Benjamin Watson, the Super Bowl champion turned author, activist and outspoken Evangelical leader, is no stranger to conversations about justice.
Now, he’s launching a new podcast, “The Just Life,” rooted in the Old Testament verse Micah 6:8: “Act justly, love mercy, walk humbly.” The podcast, he explained, is an attempt to make justice an ongoing, integrated part of daily life, rather than simply a reaction to headline-grabbing events.
For the 44-year-old 15-year NFL veteran and college football analyst, who shares seven children with his wife, Kirsten, Micah 6:8 serves as the bedrock of his family’s life and the framework for how he believes Christians should engage the world.
“Justice has always kind of been a thread in my life,” Watson told The Christian Post. “I’ve always been someone who cared about the vulnerable. It’s what leads my advocacy when it comes to the issue of life in the womb, when it comes to mothers, when it comes to racial justice in our country — those sorts of things have always been important to me. And as a family, we decided a while ago that that verse, that concept of justice and walking humbly before God would be the foundation of what we were going to be about as a family.”
“This summer, we took our kids to Guatemala on a mission trip with Compassion International, to kind of see how people were living there, but also to advocate for children who were living in poverty,” Watson said.
He connected that experience to a broader definition of justice — “as an act of restoration” — and cited work with organizations like International Justice Mission to protect young people from exploitation.
“I felt like I wanted justice to be an ongoing conversation and kind of a way of life, instead of a reaction to a certain instance of injustice,” he said. “We get riled up, and rightly so, we get emotional about these blatant acts of injustice. But the Bible talks a lot about living in a way that is girded in justice every single day in Scripture.”
Watson, who has studied the biblical language closely, noted that the concept of justice appears approximately 2,000 times in Scripture, while the Hebrew word for “justice” appears approximately 400 times.
“If we were to live in a way that was equitable and kind and loving and treated people fairly, we wouldn’t have to have the punitive, corrective justice that we talk about,” he said.
The show’s scope is wide, covering what Watson called “a full menu” of issues, from grassroots efforts like feeding the hungry to political advocacy and global persecution of the Church.
“I wanted to offer … all of these issues that I believe are connected through the realm of justice, and just get people to think about how they can live justly, mentally, physically, spiritually, emotionally, in everyday life,” he said.
Some Christians, Watson acknowledges, hesitate when they hear the word “justice,” fearing it’s been co-opted by politics or “the social justice gospel.” But he pushes back on that hesitation.
“When we look through Scripture, God is a God of justice. … The ultimate act of justice was Christ dying on the cross. That was an act of justice, because sin had to be paid for through shed blood,” he said.
He draws a sharp distinction between biblical justice and the ways culture sometimes redefines it and stressed the need for biblical literacy when tackling tough subjects.
“The challenge becomes when we allow the world to hijack what God has created,” he explained. “The world, the evil one, Satan, will always hijack what God … has created. We see it in the issue of sex, … and then we don’t want to talk about it because it’s been hijacked. But the world didn’t create the idea of justice.”
For Watson, justice is inherently social and lived out in community.
“Those two concepts of justice, treating people equitably in everyday life and also punishing those who deserve punishment and protecting those who deserve protection, … that’s social justice. It’s justice being lived out in society,” he said. “We need to be rooted in the text, and then we can be advocates, and we can shine a light on justice.”
“The Just Life” features a range of guests, from pastors and grassroots activists to survivors of abuse, artists and thinkers.
The roster includes rapper Lecrae discussing mental health and healing, Dr. Cornel West unpacking “prophetic Christianity,” Ravi Zacharias International Ministries whistleblower Ruth Malhotra on speaking truth to power inside a major Christian ministry, and Bruce Deel on rescuing trafficking victims through radical love.
“I was fearful. I was like, nobody’s going to want to come talk about this,” Watson said. “And it was the most enlightening, enjoyable experience to hear people that were speaking the same language in a lot of ways.”
That language, he said, is a shared desire “to love people and serve people and treat people right,” regardless of one’s profession or background. “It’s not just for people who went to law school. … It’s not just for pastors. … We all, no matter your phase of life … have a role to play,” Watson said.
Watson was struck by grassroots innovators like Jasmine Crowe-Houston, who used technology to connect surplus food with people in need, later opening a grocery store in an Atlanta food desert. He was equally moved by survivors who risked everything to speak against abuse. “The courage that it takes to say, I might lose everything … but this is unjust, and I have to speak out, not only for myself, but for others,” he said.
Watson hopes listeners leave “The Just Life” both inspired and unsettled.
“I want people to be encouraged, but also to be challenged,” he said. “Inside the Church, outside the Church, there are certain issues of justice that challenge us because of their connection to political party or to people that we know. And the best place to be in is a posture of not always being comfortable, but having to think and have a conversation.”
Leah M. Klett is a reporter for The Christian Post. She can be reached at: leah.klett@christianpost.com
