It’s Time for Christians to Jump Off the Social Justice Bandwagon

[Michie]

Why are so many Believers trading God's justice for mob justice?

To preach moral duty without the underlying power of the gospel,” explains Don Carson, “is moralism that is both pathetic and powerless.”

It seems many Christians have fully swapped out morality rule books, trading the Bible for an ever-changing social justice manual. One was written by the very hand of God and will never be erased, edited or discredited. The other? The loudest and most influential voices win the right to determine what the societal rules of the day are. Of course, the rules change according to whatever their current agenda is, and most aren’t privy to these rules until they are cancelled, or worse.

Of course, most people of God wouldn’t admit to shelving the Word of God in favor of the word of the mob. Instead, they have been known to attempt an unholy morphing of the two manuscripts while most often favoring social justice issues. Biblical truths are forced to fit within man-made definitions of what is right and fair.

The truth is biblical justice and social justice are often, though not always, mutually exclusive. They are at odds.

“You must not follow the crowd in doing wrong. When you are called to testify in a dispute, do not be swayed by the crowd to twist justice. And do not slant your testimony in favor of a person just because that person is poor.” (Exodus 23:2–3, NLT)

The plumb line of morality can never be the crowd. This is the clearest way to express the concern with today’s social justice movement. Does it mean the crowd is always wrong? No. Does it mean the crowd is imperfect in its ability to discern? Yes. For Christians the litmus test of morality does not come from our ability to gauge unfairness or improprieties. The test is Scripture. We don’t need a social justice movement that’s tainted by the agendas, whims, politics and emotional reactions of the squeakiest wheels. We need a movement of God’s justice on the Earth as he is the only perfect judge. His justice is never wrong.

There are many distinctions between social justice and biblical justice. Here are just a few.

Continued below.
It’s Time for Christians to Jump Off the Social Justice Bandwagon | The Stream

 

[Sidon]

The "world" is caught up in "gay rights", "social justice", "blaming Israel for getting in the way of those rockets fired toward Tel Aviv".... may things like this.
So, any person who is also caught up in these same, is following the world.

Generally speaking, the "world" is the same idea as "secular media".

 

[Lavaduder]

It's getting irksome. I just watched a video where the preacher never uses the word SIN, but instead "Social injustice". Why be so limiting?

 

[boughtwithaprice]

The writer of the article is not Catholic, but brings up some good points. Social justice today reminds me of the story in the Bible where a person appealed to the Lord to command that his brother share the inheritance. Luke 12

[13] And one of the multitude said to him: Master, speak to my brother that he divide the inheritance with me. [14] But he said to him: Man, who hath appointed me judge, or divider, over you? [15] And he said to them: Take heed and beware of all covetousness; for a man's life doth not consist in the abundance of things which he possesseth.

A really good book that I am reading is Communism and the Conscience of the West by Bishop Fulton J Sheen. He basically says that communism and capitalism are not spiritually different as they both want the same things. They both believe that economics will bring happiness to man, one for the individual, the other through the collective. In the end they are the same; a communist is just a capitalist with no cash in his pocket. Jesus tells us to take our eyes off of the things of this world and follow Him.

Matthew 16:

[24] Then Jesus said to his disciples: If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. [25] For he that will save his life, shall lose it: and he that shall lose his life for my sake, shall find it. [26] For what doth it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, and suffer the loss of his own soul? Or what exchange shall a man give for his soul? [27] For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels: and then will he render to every man according to his works.

When the Church gets involved in so called social justice causes, we wind up in petty disputes over the goods of this world. When we take our eyes off of God and put them on the world, we become blind. On page 27 of his book, Bishop Sheen quotes another book, The Anti-Christ by Joseph Roth

"For we have been struck with blindness, with the blindness of which it is written that it will come upon us before the end of time. We have long failed to recognize the nature and appearance of the things with which we have contact. Like those who are physically blind we have merely names for all the things of this world which we can no longer perceive. It is as though we were building a horizontal Tower of Babel which the blind, who are unable to recognize proportion, believe to be vertical and growing higher; and they think that everything is in order for they understand one another perfectly... whereas their comprehension of the proportion, form, and colour of things is only that of men without sight. Terms which were originally applied correctly, and which fitted the phenomena of this world, are applied by them in a false and inverted sense. That which is raised they call flat, and that which is flat they call raised, since a blind man cannot distinguish between what is lofty and what is level. At the time of Babel it was only the tongues and ears of men that were confused. A few of the builders could still comprehend one another by the language of the eyes, which are called the mirror of the soul. Now, however, the eyes of men are blinded (and tongues are only servants, while eyes are masters, in the hierarchy of the human senses). How can we still hope that the Antichrist has not yet come? This faith and this hope are further evidence of our blindness. For just as a man without sight can be persuaded that night is day and day is night, so can we, who have lost our eyes, be made to believe the the Antichrist is not here, that we are not smouldering in the glow of his eyes, that we are not standing in the shadow of his wings."
Joseph Roth, The Anti-Christ (New York: Viking Press, 1935), pp. 4-6.