Social Justice ...

My small group (we named ourselves Antediluvians because we're all old like ancient history) have been discussing the issue of social justice in the past week. Particularly, we have been focusing on the atrocities that is happening in Northen Uganda and Darfur. I strongly recommend you take the time to read this article and watch this video if you have some spare time.

Through our discussion, this very tough question arose: How should Christians respond to what's happening in Northern Uganda and Darfur?

This is a deceptively complicated question. Everything tells me that there should be a simple answer, but frankly there is not. This problem of social injustice seems to be something too large for us to wrap our mind around, a conflict too big for us to tackle on our own. Sadly, it's all too easy to come to the point of admitting defeat ... asking ourselves whether it is even possible for one person, or a small group of people, to help solve a problem so much bigger than ourselves.

There are the obvious answers, like praying for those who are suffering, raise awareness in our community, pressure our government leaders to actually do something, or donating to aid workers serving out there. These are great first steps, and I am by no means trying to take anything away from prayer or the generous giving, but there seems to be a bigger core problem. In short ... WE ARE THE PROBLEM!

(this is where it switches from answering the question to personal commentary)

It seems to me that one of the main reasons there are so many social problems out there is because we simply don't care enough for others. The truth is that most of us only think about our own welfare 90% of the time, thinking about all the ways that we can make OUR lives better, how we can earn more money, get a bigger house, live more comfortably, have more fun ... etc. This is probably why most people (myself included) are so ignorant of all the problems facing humanity today, we simply don't care enough, we simply don't love enough.

Alright ... I'm going to stop here before my mind starts turning into mush.