Eden. It was the picture of innocence. Man and woman in harmony with all creation and in a perfect relationship with God. And then, a snake, a poison. Sin entered and left human hearts broken and longing for the perfection they had once known.
Sin, says Dr. Jim Vanderwoerd, professor of social work and chair of the department of applied social sciences, is at the root of social work.
鈥淚 think social work helps people to navigate the consequences of how sin has damaged their relationships and their life,鈥 he says. But despite this truth, there鈥檚 a very present irony for the Christian social worker. 鈥淭he secular world doesn鈥檛 have a word for sin.鈥 This presents a tension for Christians in the field of social work, because they believe that all are prone to wander away from God and fall into selfish choices and behaviours.
鈥淪in impacts every area of life. Social work deals with almost all of it,鈥 says Vanderwoerd. From an economic standpoint, there are people who can鈥檛 find work, people dealing with workplaces that mistreat them or people who have to work long hours. Politically, there are people fleeing violence, refugees, war and unjust distribution of resources. Relationally, there are broken homes and people dealing with the impact of addictions and trauma. 鈥淎ll of these things are how sin distorts what God intends for us,鈥 he says. 鈥淪ocial work attempts to address all of these.鈥
Industrialization and rapid immigration in North America created much of the need for the initiation of the social work we see today. Enclaves of European immigrants began to settle in places like Boston and Chicago, and the result was an explosion of social problems. People would be injured on the job, they would be shuffled into inadequate housing, families would break down and there was addiction.
鈥淧eople began to respond to those problems and work with people to try to help them. That鈥檚 what eventually became social work,鈥 says Vanderwoerd. They did that in two different ways. The first focused on teaching people how to live a virtuous life, with a lot of moral overtones, he says. The other was to live among them in these communities and establish community-based centres called settlement houses, which provided people with a range of services and connections to one another. The early social workers would then use the power of those connections to advocate for better services like sanitation, clean water and improved justice and political systems.
鈥淢any of the people who did that were Christians. So even though today we鈥檙e a field that is largely secular鈥攅xplicitly secular sometimes鈥攚e have these Christian origins in a secular profession in the 21st century,鈥 says Vanderwoerd, adding that secular social workers do not really know what to do with those origins. They might even be embarrassed by them because early social workers often moralized and judged people, and today鈥檚 secular social workers do not want to impose religiously based roles and behaviours on their clients. Vanderwoerd admits that early social workers did not always take into account the circumstances in people鈥檚 lives.
Now, in an effort to recognize and affirm many different kinds of ways of being and living, he says, the field of social work has long since moved past its Christian origins. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not very politically correct to be explicitly Christian in social work, even though it鈥檚 a fundamental part of our history. That has everything to do with what we鈥檙e trying to do here at Redeemer. We can鈥檛 escape the shadow of that history, nor do we want to.鈥
Social work takes a lot on itself to fix everything, says Vanderwoerd. 鈥淚t can be tempting to take on the responsibility of making society better. It becomes almost utopian. Some social workers see that as the heart of social work鈥檚 mission,鈥 he says. 鈥淚t can become so political that it loses sight of the particular person and becomes too abstract. Sometimes we need to zero in on a narrower focus鈥攈elp people cope with those bad things, even if we can鈥檛 always fix the bad things ourselves.鈥
Christians in social work must wrestle with that tension. 鈥淲e all want a better world, and as Christians we have our hope in the fact that our victory over sin and death is done. We are moving towards the Kingdom of God. If you have that confidence that this better world is coming鈥攁nd it鈥檚 not our job to make it come, that鈥檚 God鈥檚 job鈥攖hen you may be freed from the obligation to save the world and be able to take a narrower focus.鈥
“If you have that confidence that this better world is coming鈥攁nd it鈥檚 not our job to make it come, that鈥檚 God鈥檚 job鈥攖hen you may be freed from the obligation to save the world and be able to take a narrower focus.鈥
Social work has always had this identity crisis. 鈥淎re we focused on personal rehabilitation or are we focused on systematic change?鈥
This has led to the three levels or categories of social work practice: micro, mezzo and macro. Micro social work is the most common practice, and happens directly with an individual client or family, for example in counselling. Mezzo social work happens on an intermediate scale, involving neighbourhoods, institutions or other smaller groups. Macro level social work happens on a large scale that affects entire communities and systems, like social policy or political advocacy.
There are disagreements among non-Christian and Christian social workers around the worldview that gives social work its foundation. Vanderwoerd says social work codes of ethics all prioritize the inherent dignity of humans as a fundamental principle, but it is not clear where such a principle comes from, were it not for the Judeo-Christian foundation that says humans are made in the image of God. 鈥淚ronically, 鈥榟umans made in the image of God鈥 is the religious language that gives rise to the secular principle of the inherent dignity of humans,鈥 he says.
Vanderwoerd says it raises the question: if you do not think humans are made in the image of God, why do they have inherent dignity? 鈥淚f you push people a little bit, you come to some religious answer, whatever it is. Christians have the most solid case for doing social work because of this notion that there is a God. God鈥檚 very goodness orders the universe so that we actually understand that there鈥檚 good and there鈥檚 bad. There would be no moral awareness whatsoever without God. It comes from outside us, not from inside us. But of course in today鈥檚 society we say that our notions of good and bad come from within. These are worldview kinds of questions.鈥
As a Christian institution, Redeemer has had to find unique ways to prepare its students for a career in social work. 鈥淪ocial work is, in some ways, almost hostile to explicit Christian expressions or identities,鈥 Vanderwoerd says, 鈥減artly because it perceives that Christians are judgmental, discriminatory or bigoted, so they have a lot of stereotypes of who Christians are, and those are none of the things that social workers stand for.鈥
The perception is that Christians are not open-minded he says. Those from a more traditional Christian background are sometimes told that social work may not be well suited for them. 鈥淵ou鈥檙e kind of being counselled out of the field. You can be a Christian, but you essentially need to give up some of those more traditional beliefs. Then you can be a social worker. Of course, that puts you in a bind because does that mean there鈥檚 no room in social work for differences of opinion, or does everyone have the same mindset? Which is ironic because social work claims to be a profession that鈥檚 all about tolerance and inclusion, but it doesn鈥檛 seem to be aware of this one blind spot.鈥
Christians are not the only religious group that may experience this blind spot. There are other religions that may have different views on issues like sexual diversity, marriage and gender roles. According to Vanderwoerd, members of other religious groups may rightfully wonder if social work is really a career they can pursue. 鈥淭he field is so intent on tolerance and inclusion that they might actually be creating a hostile environment for some people they want to include,鈥 he says.
鈥淭hat鈥檚 one of the things that makes Redeemer鈥檚 program absolutely unique. We鈥檙e trying to prepare our students for the realities of this complex social work industry. We don鈥檛 want to scare students off, but we want to make them aware that as Christians, they鈥檙e going to face some challenges. We鈥檙e going to talk about that. We try to prepare our students to strike that balance between being convicted about how their faith matters and not just giving in on all those things, but also being respectful enough to engage with those who are very different than they are. Just because students have these beliefs, doesn鈥檛 mean they can鈥檛 work respectfully with people who make different choices or believe things differently than they do.鈥
鈥淚鈥檓 amazed by the students鈥 awareness of the need for justice and their desire to do something meaningful, to be committed to that.鈥
Vanderwoerd speaks highly of the generation of students he sees coming into his program more recently. 鈥淚鈥檓 amazed by the students鈥 awareness of the need for justice and their desire to do something meaningful, to be committed to that,鈥 he says. 鈥淚 get the sense that students are really committed and really hungry to make a difference. I get the sense that it鈥檚 something they鈥檙e really animated about. They鈥檒l sign up for campaigns or go on marches or volunteer. That鈥檚 pretty encouraging.鈥
Redeemer鈥檚 applied social sciences program aims to bring awareness to the issues and struggles people are facing today, to equip students for this complex field. Vanderwoerd reflects on a class about sexual and gender identity. 鈥淥ur task is to open their eyes to some of these things. Nowadays, everyone has some awareness of that, but we are trying to give them a sense of what that actually might be like for people struggling with these things, no matter what your position is theologically, whether it鈥檚 good, bad or otherwise. Part of it is just raising awareness of social problems and the stories about those problems.鈥
鈥淲hat I often say to students is: if you鈥檙e going to go into social work or this kind of field, you have to have two things. You have to have a soft heart for other people鈥檚 pain, but you also have to have a sense of anger that this is not right,鈥 he says. 鈥淲e鈥檙e trying to do that from a place of hope.鈥
Christian social workers can be motivated in their career by their faith, learning to live out the command to love your neighbour as yourself, but they don鈥檛 have to feel the pressure of saving the world. 鈥淲here you鈥檙e doing that work, you鈥檙e bringing little glimpses of the Kingdom of God, but you鈥檙e not bringing the whole Kingdom of God. You have to kind of bloom where you鈥檙e planted,鈥 Vanderwoerd says, 鈥渂eing part of this restoration, bringing healing in an individual life or in a family or in a neighbourhood or in a policy. In some ways, it鈥檚 lowering your expectations, but you鈥檙e lowering your expectations in terms of what you can do because you鈥檙e handing that over to God, whose work it really is. So that鈥檚 the hope that we鈥檙e trying to give our students. That鈥檚 a different kind of message than what you would get in a secular program.鈥
鈥淲hat is the sense of hope for people who don鈥檛 have faith in a God who is making all things new?鈥 he asks. 鈥淭o me, that would be a very difficult thing.鈥