Is Social Justice Cool?

I have been intending to write something on the problems with social justice as it’s often addressed, but I’ve needed something to coalesce my thoughts. This excellent post from the pastor of the Well, a community of house churches in Southern California, did just that. In his post, he discusses why addressing issues of injustice and meeting needs through programs misses the point. He says the poor and needy are not statistics, they are souls with needs that can only be met through personal interaction, love, and the Gospel. Money and food can’t help someone struggling with spiritual depression or lonliness. I agree completely.

Another point that he mentions but does not develop is that social justice is “cool.” I’ve thought this many times. Social justice often seems more of a fashion and a mood, and not a lifestyle of denying yourself. For many, it’s simply a conscience salve. It’s very easy to talk about helping the poor and needy nestled comfortably in a recliner at Starbucks sipping a $4 mocha. You can have your cake, and eat it too, so to speak. You can feel like you are helping the poor because that $2 bottle of water you bought helped build a well in Africa, but you never have to minister to a real, hurting African with spiritual needs. In short, social justice makes people feel like they’re good at little personal cost.

Besides the lack of personal interaction, my biggest problem with the fashion of social justice is it operates on the philosophy that money can solve everything. Just throw enough money at the poor parts of the world, and poof, all the problems will disappear. On the contrary, foreign aid to many poor countries often results in rampant corruption and abuse. The point is, we can build wells, send medical supplies, and build schools in poor countries worldwide, and souls will still go to hell. Meeting of physical needs is essential, but it can never be separated from the Gospel. As the pastor writes in his post, treating physical symptoms without treating the heart is like treating cancer with Tylenol. It will ease the pain temporarily, but it will lead to eternal destruction.

I’m not saying helping the needy is unimportant, nor am I saying  every Christian needs to go to Africa. What I’m saying is true social justice will always cost more than money. Justice, true justice, cost Christ his life. Think about that before you jump on the social justice bandwagon.



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5 Responses to “Is Social Justice Cool?”

1. Diane R says:

   October 6, 2009 at 6:14 pm

   This is a much needed voice in this discussion. Thanks so much. I just got through reading a book that says similar things and beleive me, it's hard to find this type of book. I bought it from Monergism (the Calvinistic webstore) so I trusted it to be right on and I thought it basically was after I read it. The authors are professors at Covenant College and the book is entitled, “When Helping Hurts: How to Alleviate Poverty Without Hurting the Poor.” I've been looking for people who are combining preaching the gospel with really helping the poor (empowering them, not regulating them) in balance and that is very difficult to find as most voices today give short thrift to the gospel if any. The one disappointing thing in this book as with all other voices telling us to help the poor and how to do it is the lack of any coherent plan for American poor. The problem is this: It's much easier helping people in countries where they already have housing and don't need much money. But here in tehe USA it's a much more difficult problem.

   Reply
2. Dani says:

   October 7, 2009 at 1:14 pm

   Humanism completely leaves out the principles of God that change the heart. It attempts to put a temporary band-aide on an outward symptom and always fails when it comes to the cause.

   Humanism is of the antichrist spirit, the new world religious order where all are in unity as “good humanitarians”…..all apart from The Truth.

   Reply
3. riw777 says:

   October 8, 2009 at 6:12 am

   Social justice is just a perversion of justice. The general idea is replacing the justice of God, which calls for restoration in the face of sin, and supports the entire idea of Jesus paying for our sins on the cross, with a “new form of justice” that says justice is equal outcomes, or “what we feel is right.” Social justice attacks the basis of Christianity, and the morality of God's Law, and should be rejected outright everywhere we encounter it.

   Caring for the poor, by the way, is not “social justice,” it is mercy, charity, or compassion. These are all attributes of God, and are rightly provinces of Christian action and belief. But by calling charity by the government “social justice,” we are simply perverting our entire language, and our thinking along with it.

   Russ

   Reply
4. riw777 says:

   October 8, 2009 at 12:12 pm

   Social justice is just a perversion of justice. The general idea is replacing the justice of God, which calls for restoration in the face of sin, and supports the entire idea of Jesus paying for our sins on the cross, with a “new form of justice” that says justice is equal outcomes, or “what we feel is right.” Social justice attacks the basis of Christianity, and the morality of God's Law, and should be rejected outright everywhere we encounter it.

   Caring for the poor, by the way, is not “social justice,” it is mercy, charity, or compassion. These are all attributes of God, and are rightly provinces of Christian action and belief. But by calling charity by the government “social justice,” we are simply perverting our entire language, and our thinking along with it.

   Russ

   Reply
5. Beverley says:

   July 1, 2010 at 5:37 am

   Most of it is a con job … a case of one for you and two for me. It is a money making racket. By the time everyone has dipped in the cookie jar there is nothing left. Bearing in mind all the running expenses, paper work and cars ect.

   The best thing is look very closly at the
   charity you want to support. Or better still the person you want to try and help
   educate.

   Reply