The Social Gospel

STAY OUT OF POLITICS!!! WHY SHOULD WE CARE???

"When I was hungry, you gave me food...I was thirsty and you gave me drink...I was a stranger, and you welcomed me..." Matthew 25:31

Over the centuries, our understanding of what that passage means, of what social justice and social sin means, has developed and deepened, changed and challenged.

The early Christian communities expected Christ to come back almost right away, so there wasn't a real big push for social reform right away. But as the Christian community realized that He wasn't coming back right away, and as the social and political situation changed from one in which the Church was persecuted to one in which it was socially acceptable, it grew to understand the Scriptures differently; and it grew to understand that it HAD to be concerned about society as a whole.

They put together a picture of justice from the Scriptures which was based on the fact that, as Genesis said, we are CO-creators WITH God OF creation, which we are to care for and respect. They came to see that, as the Gospel of John and the writings of Paul said, love of God cannot be separated from love of people.

They looked at the Gospel of Luke and understood that Christ had a special concern for the poor, the outcast and the rejected of society. They listened to that passage of Matthew and realized that our eternity is determined by our choices on how well we fed the hungry, clothed the naked, welcomed the stranger (the immigrant), cared about the imprisoned and the victims of poverty and war.

And, gradually, they saw the larger social implications of the Gospel. They shared their things in common and were concerned right from the beginning with the poor, but the development of a social doctrine, i.e., a systematic official teaching position, on the economic and political order of society in relationship to the Gospel took centuries to develop, and still is.

The first systematic approach wasn't really until Pope Leo XIII in 1891 with his encyclical (letter) "On the Condition of Human Labor." That began a series of letters from popes and bishops which formalized a Catholic approach to social issues, social sin and unjust social structures and policies.

The bottom line is that, at our Baptism, we are anointed to be priest, prophet and king... and to live out that prophetic role means that religion is not just a me and God thing, but a me and community thing, whether it's popular or not.

The bottom line is that social justice is not just a concern for social workers... It's a concern for ALL Christians.

"Politics" is all about people. People who live in a community. People with rights and responsibilities. As GOD'S people, WE have a responsibility to work for peace and justice for ALL God's people--through our voice, our vote, our words and our works.

WE care, because CHRIST cares…