God and Justice

This morning I attended the final planning meeting for the upcoming local Faith and Values Community Summit sponsored by the California Democratic Party:

Moral Issues of our Time . . . People of Faith Speak Out

This effort is new for the Democratic Party, which is seen by many as the party of the nonreligious sector of society. The reality is that many religious people -- Evangelical, Mainline, Roman Catholic, Jewish, Buddhist, Muslim, and more are both devoutly religious and committed to many of the issues the Party stands for. I write this as prelude to adding this quote from Marcus Borg:

God's passion is justice. God's character and God's passion go togethre, for the simple reason that justice is the social form of compassion. As the social form of compassion, justice is about politics, not in the modern sense of electoral politics, but in the sense suggested by the root of the English word. It comes from the Greek word polis, which means "city." Politics is about the shape and shaping, the structure and structuring, of the city and, by extension, of human communities more generally, ranging from the family to society as a whole.

In other words being a person of faith is to be politically engaged. The question is how are we to be politically engaged? Is humbly from below or coercively from a perspective of power. If we watch Jesus, and wish to follow him, then our approach will be from below! It will be non-violent, but it will not stand down.