Reviews of Return to Justice and Advocating for Justice.

In 2016, two fine, must-read books have appeared, Return to Justice and Advocating for Justice, by excellent evangelical scholars.  Both books are strongest on historical and current evangelical efforts to do justice; Advocating for Justice devotes three chapters to establishing a biblical foundation for advocacy. power, powers, and  the role of the Trinity.  I highly recommend that you carefully read both books.

But, strangely, I am deeply disappointed by both books.  Neither book provides a clear and concise definition of the essence of biblical justice.  Neither book attempts to 'rejusticize' the English NT.  Neither book provides clarity on the nature of the NT kingdom of God.  Chaos continues to reign in evangelical circles about the essence of the kingdom even though Jesus began his ministry by stating, "Repent, for the kingdom of God is near/here."

So, on the one hand, I agree with Miriam Adeney who writes: "This stellar book [Advocating for Justice] asserts that evangelicals are anemic with regard to structural evil.  We don't know how to think about power, so we settle for strategies that are too simple.  Yet we are animated by the God who both creates and conquers powers.  Clear, orderly, theoretically rich, theologically vibrant, and full of examples, this book is a must-read."

On the other hand, all five authors are white and it shows in the text and bibliography.  In this day and age, in a book centered on ministry to the poor and oppressed, this is an unpardonable sin.  Fortunately, Return to Justice has an ethnic author and features ministries of John Perkins and Tom Skinner.  More on the lack of ethnic diversity later in the review.

First, some excerpts from Advocating for Justice:

"Misuse of power [oppression] either causes or perpetuates the poverty at hand."

The heart of the book is a "theology of advocacy."  "Structural issues lie at the root of reflective engagement with poverty."

Purpose of book:  "we define evangelical transformational advocacy as intentional acts of witness by the body of Christ that hold people and institutions accountable for creating, implementing, and sustaining just and good policies and practices geared toward the flourishing of society.  Transformational advocacy challenges injustice and obstacles to human flourishing at whatever level it is practiced by humbly engaging with people who can address the wrong, trusting God's Spirit to change all those involved as well as the institutions involved."

"We believe that evangelicals have not developed a sufficient theological and theoretical base in which to ground their advocacy efforts."  And they still haven't.

From a footnote on page 57:  "History reveals that whenever a people compromise their view of God, society unravels into a horrid tangle of ever-increasing distortions.  Brueggemann explains, 'The much greater and more pervasive problem in ancient Israel is not a refusal to speak of Yahweh . . . but the temptation to engage in wrong speech about Yahweh, which amounts to idolatry.  In that ancient community, as even now, idolatry rather than atheism (refusal to speak about God) is the more compelling and dangerous issue.'"  This is a tragically accurate analysis of modern American evangelicalism which far too often easily blends God-talk with religious ethnocentrism and economic oppression.

Page 68 has a good but far too brief discussion of the kingdom of God.  Need a whole chapter on the kingdom or better yet the Spirit and the kingdom (see Acts 1:1-8).

The first sentence of the book Advocating for Justice might be the importance sentence in the book both for what it said and for what it didn't say.   The sentence from Ackknowlegements reads:  "The authors of this book are a diverse bunch. . . .  scholar and practitioner. . . .  different churches in different denominations. . . . different faith and life experiences."  But missing is any mention of any ethnic or racial diversity; this is because all the authors are white.  Whiteness---white superiority and white privilege---profoundly affects what a person sees and doesn't see, the questions a person asks the Scripture and doesn't ask the Scripture.

I know this from personal experience; it took 35 years living in the black ghetto, years of mentoring by Tom Skinner and John Perkins, before I began to understanding the extensive biblical teaching on socioeconomic oppression and social justice, before I began to grasp the central importance of the kingdom of God, before I prayed a Daniel 9 type prayer for our nation, before I understood and began to apply a Nehemiah 5 repentance, restitution and repair gospel, before I discovered the Messianic passages from Isaiah, before I understood Luke 4:18-30 as central to the kingdom.

When there is no mention of James Cone, Tom Skinner, John Perkins and Jim Wallis nor Michelle Alexander, I know the authors are prisoners of narrow white scholarship, as good as it might be in some ways.

Fortunately, Return to Justice corrects some of these weaknesses.  One author is an ethnic person; the ministries of two black evangelicals, John Perkins and Tom Skinner are highlighted.  So both books should be read at the same time.

From the Introduction of Return to Justice:

"Evangelicals have come a long way in their pursuit of justice, but we also have a long way to go. . . .  It is much harder to advocate for a cause that calls for personal repentance than one that only requires fighting a common enemy.  This book is a call not only to admiringly emulate leaders of the past but also to critically reform the work that they have courageously begun."

From the chapter on World Vision:

"Too often when successful church planters, authors, or college graduates discover 'a heart for justice,' they assume that doing justice is straightforward.  If they've been successful in other areas, they reason, surely it can't be that hard to help the poor.  So they spring into action, armed only with good intentions and zeal---and often as not cause more harm than good."

"If we want to do justice, we must deeply study injustice [something few white evangelicals have done] with the same commitment we give to other spiritual disciplines.  For today's evangelicals, this often means investing long, hard hours studying the reality that (in) justice is structural."

"Doing justice is also complicated [and complex] because we ourselves are a part of the injustice. . . . But doing justice always involves repentance [and restitution and repair.]"

"The FTL's rereading of the Bible's teaching on justice and mission from the context of pervasive Latin American poverty and oppression was just what was needed at a time when individualism, racism, and materialism often went unchallenged in pulpits across the United States."

Social Repentance Required BEFORE Advocacy

Evangelicals have always emphasized a personal sin, personal repentance, personal conversion gospel, but they have not understood the need for social repentance---repentance regarding social evil, social ethnocentrism, social oppression.  When Jesus in Mark 1:15 said "Repent, for the kingdom of God is near/here," I think he was referring primarily to social repentance---economic oppression and religiously legitimated ethnocentrism (see Luke 4:18-30).

BEFORE a person or a church begins a ministry of advocacy, they need to see if the church measures up to a biblical checklist.  For more details, see my blog "Kingdom Revolution"  And you should also read the chapter on repentance in America's Original Sin.

Based both on personal experience and 90 years of observation of white evangelicals, I think that most, if not all, need a second conversion---a social conversion that comes to grips with the horror of oppression and then moves on to a passionate pursuit of justice.

After this social conversion, the following questions should be addressed in your church:

1.  Have you identified and renounced any form of white superiority and white privilege?

2.  Are you bearing the fruits of repentance such as giving generously to the poor (see Acts 4:32-35)?

3.  Are you at least aware of racial profiling and unjust mass incarceration in your city or state?  If not, read The New Jim Crow.

4.  Are you at least aware of the large racial wealth gap?  If not, read The Hidden Cost of Being African American.

See my next blog "Kingdom Revolution" for ideas that should be added to both books.