3 Clear Steps to Justice

I think Kevin Blue's Practical Justice really does a great job describing how to approach injustice. He brakes it into into a three part progression of going toward justice. First we are called to provide direct relief to those who are hurting. In other words, we should "give a man a fish". This is straight forward but overwhelming, as there are millions across the globe that need help today. The second act toward justice is teaching people skills. Distributing practical skills is a direct way ti enable people to help themselves, or "teaching a man to fish". The last step in the progression toward justice is to learn to deal directly with the system as a whole. To address the larger inequalities that are affecting people, or "fixing the pond". If the ponds polluted, the first two parts will be ineffective or just band-aids on the larger bleeding. Structural is pivotal because it gets to the root cause of the problem and hopefully addresses it. I have no problem with working on the first two but you have ask yourself if something greater is going on to keep folks from thriving. The disparity in the world is shocking and I believe that there are many systems in place to keep people while only a few greatly profit.
Unfortunately, with money comes power and those with money want to stay in power so they leverage both to keep the current system in place.

Shane Claiborne chimes in on the fish adage as well. "We've all heard the saying, “Give someone a fish and they’ll eat for a day, but teach them to fish and they’ll eat for the rest of their life. The problem is that nobody is asking who owns the pond or who polluted it?” I believe this statement couldn't be truer.
I believe the church is really good at the first two parts of doing justice, but are really missing the boat on the last. The church spends a ton of time giving out fish and teaching people how to fish, but it can only be so helpful when the pond is polluted or once the church leaves, the fence comes back up. To the churches dismay, when they come back and see folks hungry again and might become discourage by the overwhelming need. Why? could the pollution or the fence have anything to do with it?

I am asking you, probe deeper, ask more questions? Could systemic poverty come into play here? What can I do to rid the many cycles of poverty. How can people be given a realistic chance to achieve. I don't have answers all the answers and neither do you. Theres no magic bullet but if we keep pushing and start working together, maybe we can get some of these things figured out and bring a little heaven on earth.