Sometimes those Beatitudes are just too much to take! After all, they ask us to change the world, to turn it upside down, so that the poor take their place at the table of plenty and the meek, not the mighty, inherit the earth, and peace gets made.
This means change, an upending of the status quo, a serious shift in economic and political priorities. That's why The Beatitudes Society is all about equipping seminarians to advocate for justice and peace and protection of our environment.
Sometimes that's just too much to take.
As today's rejection letter from a foundation said:
"Unfortunately the committee has denied your request at this time. The committee felt that this grant was for furthering the cause of social justice and not aligned with our mission of the charity of serving the poor."
One commenter defended the rejection, by stating that "equipping seminarians for ministry" is not "serving the poor". Saying the rejection letter was "poorly worded", the commenter said that, if the foundation's charter was such that it was only to offer grants for direct aid, giving seminarians scholarships doesn't cut it.
I can only say, "Wow." First, to the tone of the rejection letter itself - social justice is "not aligned with [a] mission of the charity of serving the poor"? Along with bad grammar, how is a sentence like this even possible? To the more pointed argument that seminary scholarships aren't about "serving the poor" - this is just nonsense. What is the ministry of Jesus but serving the poor - clothing the naked, visiting the imprisoned, feeding the hungry? What is the ministry of Jesus but working for a world where the hungry are well fed and the full go away empty? What is the ministry of Jesus but actualizing the Magnificat, which states that the mighty are pulled down from their thrones? Social justice isn't charity. When this commenter argues that social justice is a "modern and liberal" idea, it seems clear to me that she hasn't absorbed just how radical Jesus' idea of ministry in the name of the God he called Father is supposed to be.
We Christians aren't supposed to be about protecting fetuses or hating gays and lesbians. We aren't supposed to defend family values or vote Republican. We aren't supposed to spout moral epigrams and defend the status quo. At its heart, the ministry of Jesus is a threat to every power, principality, and throne - it is the revolution of love that undermines the pride and power of those who think they rule the world. Those who don't understand that, don't understand who we are as Christians.
