The mission of NEU Church Planting is to thoughtfully equip church planters to build sustainable, diverse, and gospel-centered churches in New England's urban neighborhoods. With that in mind, we offer the following articles by Malcolm Foley and Justin Hawkins. Our desire is to be, and to foster, theologically-minded practitioners. These articles reflect that aim, as well as our mission.
An Evangelical Response to the ‘Statement on Social Justice and the Gospel,’ by Malcolm Foley and Justin Hawkins
John MacArthur and the other signers of the recent Statement on Social Justice and the Gospel, insist that none of these stated ambitions of Jesus ought to be understood literally as having anything to do with social justice. They say instead that the social justice concerns that Jesus articulates here are not the Gospel, but are the Law, and that any attempt to weave social justice concerns into the heart of the Gospel diminishes and undermines the Christian gospel.We, a theological ethicist in training and church historian in training, as evangelicals who are both committed to historic Christian orthodoxy and also convinced of the legitimacy of the concerns of much of the social justice movement, disagree. We believe that in so doing, we, and not the authors of the Statement on Social Justice, are the heirs of the best parts of the evangelical tradition in America.
Keep reading here.
Lynching Then and Lynching Now: Racial Justice as Christian Imperative
The United States has a long history of racial terror lynchings. Particularly from the Civil War until this day, thousands of Black men, women and children have been indiscriminately killed for a myriad of reasons. When that killing took place at the hands of 3 or more, it was called a lynching. In attempts to address the phenomenon legally, the definition of the term has been restricted, particularly by the NAACP, to be a killing in which the killers acted under the pretext of justice, their race, or tradition.If this is in fact the definition of lynching, Ahmaud Arbery was undeniably lynched.
Keep reading here.
Also, see our post: 5 Ways Pastors Should Respond to News of Social Injustice.
