M
MillTownCath
Guest
Hey all,
I recently wrote an article in my school’s paper about social justice and the difference between the secular meaning and the spiritual (original) meaning.
Take a look and tell me what you think!
In April of 1967, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. spoke to an audience of clergy and laymen at Riverside Church in New York City, voicing his concerns about the United States’ heavy focus on war and military action while neglecting its own poor.
He said, “A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual doom.” At a time when our legislators fervently debate over budget cuts while our military fights two and a half wars, Dr. King’s 44-year-old message couldn’t be more relevant. What he was speaking about was the need for social justice and the right to equality and dignity for every human being regardless of race, gender or economic status. He inspired innumerable movements and coalitions to carry the fight for social justice into the 21st century.
Unfortunately, the most integral part of his life’s work and message is missing. For Dr. King, his desire to fulfill God’s will and his work for world peace and justice could not be separated, yet God is seldom mentioned in today’s most visible social justice movements. While many on the political left have adopted the term, they’ve forgotten the very core of social justice. The original meaning goes much deeper than the secular version used today. It’s based on the belief that it is our duty to fight for the equality and dignity of all human beings, because we were created in the image and likeness of God, and that makes each one of us sacred. The sanctity of human life is why we are to fight for a living wage, clean working conditions and equal treatment of all.
In a speech he gave in Detroit, Dr. King said, “God loves all of his children, and that all men are made in His image.” Although labor unions and social programs are an indispensable tool of social justice, their end goal is not limited to the empowerment of the lower and middle classes.Rather, it is to fulfill God’s commandment to treat everyone with love and compassion so we may one day live in total communion with each other. Dr. King would not approve of a war among classes any more than he would a world war among nations. The chanting of “eat the rich” has no place in the fight for true social justice. In his last speech before his death in 1968, Dr. King told a crowd at Mason Temple in Memphis, Tenn.: “I just want to do God’s will. And He’s allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I’ve looked over. And I’ve seen the Promised Land.” He wasn’t working for any one race, political party, labor union, or even the entire nation. Rather, he was working on behalf of God.
Without God, the scope of social justice is much more narrow and limited than what Dr. King was after. He once said, “I hope you will allow me to say to you this afternoon that God is not interested merely in the freedom of black men and brown men and yellow men. God is interested in the freedom of the whole human race.” If we want to continue the work of Dr. King into the 21st century, we cannot forget that his mission was centered around his desire to fulfill God’s will. Excluding that drastically changes and limits who and what he was working for.
I recently wrote an article in my school’s paper about social justice and the difference between the secular meaning and the spiritual (original) meaning.
Take a look and tell me what you think!
In April of 1967, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. spoke to an audience of clergy and laymen at Riverside Church in New York City, voicing his concerns about the United States’ heavy focus on war and military action while neglecting its own poor.
He said, “A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual doom.” At a time when our legislators fervently debate over budget cuts while our military fights two and a half wars, Dr. King’s 44-year-old message couldn’t be more relevant. What he was speaking about was the need for social justice and the right to equality and dignity for every human being regardless of race, gender or economic status. He inspired innumerable movements and coalitions to carry the fight for social justice into the 21st century.
Unfortunately, the most integral part of his life’s work and message is missing. For Dr. King, his desire to fulfill God’s will and his work for world peace and justice could not be separated, yet God is seldom mentioned in today’s most visible social justice movements. While many on the political left have adopted the term, they’ve forgotten the very core of social justice. The original meaning goes much deeper than the secular version used today. It’s based on the belief that it is our duty to fight for the equality and dignity of all human beings, because we were created in the image and likeness of God, and that makes each one of us sacred. The sanctity of human life is why we are to fight for a living wage, clean working conditions and equal treatment of all.
In a speech he gave in Detroit, Dr. King said, “God loves all of his children, and that all men are made in His image.” Although labor unions and social programs are an indispensable tool of social justice, their end goal is not limited to the empowerment of the lower and middle classes.Rather, it is to fulfill God’s commandment to treat everyone with love and compassion so we may one day live in total communion with each other. Dr. King would not approve of a war among classes any more than he would a world war among nations. The chanting of “eat the rich” has no place in the fight for true social justice. In his last speech before his death in 1968, Dr. King told a crowd at Mason Temple in Memphis, Tenn.: “I just want to do God’s will. And He’s allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I’ve looked over. And I’ve seen the Promised Land.” He wasn’t working for any one race, political party, labor union, or even the entire nation. Rather, he was working on behalf of God.
Without God, the scope of social justice is much more narrow and limited than what Dr. King was after. He once said, “I hope you will allow me to say to you this afternoon that God is not interested merely in the freedom of black men and brown men and yellow men. God is interested in the freedom of the whole human race.” If we want to continue the work of Dr. King into the 21st century, we cannot forget that his mission was centered around his desire to fulfill God’s will. Excluding that drastically changes and limits who and what he was working for.