Social Justice Sunday
Matthew 21:23-32, Philippians 2:1-13
Let’s be clear, there are people who do dreadful, horrific things. People who
mercilessly abuse and compulsively destroy. No sensible person would dispute that
such people should be tracked down by police and locked away to protect the weak
and vulnerable.
And let’s be clear, that most of the people who do dreadful horrific things, who
mercilessly abuse and compulsively destroy, are not locked up. They’re running
companies and countries, they’re parents and priests and politicians. Let’s not kid
ourselves that prisons contain the worst of the worst – they’ve only got the ones
who’ve been caught.
Yet for our comfortable, affluent Australian society, there seems to be something
reassuring about having people locked up. Getting ‘tough on crime’ is a vote-winner,
though it rarely involves getting tough on the crimes of massive polluters or
exploitative bosses. Mandatory detention of asylum seekers is overwhelmingly
supported in this country, even though it costs $113,000 per year per detainee. And
it seems that the Bicentenary gave us such a love for our convict heritage, that we
want as many people as possible to experience it – as the number of people
imprisoned in Australia has been rising faster than the population since 1988.
It seems that we’re quite happy for our governments to spend our tax dollars locking
people up. While there’s been much tedious commentary about $27 million for new
office space for the WA Premier and Cabinet, it seems to pass without comment that
our state government is adding 640 new beds to the prison system at a cost of more
than a million dollars per bed. And all this because, between 2001 and 2009, the
prison population in this state increased by 50%, pushing our prisons well beyond
capacity. In the meantime, prisoners are being double-bunked, leading to an
increase in sexual assault and violence – and limiting access to rehabilitation
programs. $100,000 per year, per prisoner. That’s what it costs to make us feel safe.
And who are these people that are locked up? More than 1 out of 3 is Aboriginal. At
least 1 out of 3 has a diagnosed mental illness, and probably more. 2 out of 3 have
less than functional literacy. 4 out of 5 were unemployed immediately before going
to prison. Of the teenagers in the prison system, more than half are the victims of
child abuse or trauma. Children of prisoners are five times more likely to be
imprisoned themselves.
This is not an excuse for breaking the law. Just being poor, disenfranchised or sick
does not give you the right to commit a crime. But then, neither does being wealthy
and influential – yet those guys seem to avoid prison rather well. You don’t need a
PhD in Sociology to work out that most of our prison population consists of the
most marginalised people in our society. And there are a wide range of evidencebased initiatives which are cheaper and actually reduce crime. The Churches of
Australia, and many others of goodwill, have been clamouring for these initiatives
for decades - drug-courts, restorative justice programs, justice reinvestment and
forensic mental health. We have been advocating loud and long, doing the research,
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lobbying, educating, organising, protesting. And all to no avail. All we see are more
prisons, more prisoners, more crime, more fear.
Today is Social Justice Sunday – an initiative of the National Council of Churches,
who have asked us specifically today to focus on prisoner justice. But what is social
justice? And why do Christians claim to believe in it? And why, in the face of such
opposition, do we persist in seeking justice for least, the last, and the lost?
It’s important to first recognise that giving money to charitable organisations is not,
in and of itself, an act of social justice. If we reduce social justice so that it simply
means donating funds, then we can quickly become complicit in social injustice.
While it is good and right that aid organisations feed the world’s poor – true social
justice would mean that wealth is distributed fairly so that there are no poor. While
it is good and right that people experiencing homelessness, or families breaking
down are cared for – true social justice would see government policy and spending
prioritise such people. And while we rightly support the work of groups who protect
prisoners, asylum seekers, vulnerable children or people with disabilities – we can’t
escape the fact that a just society should do that as a matter of course. But that still
doesn’t explain what social justice is.
Social Justice for Christians is when society and culture, politics and government
are in accord with the Kingdom of God, nothing less. It’s an audacious and, to some,
foolhardy aim. Quite naturally, most of us would rather avoid truly working for
social justice. Why? Because, as Dom Helder Camara said ‘When I feed the poor,
they call me a saint, but when I ask why the poor are hungry, they call me a
communist.’ To stand for the values of the Kingdom of God is an unpopular and
dangerous activity – it did Jesus in, and countless martyrs throughout history.
Equitable distribution of wealth, the gracious application of power, rejection of
violence, deliberate inclusion of all and a preferential treatment of the weak – these
are generally not causes which endear Christians to the rich and powerful.
But, still, why? If we believe in the resurrection of the dead, and judgement, and a
new creation, why don’t we just keep our heads down, pray, and behave, and let
God sort it out?
We could do that, if being a Christian was simply an individual pursuit to gain a
reward in the afterlife, or even a form of personal therapy to provide a happy life
here and now.
But Jesus did not come offering a touchy-feely message of how to feel good about
yourself. That was Oprah. Matthew’s Jesus, in today’s gospel and with unerring
regularity, challenges and confronts the society of his day. In the preceding chapter,
Jesus has overturned the tables in the temple – a money-grubbing , inequitable
system which flouted the religious laws and exploited pious people simply wishing
to offer right worship to God. Then he gets quizzed by the Chief Priests and Elder
about the source of his authority. Their authority comes, supposedly from God – yet
they have conspired with Roman occupying force and sought to profit from the
suffering of God’s people. Jesus lay it on the line to them with the story of the two
sons. The second son says ‘yes, yes’ and does nothing. The first son verbally refuses,
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yet actually does what the Father requests. And then this stinging line: ‘Truly I tell
you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are going into the kingdom of God ahead
of you’.
To follow Jesus, then and now, is not merely to seek personal spiritual
enlightenment, nor to obtain a front-row ticket to eternal delights. To follow Jesus
demands that we are co-workers with him, indeed, that we are his body – listening
and learning, speaking up and protesting, lobbying and liberating until he returns.
There will be breakthroughs and successes, laws changed and slaves set free. One
day in this country we may choose to build communities not prisons, seeking to
restore right relationships rather than punish a few to give the illusion of safety.
Some day we might distribute food and clean water with equity throughout the
earth. Yet whether we succeed or fail, whether we live or die, whether we experience
oppression or liberation – we will not lose hope. Because we will continue to gather
to eat at the table of the Kingdom of God – where ‘at the name of Jesus every knee
should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue should
confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.’
The Lord be with you
The Reverend Chris Bedding is an Anglican priest in the Diocese of Perth,
Western Australia. He is also an actor, director, musician and comedian. His
passions are ministry amongst people in the first third of life, dynamic liturgy
and advocacy for the oppressed.
twitter.com/frchrisbedding
facebook.com/frchrisbedding
Email: [email protected]
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