Many Christians are tired of hearing about social justice issues. They don’t want to hear about racism, sexism, homophobia, or police brutality. They don’t want to hear about what we should do collectively to empower the disenfranchised and level the proverbial playing field. Some churches even have “anti-wokeness” campaigns. We saw a multimillion dollar campaign demonstrating this during this year’s Super Bowl with the “He Gets Us” ad. They want to keep wokeness out of their pulpits – whatever that means. They don’t want to hear about “the least of these.” They want preachers to “stick to the gospel!” If you’re active on social media like me, you see these theological battles daily. People are very opinionated about the focus of churches and preachers. Some pastors have even shared with me negative comments from their congregants about sermon topics. Many congregants want the pastor to focus on personal piety and not keep talking about world issues. In many cases, these strong opinions and reactions are rooted in a lack of understanding about scripture.
An example of some believers disagreeing with the social justice focus of churches is the “He Gets Us” ads launched during this year’s Super Bowl. I believe the people behind the “He Gets Us” ads have good intentions. However, they want peace, revival, and unity in the United States without justice. The ad is also insulting to those who participated in one of the largest, if not largest, nonviolent movements in U.S. history, the Civil Rights Movement. Although great strides were made, we still have a long way to go. We will not see peace, revival, and unity in the church without justice. Amos 5:23-24 (NRSV) says, “Take away from me the noise of your songs; I will not listen to the melody of your harps. But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.” Confusion about what Jesus calls us to do as believers and downright bad theology are major hindrances to missional alignment. How can a body of believers come into alignment about the church’s mission if they can’t agree on what the Bible requires of us? The answer is they can’t. How can two walk together unless they agree?
When discussing the church’s focus and missional alignment, I believe many pastors should begin with biblical literacy. They should begin with extensive teaching so that parishioners will not fall victim to politically-motivated dogwhistles wrapped in bad theology. Many believers need to see that social justice is not in conflict with the Bible and personal piety. It’s also not “either/or,” but “both/and.” I believe that if we undergird our ministries with sound theology through teaching, we can alleviate some of the conflict we’re seeing in our congregations.