SOCIAL JUSTICE PLAY
Part I: Biblical Background
(We acknowledge the debt we owe Robert McAfee Brown from whose book Unexpected News we gleaned much of the material for Part1)
"When Israel was in Egypt Land" - The great Spiritual!
God hears the cry of the oppressed.
God takes sides! - their side
But god expects the oppressed to involve themselves
In their own liberation.
Magnificat: Mary's great song of praise and liberation. This song, from Brasil, combines Mary's Magnificat with her Brasilian patronal title Aparecida - of the Apparition. Mary
is a humble, sturdy peasant woman standing with the people.
By the Rivers of Babylon - Ps 137
Jeremiah warned the top brass of Judah, the temple authorities, and royal house among them. "Do justice and it will go well with you." Their failure to heed resulted in the Babylonian Captivity. (Doing justice is a great deal more difficult than talking about it.)
(P.S.: Note how fundamentalists like Back to the Bible, Inc., Christian Destiny, Inc., etc., mock social justice concerns as being unbiblical, anti-evangelization, secret infiltration of Communism into the Christian body, etc., where as, justice is a central theme in every book of the Bible.)
Part II
Short dramatization of the victimizing of street children.
The difference between paternalist "charity" and liberating struggle for justice.
We shall overcome - some day Oh deep in my heart, I do believe---