The Worship of Social Justice

PREFACE:
I am fully confident that most will disagree with my frankness and extremism when addressing social justice. That's fine, my intent is not to offend though, but neither is my opinion subject to interpretation. There's a fine line between those two. Whatever the case, my highest possible hope is that you'll see there is some truth to what I say about social justice, so that you will be reminded of the Gospel the next time it comes up.

Ever wonder why other countries often have a much more "spiritual" or mystical approach to religion than Americans do? Many Christians who have completed short-term mission projects often come home with a troubling realization: American society is very materialistic. You may see the casting out of a demon in India, the healing of cancer in Ethiopia, or the dead brought back to life in Mexico. But you will not find that here. In fact, I've never been with an Americanized group of Christians who are primarily concerned with the events of the spiritual world. We have other matters to attend to: money matters, race matters, gender matters, etc. Does this trouble you too?

I don't know why we have become this way, but I do know how our misplaced priorities assisted in the creation of the social justice movement. This is my attempt to explain it.

Education is very popular in America. Many of us have been educated such that we are more aware of the needs of our society and how to meet those needs than others. In other words, we have gained the status of the socially virtuous. We can do right where others have done wrong. Where are the economically poor? Where are those who got less than they deserved? Where are those who have fallen victim to social oppressors? For the humanities majors, our grades depended on our knowledge and skills to address social ills. In fact, for almost every area of study, there were required courses on how to address racial, gender, and social injustices. In our college communities, Christians were even greatly affirmed by non-Christians when we served the cause of making things better in our society. Everyone was assimilated into a culture of addressing social problems. And how great we felt when we changed the world!! We were educated to make the world a better place, which is the purpose of all secular education, and we felt good about it.

I do not believe our education was bad, just ignorant of Christianity. The social justice movement grew solely because it was popular at the university level, and not because it was Biblical. We became blind to doctrine and commands, and became sensitive to needs and rights. Nevermind that our professors knew nothing of the simple virtue of putting faith in Jesus. Ignore the fact that many of our educated non-Christian peers are disgusted by the idea of Hell and the eventual destruction of the planet outlined in Revelations. Put aside the fact that Amnesty International does not serve God's will, but the people's. We tell ourselves, Christianity must meet the needs of the modern issues of our time!!!

I think this is where the breakdown begins. Our decision to continue a culture addressing social ills becomes based on emotion, not Biblical reasoning. Clearly, not all of our mental decisions are based on reason. Some of them are entirely emotional. This is my assumption from those I've seen become soldiers for social justice: to be passionate about social justice, one must be carried away by some emotions to the point of demoting the priority of glorifying God. The emotion doesn't really matter, just the effect. Almost always, this involves demoting some aspect of Christianity duty for emotions' sake.

For most social justice Christians, fears and insecurities seem to be the biggest culprits. Very simply, because they are afraid of preaching the Gospel, they sacrifice it for social justice. Why talk to someone about their spiritual oppression when you can relieve their physical and social oppression with much less resistance? Why battle with the strongholds of doubt, when a battle with a corrupt employer is so much more fulfilling? Why read the Bible together when you can build a house instead? Though I love them dearly, I saw many current social activists build their Christian walk along these lines. The social virtues were practiced and became passions, passions became habits, then lifestyles, and have finally become ministries. Christians were affirmed by everyone, including non-Christians, for their social efforts. Thus, some have come to understand social justice as "reaching the lost" or "missions." A significant amount of missions, what used to be know as evangelism, have also become social justice based.

The last evolution is quite troubling. The danger of involvement in ANY secular movement is the demotion of Christianity to be the servant of a greater good. Suddenly, Christianity becomes true because it presents the best solution to the problems of social injustice. Christianity can be directly involved in our ministry of social justice... praise God!!! Christianity, you see, is practical.... and true. You are free from your economic slavery, see, Jesus saves!

When this happens, we are no longer worship our Lord for who He is, but for what the world can be like because we know His Will for it. We place our social goals above His goals. We make the world a better place, when He has promised to destroy it. What happens when Jesus comes and destroys all we've done to make things more fair? What happens when our social goals and idols get flippantly tossed aside so that all of the glory can go to God?

A common mistake is to adopt any sort of self-made language and associate it with Christianity. Bill O'reilly has a motto, "God helps those who help themselves." It's bullshit. It sounds good, but it's twisted Bible bullshit. The temptation is to apply this phrase literally with Christianity authority, as if it was God-spoken. It's not. The same principle applies to the term "social justice." The term social justice never appears in the Bible. Not in Isaiah 58. Nowhere. It's bullshit. It sounds good, but it's twisted Bible bullshit. The temptation is to apply this phrase literally with Christianity authority, as if it was God-spoken. It's not. Many in the social justice movement make this mistake. The same can be said about the phrase, "Preach the Gospel at all times, and if necessary, use words."

Another common mistake: Every religion in the world has their own version of social justice. No religion in the world opposes social justice, at least not their own version, but every religion opposes the Gospel. There are two potential faults here when pursuing social justice, almost always one of which is taken. The first is to back away from the Gospel because it offends people. The second is to adopt an attitude of plurality and tolerance of other religions so that the Gospel does not entirely offend. Both errors equally offend Christianity for the same goal: to extend the cause of the social justice as an end in itself. This is materialistic idolatry and it worships social justice rather than the Lord. It seems to me that these two roads taken are taken when one is often afraid of offending people and/or their faith in a personal and loving Lord is weak.

I'm convinced that people serve social justice because we worship materialism. The social justice movement prays and worships the idol of materialism to achieve its goals. Change the rich to change to poor, oh god! lord, empower these people, with tremendous amounts of social influence!! It is the most prevelant Christian movement in today's society and it is also the most materialistic. There is no spiritual difference between Al Qaeda and the movement of social justice. Both operate on the same principals: to make the world a better place as they see fit, with God's blessing. But did God command either? What greater victory can Hell have over Christians than to consume them with worldly goals and ignorance of personal faith in a spiritual Savior?

No matter how practical social movements become, they're still avoiding the horrible truth of the Gospel. The Gospel does not provide medicine to social ills. It doesn't. Jesus cured people for the glory of God. Because HE did it, HE gets the praise. That's the goal of the Gospel. We are meant to be followers of Jesus whose primary mission is to preach the Gospel to everyone. Let's not "interpret" ourselves out of this command and start serving social needs instead.