Social Justice is very close to my heart; from a very young
age I have felt that it is my duty to call out and fight for the injustices I
see. Early on, hearing the Bible stories
told I came to the understanding that God was just, calling people out on the
“bad.” I heard this in the psalms, the
story of the wise king Solomon and in Jesus’ own words. I remember coming to
the conclusion that not only were God’s commands complicated, they were wrought
with justice issues.
I started my first petition / protest at the age of 5 over
the cafeteria lunches; this led to me packing my own lunches for the rest of my
school career. Although I didn’t get
very far with this, the drive and spirit for change was released and there was
no turning back. In 6th
grade, I fought for a new aid for an Austin child in several of my classes
after observing that her aid was very impatient with her at times. In high school I worked at a soup kitchen and
in college joined Alpha Phi Omega.
Today, I continue to strive to live a life of integrity,
addressing injustice where I see it and working for change. For that reason, I don’t shop at Walmart, I
research companies before I make larger purchases and I am always questioning
the motives of people especially when money and power are involved.
Although being called to ministry wasn’t completely shocking
for me – being called to institutional church was. For me, and most my
generation, institutional church is just one more corrupt power house where
injustice rules freely in guise. And yet
God is a God of justice. I have felt from the beginning of my call that part of my ministry moving forward would be to shed light on the change needed and to work from within to make those changes.
If this is God’s house – God’s church – then why is there so
much wrong with it? Has church itself
become the anti-Christ?
While searching my family history I discovered that my 11th
and 10th grandfathers back were ministers in the Church of Scotland
and the Reformed church tradition in America.
My 10th grandfather back was exiled from Scotland and found
refuge in the US for preaching non-conformist views. So I guess more runs in my family than
expected. And it also reminds us that the problems of the Church are not new to
us in this day and age but indeed have been a long stemming problem of the
Church Universal. These are not new
problems – corruption is not new in the Church (what do you think the
reformation was about?)
So no, Church is not the anti-Christ, no matter how
personally it has hurt you or someone you love or how irresponsible they have
been. And YES we do have to change our
mind-set as to how we perceive Church and our religious community in our
lives.
Our God is a God of justice and wisdom; and our Bible is
wrought with social justice undertones (as well as blanket statements!). So how do we begin to reshape our churches
around Matthew 25 instead of around the buildings that we love? How do we begin to shape our ministries with
the community in mind as appose to our own survival?
How do we incorporate into our worship and daily living the
Spiritual practices of many of our forefathers and mothers in faith? How do we open ourselves to God’s will
instead of trying to control the circumstances for ourselves? But the biggest question of ALL is how do we
CHANGE the current state of our religious organizations – taking them out of
the perception of the anti-Christ – without closing down and starting from starch?
When you have the answer, please share!
When you have the answer, please share!
