Being in college is like living with a pair of rose-colored glasses. That rose color may be tinged differently based on your college, but every theory examined in a college classroom is seen through a heavily pigmented lens.
Gordon College has a particularly rosy tint; Christianity is woven into every aspect of content, from the mission statement to theories studied in class. While these lenses may fade in a post-grad context, societal issues remain, demanding focus.
One area where these issues are particularly pressing is within the US justice system. Dominique Gilliard recently spent several days on Gordon’s campus, speaking on many topics, including the U.S. justice system and the lenses through which to look at this justice system.
Gilliard is the director of the Racial Righteousness and Reconciliation for the Love Mercy Do Justice initiative of the Evangelical Covenant Church and has published two books, “Rethinking Incarceration” and “Subversive Witness”. He pursued justice throughout his undergrad, Master’s, and Seminary, but throughout this pursuit, he kept the Church at the center of his efforts.
Gilliard explained that part of his Christ-based pursuit of justice was because he “grew up with a father who was in relationships with civil rights icons like John Lewis” going on to remember that “having those people at our house and at our dinner table informed my understanding of the gospel.”
Not only was his family engaged in conversation, but he was raised in an environment that actively participated in creating change. In the town Gilliard grew up in, an incarceration center for women was nearby. Many women who are incarcerated have children who are placed in different homes, while the mothers are inmates.
However, the structures in place to help women readjust to society are sparse at best. As a result, when many women re-enter society, they have little access to homes in areas with good school districts, which proves detrimental women seeking to re-gain custody of their children.
Judges are far less likely to give custody to women when it would mean the child would shift schools to a less beneficial school district. Gilliard’s family tackled this problem head-on, family by family. They owned a two-floor flat, the top floor which they lived in, and the bottom floor, which they rented out, allowing mothers to re-gain custody of their children so that single mothers and their children could live in a good school district and get back on their feet.
Gilliard advocates for the themes of this story to apply to the church. His family saw a need within their community, and they did their best to vocalize it.
A pressing question in the minds of college students studying the justice system is the church’s role. This is a multi-faceted question. It examines and calls into question the church’s role in political and justice related issues, and how the church can appropriately exert influence in this respect.
The justice system examines whether church and state should work together. According to Gilliard, a thriving church is one that is “aligned with the missional impulses of the Gospel, is thoroughly integrated into the fabric of a society’s life, and it is seeing the needs that emerge from their neighbors, and it’s responsive to their needs.” Gilliard calls the Church to be active in addressing the needs of a community. He urges the church to develop theories on justice and implement justice within their communities.
The separation of church and state is an argument within and outside the Church. When college students leave the campus and lose their rose-colored Christian glasses, should they retain their Christian perspective and actively apply those perspectives to their careers? To what extent should a Christian perspective be used, and to what extent, within the justice system, is this an unethical basis to apply to public policy beyond the reaches of the Church’s expected jurisdiction?
How much of the Christian theory one learns in college should be applied, and how much should simply remain theory? Gilliard had specific insight on these questions. With getting his bachelor’s at Georgia State University and then receiving his Master’s in Divinity from North Park Theological Seminary, he walked through many different climates around this issue and experienced many different perspectives.
He credits his education at non-Christian institution for fostering a different understanding of his education in theology. His professors noticed a difference in his questions and application of theology to current issues.
In terms of church and state separation, Gilliard noted that your identity must be connected to your faith. While becoming aware of how personal biases affect perceptions of faith and justice is important, our experiences and identities continue to inform our worldview. On this basis, separating church and state on an individual level is essentially impossible. Politics, however, are about compromise, and render this separation necessary and ethical.
How does one compromise without forgoing their religious ethics, and how much should they compromise? To this end, Gilliard said, “We have an invitation to work with people who are committed to the common good, even if their commitment to the common good comes from a different source … as long as we’re not asked to compromise what we believe, to collaborate I think it’s good and right and true for us to collaborate with others.”
The call to collaborate outside the church is heavy, especially when unity within the Church is brought with many difficulties. Collaboration outside the Church is crucial, but to that end, so is collaboration within the Church. The Church is a prophetic example of what’s possible when we find new life in Christ. According to Gilliard, having a divided church is difficult for the world to see.
At the root of this division is the difference between unity and uniformity. Historically, the Church has seen unity as uniformity, and that needs to change. Different churches worship and think differently, but that doesn’t diminish the church’s beauty. Gilliard asserts that “unity is in our mission and commission to follow Jesus” and “unity in our diversity.” This shift in perspective is critical for the church in its current position.
Even as a college student, the call to act and listen to issues of justice is a huge undertaking. It is a field that never ends and rarely gives back, yet the Christ-centered lens one uses to examine these issues is crucial to sustaining one’s passion for them. It is a reminder that there is a lot of work to do on this earth, but the battle is already won. The outcome is perfect–better than any image of justice theorized or implemented today.
Generation Z is currently facing a wave of people leaving the Church. This generation is faced with asking hard questions about this mass exodus alongside questions provoking delving deeper into their faith on an individual level. College is an excellent spot to ask these questions, which Gilliard acknowledges.
College is a place of “developing eyes to see the reality of their neighbors and people whose lives are different than their own, and to see missional possibilities, where they can respond with the love of Christ to communicate to those people or those communities, that God truly is Emmanuel and is not allowing them to endure or navigate the complexities of life alone” Gilliard said. The beauty of this faith is that it is deeply affective and personal.
Gilliard’s work is for his son but also for “the man next door,” no matter what that individual has gone through and is facing. “I want to leave a legacy of a more caring and just world for my son … [and I] want to leave a legacy within the church that has the eyes to see and the conviction to create space for people who sincerely want to follow Jesus but will do so in ways that are outside the box.” Everyone walks through their faith and life with glasses on; Dominique Gilliard’s mission is calling Christians to retain the rosy hue that Christ’s teachings leave and not to discard those glasses.
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