Sodom's sins were pride, gluttony, and laziness, while the poor and needy suffered outside her door. Ezekiel 16: 49 (NLT)
Note it was not just the individual people, but the city of Sodom the Lord is rebuking in this verse. When God destroyed Sodom He did not spare the government. Want a more specific example? Let's look at the Prophet Isaiah:
Woe to those who make unjust laws, to those who issue oppressive decrees, to deprive the poor of their rights and withhold justice from the oppressed of my people, making widows their prey and robbing the fatherless. What will you do on the day of reckoning, when disaster comes from afar? To whom will you run for help? Where will you leave your riches? Isaiah 10: 1-3
Unjust laws and oppressive decrees? Is that individual or governmental? It is as if the defenders of this line of political thought forget that it is people that make up the government and our specific form of government is a representative republic. The people in government in our country are supposed to be representing the people. What does God say about this through the Prophet Jeremiah?
and have grown fat and sleek. Their evil deeds have no limit; they do not plead the case of the fatherless to win it, they do not defend the rights of the poor. Should I not punish them for this?" declares the LORD. "Should I not avenge myself on such a nation as this? Jeremiah 5: 28-29
Avenge myself on such a NATION as this. Certainly God is concerned about what we do in our individual lives. He is very concerned that we always stand up for the cause of social justice and helping the neediest in society. It is through that individual love that people will see the love of Christ. That is how we clothe them when they are naked and visit them when they are sick. That is how we are the hands and feet of Jesus to a lost and dying world. But to pretend that this does not translate then into government is to ignore the teachings of the Bible as a whole. Yet there are political operatives and talking heads that are using Christians every day to achieve their own socio-political ends. You can have you own personal philosophy about the appropriate role and scope of government; just don't pretend that God is somehow endorsing it when He is clearly not. Take a good long look at that verse from Ezekiel. We often correlate the sins and immorality of Sodom as being purely sexual in nature but these verses tells us differently. Sodom was guilty for ignoring the poor as well. For living on plenty while oppressing the needy. Pride, gluttony and laziness. Sound like any countries you know today?
I understand that politics and religion have become intertwined in modern day America. It is sad because I watch as political forces, who care nothing about the cause of Christ, continue to pit Christian against Christian. That is why the key verse today is so important. We must be constantly training ourselves to be discerning. To be able to separate out what is of God and what is not. To be able to separate out what the pure motives are from the political ones regardless of party. God is devoid of party. He is and always has been concerned with the concept of social justice. How much so? Go back and read those verses from Matthew 25. God not only takes the side of the poor He puts Himself in their place! God did not say as you treated the republicans, so you have treated me. He did not say as you treated the democrats, so you have treated me. No beloved it is how we treat the least of these among us, the poor, THAT is how we treat God Himself.
No social justice in the Gospel? Nonsense. God is entirely about social justice. God created it, institutionalized it, and expects it from us as people; as well as from the institutions we create.
Reverend Anthony Wade March 19, 2010
