Civil rights: Faith reflection

“Ah, you who make iniquitous decrees, who write oppressive statutes, to turn aside the needy from justice and to rob the poor of my people of their right, that widows may be your spoil, and that you may make the orphans your prey!” (Isaiah 10:1, 2)

The Gospels clearly portray Christian service as intentionally including those who are marginalized in society; Jesus healed both Jews and Gentiles, those privileged and those oppressed. His generosity extended to each person he came into contact with. He not only helped all those in need, but he did so at the expense of acceptance within society’s privileged systems. One way Jesus highlighted the failures of his society was to include all people in his life and closest circles, despite the consequential rejection by the status quo of his time.

In first century Palestine, the marginalized who Jesus reached out to included, among others, the orphan, the widow and the poor. In the United States today, marginalized women and men include people from communities of all different paths: people of color, women, inmates and ex-offenders, children, single mothers, immigrants…

Christians today are not exempt from systems which privilege and benefit mainline society (mostly white, middle and upper class male citizens), while simultaneously disenfranchising minority communities. In the United States, the majority of our public institutions function within systems which were created during periods of segregation and inequality. Despite the success of previous civil rights movements and legislation, these systems continue to offer greater care and access to some and not others.

As Christians caught in the midst of patterns which discriminate against those Jesus meant to be included, how do we respond to the inequalities of our own society? How do we respond in a way which honors the life of Jesus, thereby offering both complete inclusion for all people and witness to society?

The Book of Isaiah offers one example. The prophet’s expression of God’s frustration with the leaders enacting unjust laws against the marginalized of his own society motivated Isaiah to speak out directly against them. As a community which includes people from both sides of these systems, who do we resemble most from the Biblical narratives? Do we stand with Jesus and Isaiah in denouncing the exclusionary practices of our leaders by either direct speech or prophetic care? Or, are we more similar to the leaders in the narrative, who allowed divisions between people groups to continue?

Photo credit: Colin Mutchler/Wikimedia Commons