The necessary faithfulness of working for justice and peace
It’s 2012 and I’m invited to Voices for Justice in Canberra. Hosted by Micah Australia, a coalition of Christian development and justice agencies including the Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) Australia, the annual event addresses issues such as global poverty, Australia’s commitment to international aid and climate change, particularly its impact on the world’s poorest, most vulnerable people.
It seems a practical way to live out the injunction of Proverbs 31:8: “Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves; ensure justice for those being crushed” (NLT). Not only is my Voices for Justice experience an opportunity to do this, but it’s training and empowerment in how to do it. I’m emboldened to use my voice, influence and opportunities in greater advocacy on issues that matter. And I encourage others to consider how a “mission trip” to Canberra, or wherever political leaders gather, might be at least as important as a mission trip to a developing country.
Our call is to “Finish the Race.” In group meetings with these leaders, we praise progress toward meeting Millennium Development Goals. Amid other achievements, and ahead of the 2015 schedule, reports show the percentage of people worldwide living in extreme poverty has halved from 1990 levels.
The goal of Australian aid reaching 0.5 per cent of Gross National Income (GNI), still short of the internationally agreed target for the world’s leading economies of 0.7 per cent but heading in a good direction, has bipartisan support. Led by our first female prime minister, Australia has implemented a tax on carbon pollution as a significant step toward reducing our greenhouse gas emissions and curbing climate change.
I feel like a failed lobbyist. The five years of my greatest political engagement have seen significant reversals on the issues about which I’ve been speaking. For me, this is frustrating and disappointing; for others—those most at risk and most affected by these political decisions—it’s as serious as survival.Nathan Brown
I return to Canberra in November last year, after a change of government, three changes of prime minister and a significant shift in political will. The carbon tax is repealed, despite ongoing commitments to act in response to climate change. And Australian aid is now the least generous in our modern history at just 0.23 per cent of GNI. Despite comprising less than two per cent of Australia’s national budget, our contribution to the poorest and most vulnerable people in the world has borne 25 per cent of total budget “savings” in the past few years.
I feel like a failed lobbyist. The five years of my greatest political engagement have seen significant reversals on the issues about which I’ve been speaking. For me, this is frustrating and disappointing; for others—those most at risk and most affected by these political decisions—it’s as serious as survival.
Which is why I need to keep speaking and why others need to join in raising their voices.
In the face of these setbacks, hope contradicts. Or as Jürgen Moltmann expressed it more fully, “In the light of the present promise and hope, the as-yet-unrealised promise of the future stands in contradiction to given reality.”1
As we sing in the old protest hymn during one of our worships at Voices for Justice, waking echoes of faithful activists of the past, “We shall overcome, some day.” This might not be today in Canberra but the Bible assures us this is true in the fullest sense and that working in harmony with and to further God’s intention for justice and peace is necessary faithfulness. “Don’t be misled—you cannot mock the justice of God. You will always harvest what you plant,” Paul urged the Galatians. “So let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up. Therefore, whenever we have the opportunity, we should do good to everyone—especially to those in the family of faith” (Galatians 6:7, 9, 10).
“Don’t be misled—you cannot mock the justice of God. You will always harvest what you plant,” Paul urged the Galatian believers. “So let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up” (Galations 6:7, 9, NLT).
While we continue to speak for justice, we have not failed. While we continue to speak for and with the poor, the oppressed and the vulnerable—those the Bible assures us have a special place in God’s hearing and concern—hope contradicts the political realities. And hope persists. In God’s great promises, we shall overcome, some glorious day. That’s what we speak and act towards today.
This article appeared first in Adventist World.
Footnotes
1. Jürgen Moltmann, Theology of Hope, Fortress Press, 1993, pp. 224-225.
Share
Author
