Justice?? On Campus

8/4/2006
Location: Providence, Rhode Island

I’ve done a lot of thinking lately about what it means to think about justice/social action/buzz word of choice when on a college campus. I guess I keep thinking its time to start being more innovative or really just more transformative or loving in our actions. What does the word “missions” really mean anyway? I guess people start talking about cross-cultural issues when it comes up. But what does cross-cultural look like on a college campus? Does it mean seeking to stand up for those of a different background or ethnic group or economic class on campus—is that what it looks like practically?
Right now it looks a lot more like creating socially-conscious individuals. But I sit around and think, this isn’t really different. It doesn’t seem to be exactly what Jesus wants from us. I think he wants us to learn to love him and others more. I guess the closer you get to Jesus the more you’re going to love what he loves—people who need help would fit into that category.
But how does this work? I see so many times how we, meaning the “social justice” type Christians just become Christians who read the newspaper. Is it really costly and transformative to think about world issues? Or problems in America, families not having enough money. I think it probably is transformative to start feeling like God does care about these things, and so we probably should too.
However, I am continually struck by the lack of relationship and seemingly real opportunity to love others that are different from us when we go about “social action” in this way. When I read an article about the political issues involved in Darfur, am I loving those people? What about if I send up a prayer about them? Is that enough—now there’s a dangerous question, of course God doesn’t “expect” some count of actions from us.
But what would it look like for us to throw out the term social justice—for one, it alienates about half the Christian community that get scared about the political sound of the word. What would it be like to instead only talk about loving people.
However, that’s just talk—what would it be like to actually enact that love for other people. How can we go about doing missions on a college campus—especially if missions are supposed to inherently be about being cross-cultural.

I feel like I’m really reconsidering the approach of both IJM and Intervarsity to missions in light of so many of the missionaries I’ve met this summer. Many of them dislike the idea of doing “something big,” when we start thinking large-scale always (balance always, large scale is possible sometimes) we start to put the power into ourselves, losing humble, small faithful actions that are everyday. Instead so many of them decide to move into a struggling neighborhood and start doing what they can to love their neighbors and build relationships.

No, I’m not thinking we should all find a struggling neighborhood in Williamsburg and move in. But what would it look like to do missions differently at William and Mary? Does it mean demanding a fair wage for all the workers on campus? Counseling a friend who’s been sexually assaulted?

A speaker at Sojourner’s conference challenged us to stop appealing to people’s intellect or ideas, always going for academic facts or shock statistics or attempting to get people to care off of the “gut reaction” feeling that they should—it’s the right thing to do. She instead said it’s best to go for someone’s heart, when it hits the heart people become passionate on their own. Does only experience do this? A friendship? A short-term mission trip? I’d hate to think it always has to be that way.

God calls us to a different way of life, seeking after Him and his kingdom, isn’t that the point? One group I’ve visited this summer talked about how God’s bringing his kingdom to earth and sometimes we’re lucky enough to get to experience the kingdom coming—almost that we fall into an already moving stream of the holy spirit acting out redemption on earth. “Another world is possible” some say, a way where love is paramount above achievements or advancements for social justice or leveling out the economic situation of the world---and sometimes those two things intersect. I continue to mull over what it would be like to think differently about what it means to act out in love, not just to think about help as an abstract concept.

Comments welcome, this is definitely coming out in mid-digestion mode. Excuse my run-on sentences and half-considered thoughts. Verbal processor at work here.