Remember, it’s a systems thing.
May 10, 2006 · Print This Article
Revisit the parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10 25-37) as a justice text.
There are more players in this admonition than just the unwitting victim, the cause of the situation in the robber, and the compassionate acts of a stranger. There is also the Priest and the Levite — consider them a pastor and a church elder these days. Jesus is saying a lot about those who pass by a situation such as this and allow it to continue.
Before this specific turn of events we would, while affirming that all men are sinners, assert that it is the individual actions of the thief that are the sinful cause of evil. In any given line-up we would count the Preist and the Levite as righteous and moral by comparison. Nevertheless Jesus chastises all as having done wrong in the eyes of God. Most, if not all, of us are inescapably part of the systems that enable/prolong injustice in this world. As a part of society and the human community we are a part of “the system.”
How do we pass on the far side of the road in our lives? Has the Church in America attempted to pass on the far side of the world? How are we to “go and do likewise?”
How do we pass on the far side of the road? Here are a few ways that come to mind:
1) We live in segregated neighborhoods and send our kids to segregated schools.
2) We blame poor minorities for their plight when the segregated inner-city schools they are relegated to failed to provide anything that may fairly be called equal opportunity.
3) We support mass imprisonment without resoruces for rehabilitation instead of supporting early childhood ed.