Ta da da DUM!!!!! Yes, it's time for me put my two (or four) cents in on the issue of social justice. As I always say before a post like this: brace yourselves.
So I'll be honest. Whenever I hear the term "social justice" I cringe just a little bit. And I think mainly because it seems to be such a "buzz word", or even a cliche nowadays. That's something that you'll just have to understand about me, anything that seems to be a cliche, no matter how noble the thought behind it is, I instinctively reject. Wish it wasn't true, but it is. But the more I consider the subject, the more I realize that there's more to it than that. I think the term "social justice" is, quite frankly, the wrong term to use for what its goals are, at least for Christians.
Here's the problem: "justice" means something a bit different in American (or Western) culture than it does in God's Word. The American idea of justice is probably better translated as "fairness". We've got that picture of Lady Justice with the scales, and I think the implication is obvious: everybody should be treated equally. The same idea crops up in our ideas on human rights and such. And when someone is being oppressed, or trodden upon, or in any other way being lorded over by those in power, we say "People don't deserve to be treated like that."
Of course, I get enough people coming in to Kit's Camera saying they "deserve" to have their prints done in an hour, or they "deserve" an extension on their warranty even if they didn't pay for one. Americans really do love that word, it seems.
Anyway, the point is that when I think of God's justice, I think of something much different. For those who have spent some time in their lives studying the Bible, have you ever had a discussion on "justice vs. mercy"? What's the basic idea behind it? That God is a just God, but also a merciful one. It's in His nature to bring justice to those who deserve it, but it's also in His nature to bring mercy to those who don't deserve it all. And how does this discussion come up usually? When we're talking about God's mercy on
us. God's redeemed children. We're all sinners, we've all fallen short, and none of us deserve the life He's given us.
The thing I'm getting at is that if this were truly a just world, we would all be dead and in Hell right now. You would, I would, dictators would, criminals would, orphans would, widows would, and the poor, starving, oppressed people in third world nations would. If you want to talk about "justice", about what people "deserve", damnation is exactly what everyone deserves.
Of course, we're just humans. We obviously don't have the power to damn people to Hell, and thank God for that. But we are called to bring justice where it's needed, and what that involves - more often than not - is punishment. When you "bring someone to justice", what are you referring to? Laying out some sort of discipline for whatever it is they've done.
And here's where my problem with "social justice" begins. When people start talking about justice then, it becomes an issues of "justice for the oppressed" and such like that. Of course, it's totally applicable to bring to justice those in power who are oppressing those under them. That's true justice. But to say that we bring clean water to those without it because they "deserve" it? Or because everyone should be treated "fairly"? When I hear the statistics about how wealthy us Americans are and how poor the rest of the world is, it starts to sound more like socialist issues to me. More about giving up what we have because we have "too much" and they have "too little". Fairness. Equality. But I'm sorry, fairness just has nothing to do with justice, at least not the way we talk about it. Nobody on this earth deserves anything good at all.
Now I hope you're not just going to skip the rest of the post and start posting an angry comment now, because you'll have missed my entire purpose for writing this. Of course I believe in giving what we have to those in distress, and caring for the orphans and widows of our country and others. Of course I want to give clean water to those who have to live without it every day. All of these are amazing and wonderful things. But I don't believe in doing them because of "fairness". I only want to do them out of love.
Because God's love is the one thing that can overcome His justice. He always has been and always will be a just God, but His love for us overshadows all things. And yes He's called us to justice, but He's called us to something much, much, MUCH more important: to LOVE. To love God and to love others. Those starving and oppressed people don't deserve a single thing. But what anyone ever "deserves" or not should never, EVER stop us from loving everyone and having mercy on those in trouble.
So you might be asking, "Well okay, so you don't like the term 'social justice', but you support the causes and the goals behind it, right? So what's the big deal? Why make this gigantic post over a couple words?" Well I'm so glad you asked. Because the reasons that we do these things make all the difference in the world.
Honestly, "social justice" is a pretty secular idea. It's all about providing earthly needs for those who have less than us. And you know, 99% of the time I can't think of anything wrong with that. I'm not gonna call somebody out for working to provide clean water for villages in Africa. That's ridiculous. It's a great cause with some great people. But we as Christians can provide so much MORE. So so so much more.
Jesus made a big deal about it Himself when He was talking to the Samaritan woman at the well. She kept going on about earthly water, but He always came back to the same idea: "Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life" (John 4:13-14). What good is it if we're providing clean, earthly water if we never give people a chance to hear about this living water? What's the point of providing earthly needs if we never tell them about the way to eternal life? It would be like giving a man on death row a blanket but holding back the key to his cell.
God has called us to so much more than "fairness". To be blunt, it's a pretty shallow and worldly reason to be providing for those in need. But to care for others because of the depths of God's love and mercy is so much more valuable. I would challenge people to put aside the idea of "social justice" and instead focus more on the ideas of "social love" or "social mercy". It would prove far more beneficial in the end, I think.
If you have any rebuttals or anything, let me know. But this has been my two cents.
-jason <><
P.s. After Wayne's comment I realized I need to make something very clear: these issues of social love or social mercy (caring for those less fortunate) are hugely important in Scripture, and every single member of the body of Christ should be involved with them in some form. I do strongly believe that. It might be directly or indirectly (even just giving financial support), but in the epistles especially this is a very obvious command for all of us. And who knows how it will come about in your life - I give money to my church, which I know gives back to the community in ways commanded by Scripture. If it didn't I would give my money elsewhere, or even possibly look for a different church.
If you want a Biblical reference, here's one (there are much more sprinkled throughout the Bible): "Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world" (James 1:27). 'Orphans and widows' basically refers to those in the culture of the time who would have been unable to care for themselves, so basically, the needy. And like I said, there are many other references, but this one's pretty pointed I think.
