Semper Reformanda

Second Quarter 1999

Editor's Watch

by James W. Skillen

Always reforming! But how and for how long? Does there ever come a time when something can't be reformed and one must simply quit trying? Paul Weyrich thinks that the time has come for cultural conservatives in the United States to withdraw from politics, though he hopes for reentry at a future date. South African theologian and social reformer Russel Botman kept on pushing for reform when his country was locked under apartheid even though circumstances were far worse there than they are here.

Proponents of tax-support for parental choice of non-government schools are pushing for major reforms even though defenders of the present system have the majority, the money, and the power. Clarke Cochran argues that universal health insurance is essential, even though it looks like that reform is a long way off. Dean Trulear asks African-American Christians, in particular, to reform their approach to helping the inner-city poor. Bob Goudzwaard, the Center's 1999 Kuyper Lecturer, has spent most of his life working for economic and environmental reforms that most likely will not appear in his lifetime or ever.

People who want to reform social practices and institutions typically have a vision of something better or more just. From a commitment to that vision, held by faith, they labor for reform. Some burn out. Others have expectations of fulfillment within a certain period of time and when that time comes and the reforms haven't taken hold, they give up. Others labor toward their goal regardless of success because they are committed to a principle that will not let them stop.

Those who criticize the status quo may do so as simple objectors who wish for something else. Others, convinced that something is wrong, want to know how and why we got into current circumstances. After all, if humans are capable of envisioning a better world, and if they are capable of reform, why does injustice persist? Perhaps the present deformities are due to just a few bad apples—the liberal secularists, or the Communists, or religious fanatics. Or could it be that all humans are implicated in the deformities and are somehow guilty?

Marilynne Robinson believes that something is terribly wrong with the modern West. In her book The Death of Adam, she explains that our predicament is related to our forgetfulness of the past and our insistence on believing myths and fables that can't stand up to sound reason. Marcel Gauchet, whose book we review on p. 10, believes that humans should be autonomous and free of all religious dependency—all external indebtedness—yet he cannot tell us how to create or enter such a world. He needs to read Robinson's book.

The hope and reforming aims of the authors in this issue of the Report are fueled by the good news of Jesus Christ. We believe that God will establish justice on the earth and thus we pray as Jesus taught us to pray: 'Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.' We can be critical without blaming only a few bad apples because we know that sin touches us all. For that reason we also refuse to believe in the fables of human-engineered revolutions that are supposed to transform the world once and for all. Only God can do that. With realism but without cynicism, with hope but without utopian longings, we labor on, semper reformanda, for earthly justice—justice for all—because that is what God has called us to do, day after day, until Christ's kingdom comes in its fullness.