Social Justice, The True Injustice

According to the recent trend of jumping on board the popular platform of whatever social justice issue is in vogue, I decided to briefly respond with the following:

Tongues Raging,
Guns Blazing,
Humanity at War.

Words Ripping,
Bullets Dripping,
Humanity at War.

Hearts Crying,
Bodies Flying,
Humanity at War.

At surface level this expresses the simple conflict that evidences itself when more than one human being lives in close proximity to another [aka sin]. However, there are a couple of points that I would like to make following a deeper vein of thought.

My initial reaction is to wonder what it takes for a certain social justice issue to make it mainstream. I mean, what precedence do the children being forced into guerrilla slavery in Uganda have over discrimination against aborigines in Australia, the race induced massacres in Eastern Europe or the sex slave market that covers half of the globe? Don’t misunderstand my frustrations. I believe that all these things are issues and that something should be done about them. My frustration comes more from the motivation and agenda behind certain modish social justice issues.

For the sake of example I will use the Invisible Children movement. Before I comment further, let me say that I greatly appreciate Invisible Children and what they are doing, and have even gotten involved with the organization myself. But as I have thought about the movement and my own participation I have had to come to grips with the question, “What is this actually accomplishing?” At first glance the answer is obvious – we are trying to stop the conflict in Uganda. But for those of us who ascribe to the idea of a higher knowledge and order to the universe than the United Nations, the question goes much deeper. In fact, as much as anything else, I think that the recent social justice movements show us the desire and need that our society has for meaning and purpose in life, while pointing out the epistemological absurdity of such behavior. In brief, the un-believer, without Christ, has no reason or basis in and of himself for which to perform any act of benevolence to another human being, and if he does then it is simply satiates the need for fulfillment in life and is ultimately a selfish deed, reflective only of the intellectual absurdity in which the individual is functioning. And so, the believer who wishes to get involved must realize that the only way to truly affect the social climate of the environment in which a particular issue is occurring is to transform the people with the mind of Christ by sharing with them the historically redemptive plan of salvation that God has orchestrated.

This point leads me back to the question of, “What are we actually accomplishing?” Invisible Children is trying to develop social awareness of the situation in Uganda and consequently invoke U.S. governmental pressure upon the state of Uganda to pursue peace talks with the guerrilla rebels. But honestly, what are peace talks going to achieve? Rebel groups don’t want peace anymore more than we want war. They have an agenda and won’t back down until they get what they want – especially when half of their fighting force is comprised of teenagers who have been kidnapped and forced to fight. So then, it seems that the only other viable option is the removal of the rebel group. But in order to do this we must incite and support the kind of conflict we are trying to end, and in doing so will harm the very children we were trying to protect. At this juncture it seems as though there is no solution to the problem. It is not my intention to postulate an answer, except to say that the answer [like everything else] lies ultimately in the realm of theology, and will forever escape the reaches of anthropology.

All that to say that I wonder if war, racism, and poverty are really the social issues we, as the theologically informed, should be worrying about.