A Christian ethicist has challenged church leaders to examine their ideas of economic justice in order to avoid imposing western standards on the rest of the world.

Dr Karen Lebacqz, professor of Christian ethics at the Pacific School of Religion in California, said Christians needed to "establish standards for justice across nations and peoples without in some way being disrespectful of others".

Dr Lebacqz was addressing members of the executive committee of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches (Warc) here on 27 July. Warc has more than 200 churches with 75 million members world-wide.

Warc has placed the pursuit of economic justice at the top of its agenda as it prepares for its next major world gathering, called the general council, scheduled for 2004, on the theme, "That All May Have Life in Fullness."

Citing Christian thinkers from St Augustine to John Wesley, Dr Lebacqz told the gathering: "Christian tradition makes very clear that the poverty I see, the homelessness, the begging in the street is an injustice."

"Justice requires what is usually called a 'preferential option for the poor'," she continued. "Where there is systemic poverty or a large gap between rich and poor, there is a presumption of injustice."

However, Dr Lebacqz pointed out, in a reference to the theme of the general council, "different religious and cultural groups may have their own notions of what constitutes a fully good life."

She questioned whether respecting the views of others meant that she had to accept a kind of relativism "that undermines my clear Christian convictions about justice".

But she stressed that she believed it possible to find "broad, cross-cultural consensus" between peoples on what justice means in practice.

Drawing on the insights of feminist philosopher Martha C Nussbaum, of the University of Chicago - who has wide experience of both India and the United States - Dr Lebacqz outlined an approach that offered both "respect for local cultures and a set of universal norms".

This approach involves identifying not rights, but a set of "capabilities" widely accepted as desirable, and then seeing whether these capabilities were promoted or not by society.

Such "capabilities" included, she said, people's capacities to plan their lives, to form friendships and alliances with others, to seek employment without discrimination and to participate in political choices that affected their lives.

If a society did not promote such capabilities, Dr Lebacqz said, "justice has not been done".

"It is the responsibility of all of us to work toward political support for these capabilities," Dr Lebacqz said.

Dr Lebacqz's comments tied in with the issue of economic justice being addressed throughout the Warc meeting here.

"What we like about her approach is that she doesn't start from theory, she starts where ordinary Christians start, from experience," Paraic Reamonn, Warc's press officer, told ENI.

"When we walk down a street and see an old woman outside a store full of luxury goods begging for money to buy a cup of tea, we think what Karen thinks. We don't say, 'That's unfortunate', we say, 'That's unfair.'

"What theologians have to help us with is how to relate that sense of unfairness to our common Christian faith and how to use that sense of unfairness to make universal judgements about the way our world should be, without trampling on legitimate differences between our cultures." [579 words]

For the full text of Karen Lebacqz's speech, click here.

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