New book recommendation: The Justice Project
Edited by Brian McLaren, Elisa Padilla, and Ashley Bunting Seeber, is a eye-opening follow-up to The Emergent Manifesto of Hope. It continues the theme of approaching a topic, Justice, from an array of voices. While there were notables such as Tony Jones, Doug Pagitt, Peggy Campolo, and Lynne Hybels, the book mostly consisted of names I’d never heard of, activists working to challenge the status quo from their niches
It was that broad range of experiences that drew me in. A chapter by Peggy Campolo challenged me with a story of a gay-affirming church here in Arkansas, as well as challenging the typical notion of what “Biblical family values” really are. Her son Bart explained why campaign finance reform might just be the most important political “Justice” issue out there. One writer told of her experience in a barely post-Civil Rights black church, which looked up to MLK, Jr. they way we look up to Jesus, and this backed up nicely to stories from South Africa where white anti-Apartheid advocates feared the suspicious, “accidentally” fatal car incidents with cops. Then a description of Just Conservatism and Just Liberalism. Samir Selmanovic, author of the newly released It’s Really All About God: Reflections of a Muslim Atheist Jewish Christian has a provocative piece on decolonizing God’s name.
Particular sections where particularly biting. The entire book was absolutely replete with Scripture. An early chapter asks if capitalism can be just. Has there ever been an economic system that paradoxically produced more good while at the same time producing such imbalance of wealth? A definition of justice is in order, given that we have to decide whether Justice is distributive or redistributive; is Justice starting where we all are and going from there, or is it inherently redistributing and hence imbalanced against those who start off with more. The West has traditionally ran with the former while the Tanak inarguably aims at the latter. The question is whether or not a capitalistic system which, while creating a great deal of good, inevitably creates inequality is a redemptive system. That takes it pretty far, maybe beyond what I am comfortable with, but it does strike me as true that there will be no room for any inequality in God’s economy.
Then cut to a discussion on immigration reform in which a Latino writer recounts a discussion with a friend. One asks the other if he also carries his ID with him in his sock whenever he leaves the house so much as just to jog. It’s a world I cannot imagine, where naturalized citizens of the US live in fear of illegal deportation because of the stories they heard about the unlucky neighbor who forgot his drivers license when jogging. That neighbor is picked up, presumed illegal, detained and/or deported away from his family. The author barely has to imply the Scriptures that call for lavish welcoming of the squatter immigrants among us. It challenged me because I know we need serious immigration reform and laws to guide us. But I also know that Scripture holds up this ideal for sheltering the alien that many of us consider simply too idealistic. Maybe it is, but it is Just.
Just ecology. Just land. Just business. Justice in the slums. Justice in the suburbs. Just parenting. Just Trade. Just church-planting. Justice in religion. Justice in racial issues. Just elections. Just family values. Prophetic Justice.
This is one of those books that has perspectives that anyone but the most hardened ideologue will have their heart melted by. I’m really encouraged to see the awakening of much of the church to the Biblical primacy of Justice as integral to the Gospel. The church’s Justice awakening has gained such a tide that there is even now a resistance to it by Christians who feel we should drop such emphasis on Justice and “get back to Jesus.” The Justice Project is one of those books that reminds me why that perspective isn’t much good news at all. It’s got a perspective to unsettle, teach, encourage, anger, and give hope to anyone.
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