What God Requires
6 “With what shall I come before the Lord and bow myself before God on high?
Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old?
7 Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil?
Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?”
8 He has told you, O mortal, what is good, and what does the Lord require of you
but to do justice and to love kindness and to walk humbly with your God? [Micah 6:6-8, NRSV]
South Africa moved mountains to get the International Court of Justice to give attention to the Israeli genocidal war on Gaza and to demand immediate cessation of the massacre. The UN knows it, and the world knows it: we must escalate to justice in order to de-escalate a genocide. In Christian mission, do we give voice to God’s demand for justice? A recent Christian event is disturbing for casting doubt on the heart of Christian mission.
But first, a quick look at the reality in the world today. At the end of 2024, the flames of war and violence threaten to engulf us all, serving as a stark reminder of the urgent need for justice. In Europe, the ongoing Ukraine-Russia conflict teeters on the brink of escalation to a nuclear war. In the Middle East, the Israel-Palestine decades-long attrition threatens to sink the Middle-East into a war-torn region with potential to spark a world war if superpowers escalate ally-support. As usual, the USA is the principal enabler of these wars, even as it is bent on stirring up trouble in the South China Sea in the hope of getting China entangled in an Asian war, again far away from the American shore.
In wars, justice takes a back seat. But St John Paull II had insisted that “without justice, there can be no peace”, and in his 1998 World Peace Day message, he reminded the world that “from the justice of each comes peace for all”.
Justice, at its core, entails treating individuals equitably and impartially, regardless of their background, social status, or personal beliefs. Justice is the embodiment of fairness and integrity, promoting equal opportunities and ensuring that every person has access to their basic human rights. Justice protects the fundamental human dignity of every human person.
Peace-seeking is delusional where parties refuse to practise justice. In works of evangelization, we cannot declare Christ in words without displaying Christ in action. So the Christian mission fails if it does not promote justice. And yet, being selective in justice, is not only seen in the political arena that agitates for wars, it is something that sadly plagues Christian missions as well where the justice issue is cleverly covered up by political allegiance or ideological preferences. An incident at the recent 4th Lausanne Movement Congress alerts us to the dangers facing Christian mission.
50 years ago, John Stott headed a movement that promised to serve as a great rallying call to the evangelical Church around the world. The movement gave birth to The Lausanne Covenant which defined what it means to be evangelical, and challenged Christians to work together to make Jesus Christ known throughout the world. At the first Lausanne Movement Congress, Latin American theologian René Padilla gave what was described as “a speech that shook the world” [1]. In his lengthy and challenging message to the church and its work of evangelisation, he quoted in passing from Elton Trueblood:
- “A genuine Gospel will always be concerned with human justice rather than with the mere cultivation of a warm inner glow.”
In September this year, René Padilla’s daughter, Ruth Padilla DeBorst, also a Latin American theologian, missiologist and educator, was invited to speak at the Fourth Lausanne Congress at Incheon, South Korea. The conference brought together more than 5,000 in-person attendees from more than 200 countries. She was the only speaker assigned to speak on “justice”. “On such a complex, far-reaching, broad issue,” she felt “burdened” as to what to cover in 15 minutes of speech-time.
In her 12-page speech, she highlighted myriad injustices, including poverty, gender inequality, discrimination against disabled people, racism, ecological destruction, and war, and she named specific ills including the racial wealth gap in the U.S., sexual harassment and abuse of women, the Global North dumping waste in the Global South, and Israel’s military offensive in Gaza. But the controversy she stirred up came from a couple of sentences in which two things that she said offended some delegates, prompting the congress director to quickly issue an apology. One was her remark on Israel’s military offensive causing deep and widespread injustices in the Middle East, and the other was her negative remarks on dispensationalism.
On Israel’s Injustices
DeBorst’s speech formed part of the session on Recommitment – Calling the global Church toward faithfulness in word and deed. Piecing together the narrative of justice from Genesis to the minor prophets and through the gospels, DeBorst aimed to show her audience that “justice is at the very heart of God and should be at the heart of all God’s people are and do.” In particular, she explored injustices during the time of Micah and compared them to modern-day suffering. Referencing the prophecy in Micah 6:8, she lamented the resemblance in many forms of injustices, and she challenged the Church not to stay silent. Concerning the war in Gaza, she said:
- “There’s no room for indifference toward all who are suffering the scourge of war and violence the world around, the uprooted and beleaguered people of Gaza, the hostages held by both Israel and Hamas and their families, the threatened Palestinians in their own territories, all who are mourning the loss of loved ones. Their pain is our pain.”
On the Theology of Dispensational Eschatology
As part of her remarks, DeBorst highlighted Jesus telling his disciples that love is shown in obedience to God’s Word. But she also criticized what she considers religious ideologies that perpetuate injustice. She insists:
- “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. There’s no room for doubt. God is worshiped not by rights, religious festivities, or even mission activism, all practices that can simply serve as masks, but by ethical obedience. What makes God’s people such are not superficial expressions of religious piety, ‘Christianese’ jargon, worship jingles, or colonialist theologies that justify and finance oppression under the guise of some dispensational eschatology.”
Some in the evangelical audience took issue with DeBorst’s critical tone on Israel’s injustices and blaming violence in the Holy Land on dispensational eschatology.
Dispensationalism is a theological framework that embraces biblical literalism, end-times prophecies, and draws direct parallels between Israel in scripture and the modern state of Israel. It is thus a theological mindset which upholds Christian Zionism, emphasizing that the rapture and Jesus’ “second coming” would not happen until Jewish people had returned to the Holy Land. Understandably, those who subscribe to this theology tend to be insensitive to injustices Israel commits against others.
Concerning Audience Objections
Complaints were lodged with the conference officials who discussed the matter with DeBorst in a private meeting. Two days after the speech, Lausanne Congress Director David Bennett emailed an official apology to all participants, accepting responsibility for not having vetted DeBorst’s speech carefully before hand.
One cannot help but observe that since Hamas’s Oct 7, 2023 raid, many governments in the West have turned increasingly authoritarian in cracking down on speech critical of Israel [3]. More surprising, perhaps, is for Christian churches, and leading organisations within different denominations, to conduct themselves along similar Zionist inspiration, choosing to be selective in their sense and expression of justice.
Israeli Injustices Against the Palestinians Must Be Named
The matter, however, did not stop there. As expected, it stirred up further controversy.
[i] While the official Lausanne’s apology sought to quiet down criticism from some corners, it risked stirring up even greater controversy as participants expressed concerns about the leadership’s selective judgment by singling out these particular issues and ignoring others. They questioned why DeBorst’s but not other comments were deemed offensive and called on participants of such global events to behave like “grown-ups” who can handle robust debates.
Jack Sara, a Palestinian minister and president of Bethlehem Bible College, told Sojourners that DeBorst was clear in her statements that she wanted to see peace in the Holy Land, receiving warm applause and many handshakes for her presentation. So his “heart sunk” when he saw David Bennett’s apology email.
- “David’s apology comes like a nail to a coffin that many evangelicals and [especially] Lausanne had buried the Palestinian Christian voice and plight for just peace in our area. They stabbed the Evangelical church in the back by not hearing them, avoiding them and silencing out voices.”
Tim Adams, General Secretary of the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students, in comments sent to Christian Daily International, wrote:
- “In my view this apology was totally against the ethos of Lausanne.”
- “Within the agreed theological framework of previous Lausanne statements, Lausanne has been a place which brings people together to overcome barriers and unite to serve the Great Commission. My fear is this apology will do more to divide than to unite.”
- “Lausanne is a place for grown-up Christians who can handle robust debate with fellow evangelical believers without throwing their toys out of the pram.”
Valdir Steuernagel, a senior figure in the Laussane movement, spoke up on behalf of Palestinian participants, articulating their anguish of feeling abandoned by the global Church and calling on the Lausanne leadership to take notice – and action. He found Deborst’s presentation one of the most impactful in which “God’s justice was affirmed and the violence of the war in Israel and its thousands of deaths, especially in Gaza, was highlighted.” The event organisers, he opined, “had not paid due attention to the content of the presented text, and there were things that went unnoticed.” Instead, “What was latent surfaced with pain and the force of institutional endorsement. Incredible.”
[ii] In her post-speech interview with Sojourners, DeBorst disclosed that she felt it was important to name the uncritical, unquestioning support that many evangelicals offer to the modern state of Israel, often conflating the nation with the biblical people of Israel. In other words, in Christian mission, she insisted on authentic and faithful expressions of faith and not ‘superficial expressions of religious piety’, empty slogans, or colonialist theologies that justify and finance oppression. She thus insisted:
- “I believe that is a justice issue that evangelicals are particularly responsible for and need to reckon with. Because that allegiance, that commitment, is making people insensitive – to say the least – to the violence that has been perpetrated against Palestinians, both in the West Bank and in Gaza.”
[iii] Approached by Christian Daily International for comment, DeBorst said that God hears the cries of those suffering injustice. Echoing God’s compassion means weeping with the poor and marginalized, whether they be victims of racism, abuse, displacement or other issues. “We weep with all who suffer war the world round. Their pain is our pain.”
Concerning the importance of speaking out on critical issues, she insisted: “Seeking justice is a marker of God’s people and this requires mourning the pain, naming wrongs, repenting for our complicity, and acting in accordance with God’s character through the work of the Holy Spirit.”
Christian mission cannot be selective in justice. She continued by stating, “Truly, the Hamas attack almost a year ago was abhorrent and absolutely reprehensible, and truly people who live in Israel, Jewish, Palestinian and others are being threatened as I write. Their pain is our pain.” Yet, she chose to specifically mention Gaza and Palestinians because she is “convinced that this is a current justice issue in relation to which we, as Christians, have a particular responsibility.” She sees the long “suffering of Palestinians being compounded by the attacks on Gaza since October 7 where over 40,000 people have been killed, many of them, children. Additionally, settler attacks have only increased in the West Bank. Their pain is our pain – or it should be.” She thus asserted that “far too many evangelicals around the world a-critically ‘stand with Israel’, and remain oblivious to the suffering Palestinians. This injustice must be named.”
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End notes:
[1] René Padilla, “Evangelism and the World”, at https://lausanne.org/content/evangelism-and-the-world.
[2] Mitchell Atencio, “A Speech on Justice criticized Israel; the Global Evangelical Conference Apologized”, at https://sojo.net/articles/news/speech-justice-criticized-israel-global-evangelical-conference-apologized#:~:text=After%20all,%20her%20speech%20came%2050%20years%20after%20Ren%C3%A9%20Padilla.
[3] “More authoritarian Western crackdowns on speech critical of Israel,” at https://johnmenadue.com/more-authoritarian-crackdowns-on-speech-thats-critical-of-israel/
[4] “Senior Lausanne figure calls on leadership to publicly acknowledge anguish of Palestinians” at https://www.christiandaily.com/news/lausanne-called-to-acknowledge-anguish-of-palestinians.html
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Copyright © Dr. Jeffrey & Angie Goh, November 2024. All rights reserved.
To comment, email jeffangiegoh@gmail.com.
