Micah 6:8 and Why It Is Not Enough to be a Social Justice Christian

Recently a couple of New Brunswick news websites posted articles about panhandling in two of the province’s cities.  The public posted widely in the comments section of one of these sites.  I have been persuaded, but likely not in the way some of the posters intended.  The posters convinced me that being Social Justice Christians is not enough.  We must also be Compassionate Merciful Christians. 

Business organizations in a pair of New Brunswick cities have been raising the issue of panhandling.  They are encouraging people to not give to panhandlers in an effort to prevent “aggressive” panhandlers from bothering people.  I disagree with most of what they said, but I respect that they put their names behind the statements.  Debate can therefore flourish. (You can read the news articles here and here.)[1]

Many people agree with the stance taken by the organizations.  This agreement doesn’t concern me too much.  Debate is good and necessary when creating public policy and I would be surprised if I am right 100% of the time.  It is good to have someone around willing to say to me, “Easy big fella.  Let’s scale that back a bit.”  What does concern me is when people call panhandlers (or any other marginalized group) bums and assume they are lazy.  Neither of the organizations said these things.  I commend their respectfulness.  Some of the (anonymous) public commentators did use this language, though.

But what about those few times when the statements are right?  For the sake of a good argument, let’s set the facts aside.  We will pretend that the statement “panhandlers are lazy” is universally and always correct.  

In this thought experiment, what are we to do?  Let’s pretend that all panhandlers are bums and that panhandling exists only as a result of laziness.  If panhandlers are lazy bums, is it right for people to call them that?  

As a Christian, I believe in forgiveness.  Being forgiving is not touchy-feely.  Being forgiving is hard.  Being forgiving is not natural to us.  Being forgiving takes effort.  Being forgiving sets aside the moral high ground that comes with being right.  Being forgiving kind of sucks.  Forgiveness is a high, if irritating, calling that I, along with all other Christians, am obliged to keep.[2]

For Christians, forgiveness should be the response when we hear, “Hey, you got any change?”  In this way, we can serve as an example that we hope the rest of society will imitate.  What does being forgiving mean in this context?  I don’t know the entire answer, but it will likely include not judging the person from afar, not ignoring pleas for help, and forgiving over and over and over and over again.  It definitely does not include the phrase “lazy bum.”

I want to turn to a few scripture passages.  They will be useful to recall when we finish this experiment.  All three suggest what I think is a normative course for Jesus’ followers in the real world.  

The first comes from the Gospel of John.  The Pharisees bring a woman caught in adultery to Jesus.  The Law says that the penalty for adultery is death.  Jesus says to go ahead and stone her, assuming that the man who hasn’t sinned throws the first rock.  The Pharisees slink away.  The guilty woman stands alone with the man who hasn’t sinned, the man who can throw the first rock, the man who refuses to do so.  The man, Jesus, is blunt.  “I don’t condemn you,” he says.  “Go and sin no more.”[3]

The second passage comes from the Gospel of Matthew.  Peter asks Jesus how many times he has to forgive someone.  Jesus says 7x70 times.  This doesn’t mean picking up a rock and being ready for Sin #491.  Four-hundred-and-ninety is a big and specific number.  Keeping that tally would be onerous.  My guess is that Jesus was symbolically saying, “Forgive always.”[4]

The final passage comes from 2 Thessalonians.  Paul makes a simple statement:  Those unwilling to work will not get to eat (NLT).  Does this justify ignoring panhandlers or calling them names?  Unlikely.  Paul’s statement is part of a lesson he is teaching.  First, he makes a rule that he applies to himself and his partners.  Second, he tells others to imitate his rule.  Third, he tells others to work instead of being nosey.  Paul never says, “Ignore people who ask for help.”  Nor does anything he says negate Jesus’ repeated calls to be a forgiving people.  Paul’s endorsement of hard work does not endorse responding to “Hey buddy, got a quarter?” with loathing and condemnation.  He concludes his lesson by telling his readers not to treat those unwilling to work as enemies.[5]

Let’s step back into the real world, carrying these lessons with us.  We are back to the place where we actually live and I am actually a Christian.  Back to the place to which scripture actually speaks.  Back to the place where panhandling is a symptom of homelessness, lack of education, disability or other health issues, mental illness, and addiction.  Back to here and now.[6]

The real world requires clarity, so I will be clear.  I want social justice to happen and I want it to happen right now.  

Justice demands that the community see panhandling as a problem, but as a problem for the panhandlers instead of for people of whom panhandlers ask for change.  To those who want justice, panhandling screams the need to address housing, education, health-care, addiction, and mental-health issues.  With justice, panhandling will not be as much of a problem.

I’m not naive.  I know that panhandling will still exist to some degree alongside a just way of addressing panhandling.  At that point – and only that point – we can go ahead and suggest that its cause is personal fault.  How do we respond to the few that are lazy, at least as Christians?  We start by not condemning.  We then continue to not condemn over and over and over again.  We conclude, not by ignoring requests for a quarter, but instead by serving and always serving, until repentance happens.  That is what the sister or brother Paul talks about in 2 Thessalonians would do and that is how we are supposed to behave.

Micah 6:8 tells us what God expects of those who claim to follow him.  Be just, be merciful, and be humble.  Social justice is trendy right now, but it only meets a third of God’s expectation.  It is not enough to be Social Justice Christians.  We need to be Merciful Compassionate Christians as well.

Merciful Compassionate Christians must demand more than justice.  Merciful Compassionate Christians must also explain the sinfulness in statements like, “Sod off, you lazy bum.”  Then we need to show an alternative approach.

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[1]Reading about panhandling is what got me to thinking about being a Merciful Compassionate Christian, I don’t want to present myself as an expert on panhandling.  For an excellent commentary about how to address panhandling, please see this article published on their website by the Fredericton organization Community Action Group on Homelessness.

[2] Especially if I want God to forgive me. 

[3] The entire account, without my paraphrase, is here.

[4] The account is here. 

[5] The entirety of what Paul wrote on the subject is in 2Thessalonians 3:6-15.  To be fair, I haven’t seen anyone use what I’ll call the No Work, No Eat, It’s In the Bible argument relative to the panhandling debate going on in New Brunswick right now.  I have seen it used in similar contexts, so I expect that it is fair to bring up now.

[6] The article mentioned above provides this list.  I can’t recommend the article enough.  It specifically deals with panhandling, outlining why deterrents to panhandling rarely work and suggesting why housing first is a viable way to address panhandling. 

This post originally appeared on my former blog ajdickinson.blogspot.ca. The date stamp is for the date of the original posting.