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Your Favorite 2017 Articles

It’s been quite the year! Thanks for reading and learning along with us, as we wrestled with faith with the Bible in one hand and the newspaper in the other (Karl Barth).

Here are the top Do Justice articles (ranked by top pageviews) that got you thinking and acting in 2017: 

1. Omar Khadr, The Kings University, and Micah 6:8 – Roy Berkenbosch

“Omar was a child when he was taken to Afghanistan – he deserved protection.I’ve been teaching students at King’s for 20 years, urging them to embrace the Micah challenge to love mercy, to do justice, and to walk humbly with God – to know about Omar’s plight and not act on that knowledge would be to fail in so many ways.”

2. Resource: A Lenten Journey of Confession and Action – Paola Fuentes Gleghorn and Danielle Steenwyk-Rowaan

“When we confess the ways that we seek our own well-being before that of others and the ways that we participate in those broken systems, we are acknowledging that we are sinners saved by grace alone.”

3. Calvin’s Theology of Social Justice – Matthew Tuininga

“A church can hardly claim to be faithful to the confessions when it does not advocate for the sort of justice taught in those same confessions, nor can a church claim to stand for the justice of the kingdom without proclaiming the gospel that is summarized in those confessions.”

4. Is Health Care for the Poor a Requirement of Justice? –Matthew Tuininga

“John Calvin argued that those who do not share with the poor when they are in need are guilty of theft – and potentially of murder.”

5. Porn Use: It’s About More than Personal Sin –Mary-Lee Bouma

“While porn portrays the violent domination of women for men's sexual pleasure, the Bible introduces a God who stands against violence.” 

6. How Should the Church Respond to Trump’s Travel Ban? –Matthew Tuininga

“When I was a boy growing up in the mountains of northern British Columbia our small Christian Reformed congregation sponsored a refugee family.”

7. I Have a Confession to Make –Danielle Steenwyk-Rowaan

“So, to all the people of colour who may read this: I'm sorry. I'm sorry for being passive and complicit. I'm sorry for letting my laughable fear keep me from being a better ally. I promise to be more courageous.”

8. The Benedict Option: Musings on the Decline of Western Civilization – Daniel Camacho

“Christianity was not said to 'decline' or 'enter into a crisis' when large numbers of white Christians endorsed slavery, genocide, concentration camps, or segregation.”

9. Diversity and Discernment –Danielle Steenwyk-Rowaan

“Synod 2017, the annual general meeting of the Christian Reformed Church, spent a lot of time talking about our Do Justice blog.”

10. Becoming Aware of My Privilege – Jim Payton

“I had absorbed the notion that folks should “pull themselves up by their own bootstraps.” I got to go to university; if they had worked hard, they could have, too. I figured that would work for everybody, no matter where they lived or what colour their skin was. BUT I was white, male, and of European ancestry.”

 

We’d like to make special mention of our Do Justice columnists as well, whose contributions have also been frequently read and who have contributed so much to our little online community through as they wrestle with justice issues in their local contexts.

Thanks too to our readers—on Giving Tuesday, you contributed more than $5000 USD to sustain the work of Do Justice in the coming year!

The Reformed family is a diverse family with a diverse range of opinions. Not all perspectives expressed on the blog represent the official positions of the Christian Reformed Church. Learn more about this blog, Reformed doctrines, and our diversity policy on our About page.

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