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Christianity Today Declares EPH Churches for Justice
"Now evangelicals, left, center, and right agree that social justice is one of the central callings of all Christians. Thirty years ago, only a frustrated minority … thought so." So writes Joel Carpenter in the December 2003 issue of Christianity Today. Carpenter credits the Chicago Declaration of 1973 (see be;ow) for influencing the evangelical church. But also he states a "surprise" of social action by fundamentalists and Pentecostals/charismatics (Moral Majority and Christian Coalition). Finally, Carpenter credits the long time listening and learning of Ron Sider's "diplomatic approach" toward "evangelical's renewed passion for social justice." We can hail this change in the last thirty years. Now, EPH churches need to recognize faith-based community organizing as a valid and effective witness to social justice. --------------------------------------------------------- Evangelical Social Concern As evangelical Christians committed to the Lord Jesus Christ and the full authority of the Word of God, we affirm that God lays total claim upon the lives of his people. We cannot, therefore, separate our lives from the situation in which God has placed us in the United States and the world. We confess that we have not acknowledged the complete claim of God on our lives. We acknowledge that God requires love. But we have not demonstrated the love of God to those suffering social abuses. We acknowledge that God requires justice. But we have not proclaimed or demonstrated his justice to an unjust American society. Although the Lord calls us to defend the social and economic rights of the poor and oppressed, we have mostly remained silent. We deplore the historic involvement of the church in America with racism and the conspicuous responsibility of the evangelical community for perpetuating the personal attitudes and institutional structures that have divided the body of Christ along color lines. Further, we have failed to condemn the exploitation of racism at home and abroad by our economic system. We affirm that God abounds in mercy and that he forgives all who repent and turn from their sins. So we call our fellow evangelical Christians to demonstrate repentance in a Christian discipleship that confronts the social and political injustice of our nation. We must attack the materialism of our culture and the maldistribution of the nation's wealth and services. We recognize that as a nation we play a crucial role in the imbalance and injustice of international trade and development. Before God and a billion hungry neighbors, we must rethink our values regarding our present standard of living and promote a more just acquisition and distribution of the world's resources. We acknowledge our Christian responsibilities of citizenship. Therefore, we must challenge the misplaced trust of the nation in economic and military might - a proud trust that promotes a national pathology of war and violence which victimizes our neighbors at home and abroad. We must resist the temptation to make the nation and its institutions objects of near-religious loyalty. We acknowledge that we have encouraged men to prideful domination and women to irresponsible passivity. So we call both men and women to mutual submission and active discipleship. We proclaim no new gospel, but the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ who, through the power of the Holy Spirit, frees people from sin so that they might praise God through works of righteousness. By this declaration, we endorse no political ideology or party, but call our nation's leaders and people to that righteousness which exalts a nation. We make this declaration in the biblical hope that Christ is coming to consummate the Kingdom and we accept his claim on our total discipleship until he comes. November 25, 1973, Chicago, Illinois Return to Homepage |
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