While sleeping in a youth hostel in Lausanne, Switzerland (March 2006), I dreamt of a just society. Here is what I saw:
In the dream, I was standing outside an international summit
that reminded me of the G-8 meetings. The punk band, Greenday, showed
up with smirks on their faces, announcing that they had planned a
little surprise. Suspicious that they might be preparing to incite
something a little overboard and destructive, I shared the following
thoughts with them:
The Relationship between Protestors and Lobbyists
There is an important relationship among activists whereby
protesters and lobbyists must work together for the maximum good. If
the protestors outside and the lobbyists inside work in tandem, we see
maximum gains for a given cause (e.g. making poverty history). The
protestors are responsible to create public awareness and grassroots
support which leverages the lobbyists to secure the best deals in the
board room or at the negotiation table. In this scenario, the
protestors’ job is to acquire as many chips as possible for the
lobbyists to use. Thus, the protestor is not merely expressing anger at
the system—they are called to “work the public.” They can potentially
sabotage their own cause if they self-marginalize themselves as
extremists OR they can create a mass movement that fills city squares
and shows in the polls.
If this symbiosis breaks down—if the protestors treat the lobbyists as sell-outs or if the lobbyists regard the protestors as
extremists—both public support and negotiating leverage dwindles. This
especially happens whenever the establishment side can point at violent
protests as evidence that the cause itself is marginal and extremist.
It is essential that protest groups and political lobbyists see the
importance of their relationship and harness the symbiosis rather than
distancing themselves from one another. They must not merely co-exist,
but coordinate efforts for the sake of maximizing social justice.
Bono has straddled these worlds, working both the crowds (with
a positive protest that broadens public support) but also working the
power brokers inside the summits. He has found a way to lobby that
harnesses the public pressure he was able to create.
The Church / State Relationship in a Just Society
At this point in the dream, I turned my thoughts from Bono to
Benedict XVI, whose first encyclical outlines a powerful approach to
church / state relationships in advancing social justice. As in the
above example, the church and state each have a role, whereby the
church acts as prophet to the state (as king).
The church must not come to social justice with an agenda to
take over the nation by building a Christian legislative majority in
congress, senate, or parliament with the hope of legislating Christian
morality. Even if this were successful, we would see the empire co-opt
the church rather than visa versa (replicating the tragedy of
Constantine’s Empire in the modern Dominion movement). However, far
from being successful, such agendas are transparent, create backlash,
and marginalizes the church.
On the other hand, if the church will be a voice of moral
influence in the land, and create public awareness of what is truly
just and right, as well as cleanse the conscience of those in power,
then the government’s response is to respond to the people and
legislate accordingly. In this case, the church must have a credible
voice in the land (showing the populace what compassionate justice
looks like) and in the government (because they must rule justly).
As above, both parties can coordinate efforts for social
justice, but this does not work if we treat ourselves to the other’s
role or regard one another as the evil leader or the extreme
fundamentalist. Again, I look to Bono’s example, who straddles the
fence between the church (as prophetic protestor) and the state (as
political lobbyist). When the two work together, separate but
cooperative, a just society is possible.
Again, the church and state are not meant to be opponents: the
church not only addresses the state, but becomes a transformative agent
in the public so that it can build a consensus that forcefully (yet
non-violently) informs the executive (leading, for example, to the
collapse of communism) and the legislature (leading, for example, to
universal health care)… not just because the church demands it, but
because the transformed culture asks for it.
At this point, I woke up. I’m not sure if Greenday appreciated
my sermon, but I realized that the next day I would be flying to
Munich, where Greenday played for Live-8… so that’s pretty cool.