There has been some conversation about the role the ACNA should play in the present moment as it relates to issues of justice. These 20 theses are attempts to move this conversation forward by highlighting some less helpful trends and to place us on more solid Anglican footing by looking to our authoritative sources, our history, and our global communion. Our hope is that this conversation would become more authentically Anglican in its ethos, sources, and posture. We claim no special authority other than being two priests committed to the faith once delivered and the well being of our province. We hope that theses are received in the charitable spirit in which they are offered and that they spur on needed conversation and reflection.

  1. The Prayers and Collects in the Book of Common Prayer presume the participation of Anglicans in the pursuit of social justice. Our own prayer for social justice (No. 43) asks that we be empowered to “make no peace with oppression” and that God would “help us use our freedom rightly in the establishment of justice in our communities and among the nations.” The Prayer Book enjoins us not to turn a blind eye to the organization of our society but to seek and to denounce oppression. See also elements of the Great Litany and a variety of prayers for justice in our liturgies.
  2. Historically, the Evangelical and Anglo-Catholic streams of Anglicanism in the UK had a strong emphasis on social reform as an aspect of gospel witness. William Wilberforce’s commitment to the dismantlement of slavery and John Stott’s work to incorporate the article on “Christian social responsibility” in the Lausanne Covenant of 1974 are examples from the evangelical stream. Bishop Frank Weston’s address at the 1923 Anglo-Catholic Congress and Archbishop Michael Ramsey’s writings on Christian social responsibility, and his insistence that clergy “witness to justice and brotherhood and human dignity” in their churches and communities are examples from the catholic stream.
  3. The threefold renunciation in our baptismal liturgy of the world, the flesh, and the devil presumes the idea that society and spiritual powers and our own desires can lead us into sin. The description of the demonic origins of war and ethnic striving in the writings of the church fathers is evidence that these powers are not merely interpersonal.
  4. Global Anglicanism is often engaged politically. See the church of Uganda here: https://churchofuganda.org/info/archbishop-kaziimbas-new-years-message-about-elections. If we are to follow the lead of the global south, we must think carefully about the shape of our witness.
  5. An examination of our calendar of saints reveals that they are often praised for their faith in Jesus and for the social reforms that they brought about as a result of their faith. Our own Prayer Book calendar has a category for saints called “Reformer of Society” which includes a celebration of Martin Luther King Jr.
  6. If we have the saints, the Prayer Book, and history on one side of justice, then what is the explanation for controversy?
  7. Careful attention to critics of the pursuit of social justice in an Anglican context reveal a primary dependence on conservative Reformed Baptist and Presbyterian thought, not Anglican formularies and history.
  8. This is a noticeably unecumenical set of conversation partners. There is little engagement with Catholic Social Teaching or the sources mentioned above (global Anglicanism, history, our liturgies). If “reformed Catholicism” is indicative of the Anglican way, then we are in danger of losing much of the “catholic” part of that tradition. We are engaging only a small segment of the American evangelical tradition.
  9. In part, this focus on a portion of the American evangelical conversation about social justice comes from a false sacralization of the American republic and an implicit narrative of decline about American history. This narrative sees the past as more Christian than the present and seeks to return the nation to the status quo ante. Communities and churches of color by and large have a far more complex relationship with American history and are far more committed to the prophetic elements of Scripture, which denounce both church and society for participation in oppression.
  10. Too often critics of the advocacy for justice argue that concerns for justice are rooted in a worldview antithetical to the gospel. In other words, we are seeing an end- run around the actual theological and exegetical issues by de-Christianizing the arguments of the advocates of justice. Commentary that begins by saying “what they really mean is…” or “the real source of this argument is” is intended to poison the well.
  11. This de-Christianization of the arguments of justice advocates is achieved by asserting a worldview that does not inhere in the words themselves, but in the meaning critics impose on those words. There are rarely good faith attempts at clarification, but simply assertions that the language is unchristian.
  12. The supposed worldview that is antithetical to the gospel is created by linking current proponents of justice to a series of stereotypical villains (usually European progressives and radicals or “cultural Marxists”). There is no engagement with the theological convictions arising from ethnic minority communities. These convictions arise from their own encounter with Scripture and experiences of oppression. Rather the – usually unrelated – ideas of European or American dominant populations are centered. There is no attempt to trace the development of ideas (for example) through the African American Christian tradition.
  13. Historically (look at the period of slavery and the Civil Rights movement) demands for justice have been met with similar accusations that advocates have abandoned the gospel and have become socialists or cultural Marxists, or there is an angry assertion that minorities should be satisfied with the progress made and should stop talking about race.
  14. While a hermeneutic of suspicion is applied to those contending for justice, there is a vocal demand for the most charitable interpretation for racially insensitive remarks and actions. See certain spaces where extensive racialized discourse is not to be questioned or named.
  15. Therefore, the actual debate is not on the basis and norms of an Anglican political witness. What we have instead is the desire to import the culture wars roiling in Baptist, Presbyterian and non-denominational contexts to the Anglican Church.
  16. The fruit of this war in the Baptist and Presbyterian circles has been the discouragement of many ethnic minorities and their departure.  Evidence has shown that attempts at clarification and dialogue with opponents of justice in those circles have largely proved fruitless. After many years, ethnic minorities in these spaces and those sympathetic to them leave or give up.
  17. Those who do not know about this history might wonder why many have largely disengaged with this segment of the church. This is the answer.
  18. Many have convinced themselves that they are simply defending the faith from those who would distort it. We contend that they are doing real damage to their brothers and sisters in Christ. It is very strange how often these defenses of the faith lead to the particular discouragement of many of the ethnic minorities (and women) in their midst who are confessionally committed to the faith once delivered. At some point, we are going to have to ask why.
  19. None of these claims are totalizing. In other words, not every critic of justice fits this description. Some criticisms of some people talking about justice are valid. But the current sources of discourse and the level of rancor do not reveal a desire to discern the shape of the church’s public witness.
  20. There is an Anglican conversation to be had that takes seriously the difference in character of our sources and history from other Christian traditions. This will take courage, patience, biblical fidelity, and clear headed reasoning.

 

Our goal in all of this that the church might discern together how to, “Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and needy (Prov. 31:8–9).”

 

Esau McCaulley+

Jonathan Warren+