Darrow Miller and Friends

Social Justice, Community and Culture: A Final Reflection

Two of the key characteristics of social justice are community and culture.

Social justice and community

As we saw earlier Roman Catholic scholars, Aquinas, Taparali, and Pope Leo IIIX understood that a woman or man does not stand alone; every person is part of a larger community. Because God is Community/Trinity, to be made in the image of God means to be made for relationships, for community. Our health is dependent on the health of the community.

Pastor Gary Skinner of Watoto Church in Kampala, Uganda, is fond of saying “the problems of the city are the problems of the church.” Similarly, Pastor Tim Keller of Redeemer Church says of his church, “a healthy city, a healthy church.” These pastors recognize that the church is not an isolated or internally focused institution. The church exists for others. She is present to serve the needs of the community.

All human institutions—families, businesses, civic institutions, churches, mosques, synagogues—are responsible to promote the good of the larger community, including political and economic justice.

When social justice is reduced to distribution of money, all that is needed is putting a government check in the mail. Help is arm’s-length and impersonal. Relational social justice, by contrast, demands that individuals, families, business, and civic and religious institutions contribute time, talent, and treasure to nurture the flourishing process.

Government has a role to play, guided by an inverse relationship between the size of the government and the level of involvement. The larger the government entitity, the smaller should be its role in the area of social justice.  Voluntary associations have greater responsibility than local government, local government more responsibility than state government, and state government more than national  government.  Perhaps the largest role a national government should have is creating an environment that supports the rule of law and encourages social peace.

In the Old Testament, social justice is known as Shalom – Peace. This peace was bought at exorbitant cost; the grounding of justice is found in the Cross of Christ. We have been justified by grace, calling us to live justly. This is to be done both in our internal and external worlds. Just as holiness is a personal spiritual discipline, justice is a public spiritual discipline.

Justice means right relationships with God, with our fellow citizens, and with the creation. Author, professor and Editor-in-Chief of World Magazine, Marvin Olasky, has said that social justice is “… about human flourishing, the sum total of millions of acts of relational justice.”

In 1831, Alexis de Tocqueville traveled to the United States and observed how radically different America was from his native France and the rest of Europe. He was amazed, for example, by the American penchant for voluntary association. In France, the populace looked to the government to solve their problems. In England, the people depended on the aristocracy. Americans, by contrast, formed voluntary groups to solve their community’s problems.

Social justice and culture

The second reality to understand about social justice is simply this: the root of injustice is cultural, not, economic. Most people think, wrongly, that injustice is rooted in a lack of resources. When people function from the mindset of a closed system, resources are limited, economics is a zero sum proposition and the only way to achieve social justice is to redistribute scarce resources.

But lack of resources is not the main cause of social injustice. The main cause is cultural.

Consider Haiti. The day before the 2010 earthquake, 10,000 mission and relief & development organizations, and tens of thousands of volunteers were working in Haiti. Financial aid was pouring into the country: one billion dollars a year in international aid and three billion dollars in aid from the Haitian Diaspora in the US, Canada, and Europe.

Since the earthquake $1.8 billion in private aid has been sent to Haiti (in addition to plans by the international community to raise $5 billion more.) Haiti was a calamity before the earthquake. Two years after the earthquake Haiti is still a calamity, notwithstanding all the good efforts of private citizens, private voluntary organizations, and the international community. If Haiti’s problem were the lack of resources, she would be a functioning middle-class nation today.

So, why is Haiti poor? Not for lack of Christian outreach. Not only has the nation been inundated with billions of dollars in aid and the help of thousands of organizations, she has also been evangelized. Churches abound. Bible schools and seminaries are training pastors and theologians. If evangelism and church planting were the keys to Haiti’s problems, Haiti would be prospering.

The problem with Haiti is the Voodoo mindset of her people. Our colleague Chris Ampadu recently pointed out that someone described Haiti as 80% Catholic, 20% Protestant and 100% Voodoo. As an animistic worldview, Voodoo does not provide a framework for a family, community, or nation to develop.

Bible schools may teach scripture stories or even the flow of Biblical history. Seminaries may teach theology and denominational distinctives. But unless we break the strongholds of the mind (see 2Cor. 10:4-5), Haiti’s people—Christian and non-Christian alike–will be bound by the mental stronghold of Voodoo. The culture is being shaped by Voodoo rather than by Christ and the biblical worldview that comports with reality.

Most aid organizations seek to mitigate the suffering caused by institutional, moral, and natural evil rather than attack the cultural framework that creates the poverty in the first place. Mission organizations seek to deal with the “spiritual condition” of the Haitian people without realizing that the soul is firmly attached to the body and the gospel needs to have a wholistic reach – all of each person – heart, soul, mind, and strength – and all of their relationships.

Culture is a product of cult (worship). If a people change their worship, say from Voodoo to Christ, a change in culture must follow. Genesis 1: 26-28 is the original Cultural Mandate. Christians and Jews understand that people have been placed on earth to create culture, to take what God has provided and make it flourish. Haiti is waiting for people to have this understanding of life and not the cultural mindset of fatalism and poverty.

The spiritual realm impacts the physical realm through culture. When people come to Christ, their culture is to be reformed. Following that, the laws, structures, and institutions of society need to be rebuilt. Faith rooted in truth must produce godly culture and godly culture must redeem the social, economic, and political institutions of society. This is true social justice.

Such transformation will take more than evangelists and teachers. It will take ordinary Christians who think theologically and/or work from the Judeo-Christian worldview … business people creating a thriving economic order … doctors and nurses increasing the health of the communities … artists and architects bringing beauty into the home, marketplace, and public square … scientists and technicians pushing back the ravages of natural evil (thus preparing Haiti to withstand the next earthquake) … farmers and agriculturalists producing more and healthier food.

We end this series on social justice by quoting Oswald Chambers in My Utmost for His Highest: “Never look for justice in this world, but never cease to give it.”

In a fallen world, we will always face injustice. As Christians we should spend more time extending justice to others and less time demanding justice for ourselves.

–          Darrow Miller

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About 
Darrow is co-founder of the Disciple Nations Alliance and a featured author and teacher. For over 30 years, Darrow has been a popular conference speaker on topics that include Christianity and culture, apologetics, worldview, poverty, and the dignity of women. From 1981 to 2007 Darrow served with Food for the Hungry International (now FH association), and from 1994 as Vice President. Before joining FH, Darrow spent three years on staff at L’Abri Fellowship in Switzerland where he was discipled by Francis Schaeffer. He also served as a student pastor at Northern Arizona University and two years as a pastor of Sherman Street Fellowship in urban Denver, CO. In addition to earning his Master’s degree in Adult Education from Arizona State University, Darrow pursued graduate studies in philosophy, theology, Christian apologetics, biblical studies, and missions in the United States, Israel, and Switzerland. Darrow has authored numerous studies, articles, Bible studies and books, including Discipling Nations: The Power of Truth to Transform Culture (YWAM Publishing, 1998), Nurturing the Nations: Reclaiming the Dignity of Women for Building Healthy Cultures (InterVarsity Press, 2008), LifeWork: A Biblical Theology for What You Do Every Day (YWAM, 2009), Rethinking Social Justice: Restoring Biblical Compassion (YWAM, 2015), and more. These resources along with links to free e-books, podcasts, online training programs and more can be found at Disciple Nations Alliance (https://disciplenations.org).

7 Comments

  1. Jean Madoche Vil

    March 5, 2012 - 4:14 pm

    I am not Believe that; it is false to say that all the population in Haiti Still practice voodoo. The voodoo practice Is a big problem in this poor county; but it’s not true that all haitian people do that!

    • disciplenations

      March 6, 2012 - 3:55 pm

      Dear Jean,

      Thank you for reading and thank you for your comment. I don’t think Chris meant to imply that all Haitians practice voodoo, but that the worldview of Voodoo affects virtually everyone in Haiti. I believe he means that almost the entire population, even most professing Christians, operate with a voodoo mindset. I encourage you to read his entire post, Voodoo: An African Perspective on Haiti’s Poverty.

  2. Chris Ampadu

    March 6, 2012 - 3:23 pm

    Thanks Darrow for this, this is so powerful. As a teacher of sociology and culture, it is so revealing and insightful to see the relationship between social justice, community and culture. Again, you’ve taught me another great lesson. God richly bless you. Chris

  3. Brandon Cox

    March 9, 2012 - 5:32 am

    Awesome article, Darrow! I love the way you’ve contextualized social justice, a term that is sometimes controversial for the wrong reasons.

    Is there any chance you’d allow us to re-publish this on Pastors.com with bio of you and a link back here to the source?

    • disciplenations

      March 9, 2012 - 9:17 am

      Brandon, thanks very much for your reading and comment. Yes, Darrow would be happy for you to repost his remarks. Thanks.

      Gary Brumbelow, blog manager

  4. philomen

    March 10, 2012 - 4:15 pm

    I can tolerate this type of ignorant drivel from Haitians because most of the are uneducated and live in ignorance of how the global economy works. Haitians as a whole maintain a much closer relationship with God than any American I’ve ever encountered. God is part of their everyday life and not just some distant figure they acknowledge on Sundays. Why don’t you pick up a History book or two and learn why Haiti is so poor? Here are a few pointers: the most successful modern slave trade that set the blue print for overpopulation, deforestation and socioeconomic inequality; being forced to pay for their own freedom; multiple trade embargoes; lack of agricultural investment; neocolonialism; globalization; staggering unemployment; a small taxable segment of the population; Bill Clinton’s unfair trade policies; his embargo; well published CIA sponsored coups; an AID industry in charge of spending AID money, and yet constantly pointing the finger at the Haitian government when money is unaccounted for even though the Haitian officials are not the ones actually entrusted with said money. Not to mention charity organizations, especially the “Christians” ones, willing to stoop as low as to make up the vilest stories just to get people to open their wallets and media that misrepresent every aspect of Haitian culture in order to entertain the public, making it impossible to attract investors. No, human sacrifice, cannibalism and orgies are not part of neither Voodoo nor Haitian culture. Contrary to what is being spread, Voodoo is a minority religion in Haiti. Most Haitian neither practice or know much about it. It’s mainly foreigners who are obsessed with it. Voodoo principles are based on honoring God through your relationship with others. If you venture into the Haitian country side, where Voodoo is practiced at higher rates than in the cities, you will meet some of the most dignified, honest and generous people you have ever met. If anything Voodoo teaches respect for human life and religious tolerance. I’ve never heard of a Voodoo practitioner physically attacking a Christian for not abiding to his religious belief, but the reverse does occur. This constant demonizing of the Haitian spiritual character only leads to mass hysteria with Haitians equating poverty with sin and locking themselves in churches for weeks with no food or water praying for forgiveness for imaginary sins. To Haitians of all faith reading this post: you are good enough. You don’t have to wake up a 4am everyday to chase the Devil. Don’t let those armchair anthropologists make you feel like evil heathens. Just because they live more affluent lives than you, does not mean they are morally superior, it just makes it easier for them to pass judgment. Your culture has value. Don’t let them take away your dignity.

  5. Chris Ampadu

    March 14, 2012 - 3:40 pm

    Dear philomen,

    Please let us not be emotional about issues of Haiti. The reality is that many are suffering, many are dying from hunger and poverty, unemployment stares at your face everywhere and atrocities abound in may places of the Haitian society. It is not only about honoring God, when you come to Africa and Ghana in particular, God is mentioned in everything and churches are full on Sundays and nobody can dispute that Africans are religious. Does that make us godly? But the reality is that poverty, hunger and deprivations abound everywhere, why? What and who account for the billions that have been put into the Haitian economy? What about the numerous investments that have been made into Haiti. Why is corruption everywhere in Haiti? Are godly people corrupt and greedy? We are talking about the deep belief systems of the people which determines the culture, principles and behavior of the people that also determines either the prosperity or poverty of a people or society. We need to take very critical look at the people and the Haitian beliefs and life before we can draw conclusions please..

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