The future of Christian social action
From a lecture by Jon Kuhrt for Together for the Common Good
Jon Kuhrt is Chief Executive of Hope into Action and in July 2024, he spoke on the challenges of social action and how it needs to develop. Here is a very abridged version:
The last two decades has seen a huge growth in initiatives such as street pastors, debt centres, food banks, pantries, community supermarkets, night shelters and warm hubs. This expansion might be evidence of a growing Christian social conscience, but the growth of such initiatives poses important questions:
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Has enthusiasm for social action led the church to become a handmaid of the state, propping up an unjust system, filling in the gaps caused by its negligence?
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Have these projects been effective at reducing poverty in sustainable ways?
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Have they been an effective way of witnessing to the Christian faith or has social action secularised the church?
We need to be both confident about the importance of Christian social action and be self-critical about the consequences of what we are involved in. Sin, even unintentional, plagues all human endeavour and our social action efforts are not exempt. I see these three issues as the key challenges we face:
1. The disconnect between charity and justice
The Brazilian Catholic Archbishop Dom Helder Camara famously said: "When I give bread to the poor they call me a saint. But when I ask why the poor are hungry, they call me a communist." It’s a quote which captures the inescapable tension between charity and justice.
As church-based social projects have grown it is common to hear people describe them in terms of ‘social justice.’ But social action and social justice are not the same thing, and most Christian activism is within a charitable framework: people giving their time and money on a voluntary basis to benefit those in need. And such charitable approaches are often applauded by those with social and economic power because they do not call for more radical and fundamental change. In fact, power dynamics can reinforced and enhanced by charitable work.
The church must avoid becoming the handmaid of the state, running around filling in gaps caused by government neglect. We must not be seduced by the lure of feeling useful and settling for the transactional approaches of welfarism and of ‘projects’ which just provide handouts. This is not social justice.
We can find inspiration in the deep roots of our Judeo-Christian tradition to call for the relational justice of the Common Good. We need to focus on those elements of justice which go beyond ‘increasing benefits’ and provide a platform for mutuality and responsibility: fair and affordable housing, decent jobs and proper investment in education and re-training. True social justice enables people to find self-respect, dignity and purpose.
2. Dependency: the disconnection with empowerment
The hard truth is that not all responses to poverty are helpful or effective in addressing the problems. A huge amount has been learnt in the last few decades about what helps Majority World countries overcome poverty. We have to grapple with similar challenges in our response to poverty. US Christian activist Robert Lupton argues in his book Toxic Charity that too often social action deepens problems by creating dependency and destroying personal initiative: "When we do for those in need what they have the capacity to do for themselves, we disempower them.!
Lupton makes an important distinction between crisis situations and chronic problems: "We respond generously to stories of people in crisis, but in fact most of our charity goes to people who face predictable, solvable problems of chronic poverty. An emergency response to chronic need is at best counterproductive and, over time, is actually harmful."
Over the years I have been increasingly concerned to visit day centres and churches where armies of well-meaning middle-class people are running around serving people who are turned into passive recipients. Empowering people is harder but far more important. I have come to believe that running a class to help ten people cook for themselves is better than giving out free food to a hundred people. We need to make a shift towards a more empowering way of working.
3. Secularising: the disconnection from faith
One of the constant challenges I have worked on in the last 20 years is how Christian organisations and projects maintain an active connection with the faith that birthed them. The homeless sector is packed full of agencies which used to be Christian. Sometimes faith fades due to a lack of passion or confidence. Sometimes it is due to fear about what funders think. Sometimes it becomes fossilised when a charity’s founding inspiration and charism is neglected.
In 2013, the secular research agency, Lemos & Crane did a survey of homeless people which found that issues of faith and spirituality were very important to many of them. Their report, Lost and Found, said that the ‘secular orthodoxy’ of the homeless sector more reflected staff perspectives than the homeless people themselves. To use Paul Bickley of Theos’ milk-metaphor, we do not have to ‘skim out’ the faith element of social action. In fact, some of the most exciting work is happening where there is a ‘full-fat’ approach.
Faith is so relevant to the recovery journey that so many of Hope into Action tenants are on. Last year over 60% wanted to be prayed for and 16 got baptized or made a formal commitment to Christ.
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I believe that the above issues – the disconnect with justice and the problems of dependency and secularisation are the three key challenges. Christian social action may have grown, but it needs to mature – and I believe that a practical theology of grace and truth is what we most need.
The grace and truth of Jesus
Jesus’ grace is deeper and more confronting than mild tolerance, uncritical acceptance or ‘being kind’. His grace contains a sharp edge of truth about the need for repentance and radical change: ‘No one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again’ (John 3:3) and ‘I did not come to bring peace, but a sword’ (Matt. 10:34).
This is seen in his encounter with the Samaritan woman at the well. Jesus affirms the woman by asking for her to give him a drink, but then he speaks challenging truth into her life. The grace and truth of Jesus is neither easy acceptance or harsh judgement. And this empowers her to share this life changing message with her whole community.
In the parable of the prodigal son, before the destitute son is received with such grace and forgiveness by his father, he comes to his senses, faces what he has done, repents and returns home. His own embrace of the truth leads to the Father’s embrace of grace.
The deepest truth is the reality of God’s grace. But this grace demands truthfulness. I would argue that a general weakness of social action is an imbalance of too much grace and not enough on truth. And grace without truth becomes what Dietrich Bonhoeffer described as ‘cheap grace’ – where the church “showers blessings with generous hands, without asking questions or fixing limits… where “the consolations of religion are thrown away at cut prices.”
The tension between grace and truth is so relevant to those engaged in all social action.
The future for Christian social action
1. Christian social action must be accompanied by a Christian model of justice
As Pope Francis has said, "the Church is not an NGO". We must recognise the distinctive and prophetic voice that the Church is called to take at this time.
To reduce the need for food banks, debt counselling and emergency night shelters, increases to welfare benefits are not going to be enough. The underlying causes are more complex than handouts alone can fix – we need reforms and investment that will generate meaningful work that will enable people to have some self-respect.
Is the church courageous enough to challenge the new administration to reform an economic model that generates incomes too low to live on? We need to speak truth to power.
2. Our social action must be empowering and build mutuality
Alongside arguing for change at government level, we should shift our own emphasis – to approaches which help people into work, which generate enterprise, use skills and empower strengths. This means transitioning from food banks to initiatives such as Pantries and Community Groceries where people become members to buy discounted food with dignity. It also means social businesses which support people into work.
People are not helped by being passive recipients. Relationships are at the heart of what it means to be human – and best when two-way and full of mutuality. Transformation happens through reciprocity, where people are able both to receive and to give and contribute.
As well as speaking truth to power, we also speak truth to those who are without power – not to judge or demean but because it is truth that sets people free. What can we do to help build their own staircases rather than rely on our ladders?
3. Social action should deepen its Christian distinctiveness
Social action can help tell our story in a compelling way. But we must hold our nerve to integrate our faith and deepen the Christian distinctive. The times call for social action agencies to be more explicit, to be bolder and more confident. In this period of great spiritual confusion that faith is not a private matter.
4. Beware of superficiality and pay attention to messy realities
The language of “social justice” is increasingly popular in Christian circles but I am increasingly suspicious of those who speak fluently on platforms and social media about justice and without being anchored in the complexity of the actual work. Rather than utopian dreams or ideological theologies, we need to anchor our concept of justice in real life and experience: in the broken, sinful reality of the world’s systems and people – and in our messy attempts to make the world better.
5. We need a new movement of Christian social action networks
Christian social action charities often operate in silos shaped by church tradition and denominations and don’t know each other or coordinate their work. The UK has never had a truly ecumenical social action network which brings together agencies from across the church spectrum.
We need to rouse a genuine movement of people motivated by faith, working together for the Common Good. We need to listen to what God is doing within the Church, and most importantly what He is doing among communities and neighbourhoods trapped in poverty.
Watch this 74 minute video of the lecture including questions (the lecture itself is 45 mins from 5m to 50m):
Access the full text and a podcast here.
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From a lecture by Jon Kuhrt for Together for the C, 30/07/2024