Responding to injustice

In the last year, many people have been contacting me, asking advice about how to respond to injustice.

Some have asked about racism, or classism, others have asked about or even shared their experience of abuse in the church.

Let that last phrase sink in: ‘shared their experience of abuse in the church.’ I don’t take that lightly, firstly, that people (like myself) have experienced abuse in the church, and secondly, that many have not had a safe person to tell this abuse to. The sad reality is that for years, people have been carrying the scars of injustice, and wondering why the church isn’t doing something radical to stop injustice in its own midst.

Yet, in the above paragraph, there’s also a glimmer of hope; it’s in the people asking for advice. People who are realising that our training and structures have not equipped us for dealing with trauma and injustice. And I think the Bible gives a very direct answer:

Learn to do right; seek justice.
Defend the oppressed (Isa.1:17).

God wants us to learn to do right, so that we can then do justice and defend the oppressed. As E. J. Young said of this verse: ‘To do well was something new to them, something that had to be learned. As Calvin puts it, the people are like scholars who had not even learned their first lesson. The nation is to become skilled in doing well, just as at present it is skilled in doing evil. From whom were the people to learn this lesson? Certainly not from themselves, but from God, who is the only true Teacher of well-doing.’

And we have to admit that, in the last year, some might think the church has been more skilled in abuse, racism, classism, and misogyny, than in justice. The writing on the wall has said: ‘Ravi, Smyth, Fletcher, Timmis, Panorama’s Is the Church Racist?, etc.’

So we need a new skill set that moves in the opposite direction, and we’re not going to learn this from our usual outlets that have shaped our present predicament.

Most of us in leadership have been trained in a leader-centric way that protects ourselves and our organisations above the sheep who are under our care. Our very concept of shepherd has been corrupted, so we need to listen to fresh voices to help us learn to be like the true Shepherd.

So, to anyone asking ‘what should we do right now?’, I recommend we take time to ‘learn to do right’, from outside the usual voices: Firstly, let’s listen to the survivors, and make it safe for them to speak. Secondly, let’s listen to those who have a track record of speaking up against abusive cultures, with the research to back it: here are some books I’d recommend as a good starting point:

• Diane Langberg’s Power Redeemed to understand power, abuse and structures.

• Wade Mullen’s Something’s Not Right to understand what unhealthy structures say and do.

• Rachael Denhollander’s What Is a Girl Worth? for insight into what survivors and whistleblowers go through.

• Chuck DeGroat’s When Narcissism comes to Church to help us avoid narcissism.

• Scott McKnight and Laura Barringer’s A Church called Tov to think about healthier church cultures.

• Lee Furney’s blog soulinformation.org

• And the upcoming Church as a Refuge conference 25–26 June.

And as we learn, let us also act (as the recent Thirtyone:eight report has advised us), and let us

Wash and make yourselves clean.
Take your evil deeds out of my sight;
stop doing wrong (Isa.1:16).