Charity = Direct Service

Justice = Social Change/Advocacy

     Scriptural Reference: Good Samaritan Story

The Gospel story does not attempt to survey the causes of highway banditry. The Samaritan provides temporary and immediate relief.

            Scriptural Reference: Exodus Story

Moses does not ask for food and medicine for the Jewish slave-labor force. He challenges the institutional system with
the message: "Let My People Go."
 

Private, individual acts

Public, collective actions

Responds to immediate need

Responds to long-term need

Provides direct service

Promotes social change in institutions

Requires repeated actions

Resolves structural injustice

Directed at the effects of injustice: symptoms

Directed at the root causes of social injustice

                                    The work of JUSTICE  =  ADVOCACY. 

To be an advocate is to ask the question: why are there so many poor?       

Advocacy is being the voice of the voiceless:

the powerless, vulnerable and marginalized.

Remember the River...