Social Justice

Another late, late night (4:30 am). This is becoming the norm when getting together with members of the House to talk, especially when my buddy Matt and I get together (the other pastor). Last night we met with Mac at a 24 hour restaraunt to start talking about the teaching side of things at House gatherings. We are now starting to realize the need for more structure and planning in our meetings as we tend to wander off quite easily. Not that it's a bad thing, we actually have quite meaningful converstaions about theology et al, but we do need to get things accomplished from time to time.

We ended up talking about the documentary The Corporation and what the Christian response to the whole thing should be. It's quite an interesting film that really opens your eyes to the entire system of corporate ownership and the lack of social justice propagated by that system. As with most documentaries (Michael Moore springs to mind) The Corporation is fairly one-sided, illustrating the evils of corporate America while overlooking any resposibility on the part of consumers. It's easy to point at Wal-Mart sweatshops and cry "injustice", but the fact remains that people want cheap goods. Nevertheless, the film really portrays a lot of the hidden evils in corporations that most of us don't see.

So where does that leave us as Christians? Can I sit back and say, "Well, we will always have the poor anyway" or "The world is a sinful place so there's no hope?" Or do we have an obligation to stand up and oppose the injustices, not just against poorer countries, but also against the environment.

Just some thoughts.