david tassell
Theology has a notorious ability to exist restrained exclusively within minds, classrooms, and friendly debates wholly removed from reality. The recursive world of ideas about God, humanity, society, and the meaning of all of these elements of life have at once the tendency to sound the most important and yet, can feel the least relevant in how lives are actually lived and societies actually function.
As churches and faith-based organizations navigate the impact of COVID-19, many are tasked with responding to unprecedented health and financial need in their communities, creating whole new factors in society which demand response. For many who have been to seminary or otherwise invested in extensive theological study, this sense of disconnect between theological ideas and the reality of life may feel relatable. On one hand, we can find a great deal of importance, meaning, and enjoyment in our study of ideas about faith and society, but on the other hand, we can often find that our knowledge fails to translate into influence in the real world. Seminary gave me a great deal of understanding of important ideas such as God’s desire for human flourishing, but I had a limited understanding of how to employ these ideas in structures that would actually contribute to the good of society. Certainly, I had a sense of how worship and programs should run on Sunday, but the gap from there to how the Church as an institution could effectively be on mission for the good of the world was more difficult to bridge. This challenge feels particularly acute for many right now in light of the global COVID-19 pandemic, which has presented many new challenges to churches and faith-based organizations, often with little or no precedent.
This disconnect between theology and practicality can thankfully be informed by the long-held Christian traditions around organizing and engaging with the world in tangible ways. Seeing good theological ideas make a tangible and positive effect on society is not an unsolvable mystery. Christians have long developed methods for theologically-informed people to structure ideas into institutional frameworks, like how to consider economic justice and engage with government systems. Christian citizens desiring to see theological ideas come to life actually have no shortage of frameworks with which to start, including historical examples like the Church of the East which functioned under ruling Islamic institutions, engaging in religious, political, and intellectual pursuits alongside Muslims, and the relatively more recent example of Methodism’s robust social teaching.
D. Tassell is center with blue tie. (8th from left)
The summer after graduating from seminary, I had the privilege of working directly with an organization that helps Christians embody theological ideas in a framework to engage with the world. Sacred Sector, a learning community run by the Center for Public Justice, brought together twelve seminarians, trained us on capacity-building for faith-based organizations, and sent us to faith-based organizations in the local community to apply what we learned. This practical training centered on Sacred Sector’s “three P’s”: public policy, organizational practices, and public positioning, which are rooted in a theological tradition of public justice. Public justice holds that each sphere of life has an accompanying institution or community that ought to affirmatively live out distinct roles while preserving space for all other distinct civil society organizations to fulfill their unique responsibilities. Public justice is a concept closely tied to the act of embodying theological ideas in institutional contexts. As someone who had spent the last few years primarily studying ideas, this framework provided a way to see those ideas come to life. This framework provided a means to see theology inform the structure of organizations and institutions, as well demonstrate how clear mission and purpose in a faith-based organization is a means for theological notions of justice to become embodied in entities that actively make society more just.
One example of this in the public justice framework is the idea of principled pluralism. The Center for Public Justice explains principled pluralism as an idea formed in a theological understanding that “governments have not been ordained by God for the purpose of separating believers from unbelievers, giving privilege to Christians and the church, or serving the interests of one nation over others.” Already built into this idea is a practical manner for how Christians engage the government. It means that Christians should not advocate for privileged treatment of their religion, but rather should advocate for justice which “requires equal treatment of religions in public as well as in private life.” Organizations that embody this framework often take on certain characteristics. These organizations often advocate for public policy that allows people to practice their faith freely or organize policies and activities which protect religious minorities targeted by violence. Right now, many of these organizations are freely providing resources in communities to people of all faiths during a crisis like we see happening across the country right now.
Further, as Sacred Sector embodies this idea in how it works with faith-based organizations, it translates into tangible implications for these FBOs’ organizational lives. For example, Sacred Sector builds FBOs’ capacities to advance public policies that support institutional religious freedom for diverse groups. Sacred Sector also facilitates FBOs in their cultivation of organizational practices and programs that protect the inherent human dignity of all the individuals they serve, including supporting the religious freedom of minority faiths. Sacred Sector recognizes the importance of advancing the freedom of diverse civil society groups to serve the varied and distinct needs of their communities. This is especially true during the current public health crisis because COVID-19 is impacting communities in specific and differentiated ways.
A public justice framework also puts theological ideas into practice through institutions of civil society. This framework carries a theological understanding of the purpose of these institutions, and actively promotes the collaboration between various sectors of civil society and between governments, such as the ways in which government and faith-based organizations form partnerships. Sacred-Public Partnerships, a two-month series published in collaboration with Sacred Sector and Shared Justice (also an initiative of CPJ) explores the ways in which faith-based organizations — the sacred sector — and government can partner for good. For example, many faith-based organizations are responsible for using government grants to enhance food security and provide other critical localized social services.
Most contemporary forms of Christian theology recognize a difference between the government and the Church, recognizing that both have a unique place and purpose in the world, and should not be conflated. This theology differs and often corrects the long history in Western Christendom where Church and empire were virtually the same. The disconnect for this theology then, tends to be around how the two should engage at all. In an effort to distance from the legacy of Christendom or the present threat of Christian nationalism, the outworking of this theology can often mean disengagement altogether from politics. Some Christians may adopt an idea held by many that the only way forward is for these different institutions of society to isolate from one another. However, the clarity within a framework like public justice actually alleviates these concerns while allowing for churches and faith-based organizations to partner with the government, as the potential danger of imposing one over the other is decidedly outside the boundaries. This is because the framework affirms a positive role of government, the sacred sector, and other realms of civil society, while maintaining their distinct purposes and extent of influence.
With this in mind, Sacred Sector equips leaders of faith-based organizations and emerging leaders (seminarians) rooted in a theology of the distinct purposes of these organizations and of the public sector. Sacred Sector provides its participants with frameworks, resources, and tools to enhance organizational practices and capacity, and to partner with the government, through both financial and nonfinancial partnerships, toward the common good. This includes accepting public funding to address the needs of local communities, cooperatively providing services such as hypothermia shelters and food banks, disaster relief, and even helping construct public policies that better society for all people.This also includes non-financial partnerships as well, such as when a congregation opens its doors to government officials to set up emergency sites during a natural disaster. Not every congregation or faith-based organization will seek out government partnerships, as there are certainly many instances where choosing not to pursue these things is the appropriate course. However, Sacred Sector’s resources equip leaders to not only engage in these partnerships, but also to navigate the many organizational practices, relevant public policies, and complex public positioning for faith-based organizations across a variety of missions. Even now, Sacred Sector is providing resources for churches and faith-based organizations navigating the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act. Once again, organizations are embodying God’s desires for human flourishing, and doing so with excellence.
Like most who have a degree in theology, I truly love ideas. I love to study, imagine, and discuss the unending questions of the truth about God, humanity, and the world. In my future academic work, I hope to look carefully at how various ideas about morality and ethics are constructed and communicated and how that communication makes some ideas catch on and others not. With that in mind, this is also because I want to see good ideas that contribute to human flourishing prosper. I want to see ideas come to life, and not merely remain as thoughts but also become influential actions. Organizations and institutions with a clear purpose and mission are the embodiment of well-constructed ideas making a difference in the world. These are often organizations on the ground right now responding with food, rental assistance, and healthcare during the COVID-19 pandemic. Sacred Sector’s public justice framework is an asset to the Church and faith-based organizations, and my time as a Sacred Sector Fellow was invaluable in learning practical tools toward this end. May we all engage with the ways good ideas can be embodied in the communities and organizations around us.
David Tassell is an adjunct instructor of religion at George Mason University. In 2018, David served as a Sacred Sector Fellow with the Center for Public Justice. His recent published works include The Eucharist and a Posture of Hopeful Engagement and Inspired by Faith: Local Partnerships for the Common Good.
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