According to the UN, there is enough
grain in the world to provide every single person on this planet with 3,600
calories a day. Our bodies need just 2,500 calories every day. Yet 795 million
people do not have enough food to eat and 21,000 starve to death each day.
Over the last four years of studying Politics, this is the thing that has shocked me the most. To me, no other fact
else capture the tragedy and injustice of this world. When I first read those
statistics, I was one reminded of an old saying from the Bible:
“A poor
person's farm may produce much food, but injustice sweeps it all away.”
Proverbs
13:23
It’s
a verse I first learnt as a child. Our church had just started to serve only
Fairtrade tea and coffee. Though it would be years before I developed any firm
political opinion, Fairtrade was the first political issue to pique my
interest. This first introduction to trade justice was one of the many things
that would lead me to study Politics at university.
Despite
what you might think, studying Politics hasn’t turned me into an idealist. In
fact, it’s crushed any lingering hopes of a utopian future. We may have eradicated
deadly diseases and put an end to horrific human rights abuses but in some ways
this world is stubbornly unchanged. Two millennia have passed since the Book of
Proverbs was first written, yet daily injustice still sweeps away the food of
the poor. Though unprecedented social and economic development has led to better
lives for many, our unfair treatment of the vulnerable is so embedded in our
trade system that no longer need to consciously choose to exploit them. We
simply carry on as we normally do and we leave the world worse off.
Yes,
studying Politics has taught me that the world is messed up. But it’s also taught
me that everyone wants a better world. Lively classroom debates about how to
make the world a better place leave me in no doubt that we all have a
conscience. Though the ‘normative’- that is, taking a stance about the way
things should be- is usually frowned upon by the academic, no essay ever
questions whether the world should be a better place. Academics don’t dispassionately
observe our unjust world- they want to change it.
So
how does my faith come into this? Where does all this leave me, an idealist mugged by
reality?
My
faith still motivates me to try and make the world a better place. While
society tries to ‘inspire’ me into challenging injustice, the Bible is
unrelentingly clear that standing up for others is not merely commendable. It
is a binding moral duty. As the Book of Isaiah puts it; ‘Learn to do good; seek
justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s
cause.’ As is clear from the Book
of James, the Bible doesn’t mince its words when it comes to condemning exploitation;
‘Behold. the wages
of the labourers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, are
crying out against you, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts… You have fattened your hearts
in a day of slaughter.” Standing aside in a world of exploitation is not an
option.
Following
a God who is so angry about injustice makes standing up for others a duty. But
we know that there are limits to our capacity to change the world. As G.K.
Chesterton once said; ‘What’s wrong with the world? I am.’ Reforming our
economic system could clearly alleviate suffering, but nothing can completely
remove injustice. For that, we must change human nature.
Though I don’t
believe that a Utopia is possible, my Christian faith leads me to believe that
there will eventually be a world without suffering. Not on this earth, however.
It is too contaminated, too messed up. Instead,
I look forward to a world where the human nature at the root of injustice has
been changed. My unjust human nature won’t by my own moral efforts, but because
of God’s gift of forgiveness.
“He will wipe every tear from
their eyes. There will be no more death' or mourning or crying or pain, for the
old order of things has passed away."
Revelation 21:4
