Widows, Orphans, and Who?

Pure and undefiled religion before God the Father is this: to care for orphans and widows in their misfortune and to keep oneself unstained by the world.

-- James 1:27 

In other words, the lives of widows and orphans matter. The Gospel is such as this - the Gospel extends to everyone, from the highest members of society to the ones society forgets. In the social setting of the New Testament, widows and orphans were among the most vulnerable, and the Gospel extends to them no less than anyone else. If the Gospel doesn't extend to them, then it's not really the Good News.

And we buy this. We easily agree that this is true. Even though widows and orphans aren't nearly as vulnerable now as they were then, we still have a Gospel-stamped area of our heart for those who have lost their husbands and especially for those children who have lost their parents. We bend over backwards for them at times, and as a church, we have even joined the CarePortal to help care for children who are facing separation from their parents for some reason.

Do the lives of all children matter, not just orphans? Of course they do. Do the lives of all women matter, not just widows? Of course they do. This passage by no means suggests otherwise. But this passage doesn't say "the lives of all women and children matter." It does emphatically say that the lives of widows and orphans matter as a key attribute of the Gospel. What makes the Gospel the Gospel is that the lives of the vulnerable matter.

I had lunch last week with an African-American pastor who serves an inner-city church. With grief in his voice, he pondered why so many white evangelicals get that it's OK for the Bible to say in particular that the lives of widows and orphans matter as an attribute of the Gospel, but they don't get why it's OK to say in particular that Black lives matter as an attribute of the Gospel. We cannot deny that Blacks (using my friend's terminology) have been systemically vulnerable and systemically marginalized, even if we've never personally done anything to make this true. Why is it easier for us to say "orphan lives matter" than to say "Black lives matter"?

I don't endorse any violence or hatred that has been expressed through the Black Lives Matter movement. But that noise is not what I'm concerned about. Forget the worst expressions and think about the importance of every marginalized group and how the Gospel is not Good News if it doesn't call out specifically that the lives of specific marginalized groups matter. Not even that "those lives matter, too," as if some lives can be assumed but other lives surprise us with their importance. Just that "those lives matter." Period.

Context makes a difference. Whichever vulnerable group is in view, the Gospel says "those lives matter, period." In James 1, it's widows and orphans. In Acts 15, it's non-Jews. In some of our current conversations, it's Black lives.

I've never really been marginalized. I've been ignored in situations, my voice has gone unheard in some conversations, and when that happens, I experience frustration - for 5 minutes or an hour at a time. But even then, the moment someone acknowledges me and really hears my voice, it's good news to me. Imagine the good news that comes from telling a member of a group has been systemically marginalized (whether by me or not) that "Yes, your life matters in particular. Your life matters not because all lives matter. Your life matters solely because the Gospel is for you."

I can say "Black lives matter" without having to qualify it with "too" or "all" or "just like." I can say this, but not from a false sense that because my life matters, so does yours. Rather, I can say this because of the Gospel. I need no other cause, and that's part of the Good News.