The wolf and the lamb will graze together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox; and dust will be the serpent's food. They will do no evil or harm in all My holy mountain," says the LORD. (Isaiah 65:17-25)

There is another beautiful prophecy in the final book of the Bible, Revelation. The true face of global unity, not in the common consumption of goods called globalism, but in the diverse communion of all people before and with God. It is with this vision that I finish this collection of passages and quotes that provoke and empower me to act on behalf of social justice. When I am out in the streets with a plackard, or sitting on the floor in silent vigil, or living the good news through charity and solidarity, this is ultimately the goal for with I am reaching...

After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could count, from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, and palm branches were in their hands; and they cry out with a loud voice, saying, "Salvation to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb." And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures; and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, saying, "Amen, blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might, be to our God forever and ever. Amen." (Revelation 7:9-12)