If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill,” and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that?
Walter Rauschenbusch was a Baptist pastor, who died July 2, 1918. He was a key figure in the early social justice movements. Where many had argued that heaven was that place far away, he argued that it wasn’t a matter of “getting individuals to heaven but transforming life on earth into the harmony of heaven.” Yes! He further wrote that “Whoever uncouples the religious and the social life has not understood Jesus”. Yes!
Also very compelling to me was his identification of six social sins – long before Gandhi’s social sins. Rauschenbusch’s writings actually influenced Gandhi. His social sins include
- Religious bigotry
- Combination of graft (corruption or bribery) and political power
- Corruption of Justice
- Mob spirit and mob action
- Militarism
- Class contempt
Yes! Yes! Yes!
What a convicting and relevant list this is to us today. It seems that we currently struggle with each of these, to some extent. It’s interesting that the reading appointed for this commemoration is James talking about faith without works. Yes! We need to have faith, absolutely. But we need to do something with that faith.
Of Rauschenbusch’s sins, the two that speak to me this morning are class contempt and mob spirit. In the US, we’re often quick to scoff at the India Caste system, where there is a strict code of access and privilege based on birth into one social class or another. But we have the same thing here – we just don’t call it a caste system. But here, absolutely, people are destined to certain jobs, status, and stereotypes, based on their class. Whether it’s white trash, ghettos, barrios, or immigrant hovels, we absolutely hold tightly to class contempt. It’s more hidden, and more insidious.
The other troubling sin is that of mob spirit and mob action. How easy it is to join the swell of _____ism in our society. Left to stand on our own, I believe people wouldn’t behave quite as badly as they do when they’re gathered with others. It’s easy to get swept up into political wrong-headed fervor, when surrounded by others who agree. To a large degree, I’d argue that mob spirit may be at the root of much of the class contempt.
It seems to me that social media has exacerbated both of these socials sins – class contempt and mob action – particularly mob action. It doesn’t take long to find like-minded angry mobs online – whether it’s a twitter storm or a facebook group. We choose to surround ourselves with people who agree, and soon we’re swept up in mob-mentality. It’s not innocent or anonymous. People are hurt. Mean things are said. Our own souls are incrementally deadened.
This morning I’m thinking about how use social media to help transform this life into the harmony of heaven, through my faith, coupled with action. Maybe it’s refraining from mob mentality online. Maybe it’s calling out the other social sins that we see online. People, I believe, don’t intend to be hurtful, but genuinely get swept up in mob thought and action. Maybe the action called for by people of faith is to name it, stop participating in it everywhere online, and help others to see the social sins that we perpetuate with online group think. Even when we think our political or social perspective is right, we should not show contempt, or get wrapped up in the mob mentality. As a person of faith, that will be my action.
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