Book by Thaddeus J. Williams // Review by Lloyd Robertson
I don’t know when I first realized that race and justice were “issues” that Christians had to deal with. There were a few African-American students in the small private Christian school I attended. I didn’t think much of it. If there were minorities that attended the churches I grew up in – I don’t remember them. I saw my father become visibly uncomfortable when another man from church used a racial slur and saw them talking later but I didn’t really grasp what was going on.
When I was in high school we attended my older sister’s graduation from Wheaton College. As part of the commencement ceremony the school awarded an honorary doctorate to John Perkins. I remember being impressed with the ovation he received from the very large crowd. Who was this man and what had he done that had earned the esteem of the crowd?
I grew up in the suburbs of Washington D.C. -- one of the most diverse areas in the nation. When we were first married we had a neighbor who was a Vice Principal at a middle school. He told us they hung a flag in the cafeteria for each country represented in the student body. They hung 41 flags. There were some exceptions, but the churches I attended did not reflect the diversity of the area.
The church we attended in Minnesota was explicitly devoted to racial reconciliation. It was part of their written goals for the body and one Sunday each January the service and the sermon was explicitly devoted to the topic. That emphasis affected my thinking. My default position had been “people will go to where they feel comfortable”. I was challenged to see the church in a new way -- as a place where God’s kingdom is showcased. A distinctive feature of God’s kingdom was that the “natural” ways we organize ourselves should be replaced to reflect God’s priorities and his purpose of creating for Himself a new people from various peoples in the world. Jesus shed his blood to accomplish this. In a candid conversation with one of the leaders of the church he confessed that he didn’t think they had been very successful. Perhaps. But while the effort may not have changed the make-up of the church body, it did put something on my radar that hadn’t been there before.
When we moved to Mississippi, the meaning of diversity changed. It became a shorthand for referring to blacks and whites. The awareness and awkwardness of racial differences was prominent in a way I had not experienced in the D.C. area or our time in Minnesota. Race, slavery, injustice hung in the air like humidity in August. We were glad to be a part of a racially diverse congregation in Jackson. The pastor was African-American 25-30 percent of the congregation was as well. The relationships we developed were sweet and endure to this day. Two of our daughters were married there – one to an African-American.
Of course, racial tensions and cries for justice are prominent now. But my heart does not rejoice at these developments. Instead, I confess to a certain weariness. The issues are so deep, so complex, and so jumbled together. Much of what flies under the banner of justice – even from some Christians -- seems so destructive. Having been through so many of these awkward painful conversations, the temptation (for me) is to just quietly walk away.
But if I take my Bible seriously, that simply isn’t an option. Jesus began his public ministry by going to the synagogue, taking a scroll “and [finding] the place where it was written, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. And he began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” (Luke 4:17-21) And consider this passage from Micah: “... what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God”. (Micah 6:8)
But what exactly is “justice”? And how are we to respond to the challenge to join this or that cause to demonstrate our commitment to justice? These are not just academic questions. People are sinful. I am sinful. People make systems and we move and operate in these systems out of necessity for they form the very fabric of our existence. If we all are stained by sin, it only follows that the systems we create are stained by sin as well. But is it even possible to develop new or different systems that won’t be stained by sin? And let’s face it, systems – like people – can do great things and be flawed. How are we to evaluate calls for “justice”? I have found a recent book by Thaddeus Williams, Confronting Injustice without Compromising Truth to be both clarifying and compelling. (The forward is by John Perkins!) Williams is generous and charitable when handling various viewpoints. He cares about social justice, doesn’t demonize those he disagrees with, and thorough in his research.
Early on Williams sets up a contrast between Social Justice A and Social Justice B. Social Justice A is what the Bible explicitly commands – helping the poor, honoring widows, taking in orphans etc. Social Justice B is what is often called for in the culture. The difference is not just in emphasis, but in the world and life view that informs the imperatives. Early on, he discusses how belief in God and the concept of the Imago Dei (the image of God present in all of humanity) should undergird our discernment. Our quest for justice begins by understanding the people whom we long to help, and that even the people who disagree with us, who sit on opposite sides of the aisle, are bearers of the image of God. This provides a grounding for discussing equality, dignity, and value.
The book’s great strength is starting with God and repeatedly insisting that justice without God is really injustice. There are few (if any) who advocate for injustice. But advocating for justice without God at the center gives the same result. Williams examines such topics as group identity, divisiveness, and disparity. He takes on our modern idols (on both the left and the right) that can lead us astray—idols such as the self, the state, or social acceptance. He calls upon us to exercise discernment by examining facts, not simply stories designed to evoke anger and divisiveness.
The book proceeds by asking 12 questions. In comparing the competing narratives of social justice, Williams illuminates both the grounds as well as the inevitable outcomes of each approach. Many issues are much easier to grasp with concrete examples and outcome rather than in abstract concepts. A recurring feature is that at the end of each chapter, Williams includes a short story/testimony. The story fleshes out the concepts in the chapter and provides a neat hook for the question being discussed.
At the end of the book Williams includes seven appendices labeled A-F. Each addresses an issue (e.g., abortion, race, socialism, sexuality, helping the poor, fragility, and the culture wars). These provide further background on the issue and point to relevant texts from Scripture in thinking through the issue. Together they provide an excellent high-level reference on these hot topics.
Williams has done his research and there are extensive endnotes for the book. But it is an easy read. He has a breezy style and the witty prose moves along quickly. I can’t recall another book covering such weighty sensitive topics that went down so easily.
Don’t look for this book to confirm the biases you already have. It's easy to criticize the excesses of those we disagree with. But that is to engage in the same sort of broad-brush stereotyping that we all find so frustrating.
When I worked in Washington, my regular commute took me by the U.S. Mint. (That is where they literally “make money”.) On a tour of the facility, the guide explained how they train people to identify counterfeit currency. In short, they looked at counterfeit samples, but they studied the real thing. If we are going to grapple with the issue of justice, (and the Bible says we must), this book is an excellent primer on what justice really is. I heartily commend it to anyone who wants to consider the topic more deeply in faithfulness to a godly concern for justice (including racial and systemic injustice) without losing a grip on the gospel. We can have hope that justice will be accomplished. But the gospel is more than that – it's that we can look forward to mercy.