The United Methodist Church from the beginning of our predecessor, John Wesley, has believed in Social Justice as an important part of our faith.
James 2:1(Wesley Study Bible, commentary) James shows how a Christian value system honors the poor (vv. 5-13) urges the uselessness of beliefs that do not express themselves in everyday behaviors (vv. 14-17) and provides two examples of genuine faith. (vv.18-26)
James 2.15 If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food and you say to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill,” and you do not supply their basic needs, what good is that? So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.
How is Social Justice different from Works of Mercy?
Both are equally important. Works of Mercy provide food, clothing, rental assistance and other resources for people’s basic needs of food, clothing and shelter. However, works of mercy do not lift people up out of their circumstances which requires them to continually seek help.
Social Justice works on the one to one personal and on the community level to show Christ’s love, make disciples and transform society as we believe is within Christ’s vision for the world and God’s kingdom come on earth.
If someone falls into a well and a traveler hears his/her cry for help, goes over, looks in the well and asks, “How are you?”, then says, “I’ll get you a sandwich”. When the traveler comes back s/he drops a sandwich down the well that is a work of mercy. If the traveler says, I’ll go get a rescue team and does so that is social justice on a one to one personal basis.
After rescuing the person from the well, the traveler, rescue team and other nearby townspeople come together and develop a plan to search out all open wells in the community and fill them to prevent others from falling in, that is community social justice.
