Doing Justice and Loving Mercy: Compassion Ministries, Mentor's Guide, MG16

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D O I N G J U S T I C E A N D L O V I N G M E R C Y : C O M P A S S I O N M I N I S T R I E S

understand their duty to represent the Kingdom of God in societies where often no party in particular stands for the kind of hilarious generosity and hospitality called for by the Lord and his apostles? What stance are we to take in regard to party affiliations or social causes claiming to speak for the Lord and his people?

Personal Character or Societal Oppression?

Much controversy brews all over the world among Christians as to howwe ought to best understand the nature of social injustice. Many Bible believing Christians sincerely believe that the root of all social concern is individual responsibility : people create their own messes, and must live in the ones that they manufactured for themselves. Such a vision tends to see all social issues as merely the outworking of personal decisions. Other Christians, equally sincere and literate in their understanding of Scripture, believe that the root of social concern is structural evil and systemic oppression : people are victims of messes perpetrated upon them by systems and structures of evil. This vision tends to see all social issues as the outworking of institutional injustice and structures designed to oppress the little people while making life easier for the privileged and the wealthy. These conflicting visions of social concern play themselves out in a number of ways in many different societies. What is your view on this question–should we seek to resolve the difficult social issues of our time by focusing on individual responsibility or structural and institutional injustice–or both? Explain your answer.

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Doing Justice and Loving Mercy: Society and World

Segment 1: Poverty, Oppression, and the Human Environment

Rev. Dr. Don L. Davis

As disciples of Jesus Christ and members of his body, the Church, we are charged with the duty to apply his kingdom ethic of doing justice and loving mercy to the very ends of the earth. As world Christians, we are called to think globally but act locally. As members of the Church, each local congregation is both an outpost and beachhead of the Kingdom, called to demonstrate freedom, wholeness, and justice in its engagement with the world, responding in love, obeying the leading of its head, the Lord Jesus Christ. As Christ’s representatives, we are called to

Summary of Segment 1