BIBLICAL JUSTICE VS. SOCIAL JUSTICE

VODDIE BAUCHAM

The term and concept of social justice is one that has a very specific and well-defined meaning.  Why does the meaning matter?  God demands justice and injustice is sin.  If social justice is really justice, then anything that doesn’t align with it is sin.  

Micah 6:1-8

Hear now what the Lord says: “Arise, plead your case before the mountains, And let the hills hear your voice. Hear, O you mountains, the Lord’s complaint, And you strong foundations of the earth; For the Lord has a complaint against His people, And He will contend with Israel. “O My people, what have I done to you? And how have I wearied you? Testify against Me. For I brought you up from the land of Egypt, I redeemed you from the house of bondage; And I sent before you Moses, Aaron, and Miriam.  O My people, remember now What Balak king of Moab counseled, And what Balaam the son of Beor answered him, From Acacia Grove to Gilgal, That you may know the righteousness of the Lord.” With what shall I come before the Lord, And bow myself before the High God? Shall I come before Him with burnt offerings, With calves a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, Ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, The fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? He has shown you, O man, what is good; And what does the Lord require of you But to do justly, To love mercy, And to walk humbly with your God?

• Justice is not optional.  God demands justice from His people.  

Definitions of Social Justice:

• Oxford Dictionary of the English language: Social justice (n) - chiefly politics and philosophy, justice at the level of a society or state as regards the possession of wealth, commodities, opportunities, and privileges; distributive justice 

• William Young’s definition: Social justice has evolved to mean state redistribution of advantages and resources to disadvantaged groups to satisfy their rights and social and economic equality 

Social justice is not a heart issue.  It’s a state issue.  Social justice is not about individuals, it is about groups and outcomes for groups.  From the Biblical perspective, Biblical justice is a heart issue and a law of God issue.  

• Teaching for diversity and social justice: an analysis of how power, privilege, and oppression impact our experience of our social identities.  Full and equal participation of all groups in a society that is mutually shaped to meet their needs.  Social justice includes a vision of a society in which the distribution of resources is equitable.  And all members of a space, community, institution, or society are physically and psychologically safe and secure.

  • Not the reality of our social identities, but the experience 

  • There’s a difference between equity and equality. 

  • These definitions are from academic sources.  

• Warning about Social Justice, from New Discourses - Social justice is the ultimate trojan horse term where it seems to mean one good thing as most people understand it.  Social justice - a more fair and equal society, but it actually means something else.  That something else is very specific and most people if they knew what they were encountering would be unlikely to accept it.  The idea advertised by the phrase social justice doesn’t match the ideology and worldview bearing the seemingly identical name.  Social justice means something more specific.  It means critical social justice.  This is in fact an ideology that aggressively pursues the social, cultural, institutional, and political installation and enforcement of a very specific and radical understanding of social justice as derived from various critical theories and their analyses of various socially constructed dynamics of systems of power.  As such, they do not necessarily seek to achieve social justice in the broad sense or the sense that many people would assume of the term.  Instead, they seek to empower and enforce their particular worldview that revolves around one narrow and authoritarian interpretation of the concept. 

Our mission in justice for Christians is to align ourselves with the law of God. Social justice is inherently incompatible with Biblical justice.

• Conflict theory from Karl Marx - explains sociology and the relationships between people.  The root of relationships between people was the conflict as it relates to resources.  

• Hegemony, Antonio Gramsci - There is a ruling group in culture and society and they establish the rules of the game in order to benefit themselves and those like them, as well as oppress all other groups and individuals.  Oppressor and oppressed paradigm 

  • Ex) America’s oppressor class - white, male, heterosexual, cis-gendered, able-bodied, native-born, Christian - according to Critical Theory

Christian privilege is identified as a source of oppression in Western and American cultures.  They are calling it as oppressive as white privilege. If Christianity is the oppressor, and social justice is working to stop oppression, then social justice is anti-Christianity

• Mission of Social Justice, Joe Fagan - Social justice requires resource equity, fairness, and respect for diversity as well as the eradication of existing forms of social oppression.  Social justice entails a redistribution of resources from those who have unjustly gained them to those who justly deserve them.  And it also means creating and ensuring the processes of truly democratic participation in decision making.  It seems clear that only a decision redistribution of resources and decision-making power can ensure social justice and authentic democracy.  

  • Equality means people are viewed and treated equally under the law.  You are given the same opportunities.  Equity is about outcomes.

• Steps in the mission of Social Justice:

  • 1) Identify disadvantaged groups

    • Diversity, equity, inclusion - the holy trinity of the social justice movement

    • Intersectionality - the idea that you multiply oppression to the degree that you multiply participation in an oppressed group

  • 2) Assess group outcomes

  • 3) Assign blame for disparate outcomes 

  • 4) Redistribute power and resources to address these grievances 

• Everything is a social justice issue now.  Because social justice is about redistribution until you see equity.  Anywhere there is no equity means there is no justice 

• Ex) COVID-19 deaths - minorities disproportionately dying = social justice issue 

• Ibram x kindy, How to be an anti-racist - used in government agencies, universities, and fortune 500 companies for diversity training 

  • Proposed an amendment to the constitution: “To fix the original sin of racism, Americans should pass an anti-racism amendment to the US Constitution that enshrines two anti-racist principles: 1) racial inequity is evidence of racist policy, 2) the different racial groups are equals.  The amendment would make unconstitutional the racial inequity over a certain threshold, as well as racist ideas by public officials (with racist ideas and public officials clearly defined). It would establish and permanently fund the department of anti-racism, comprised of formerly trained experts on racism and no political appointees.  The DOA would be responsible for pre-clearing all local, state, and federal public policies to ensure that they won’t yield inequity, monitor those policies, investigate private racist policies when racial inequity surfaces and monitor public officials for expressions of racist ideas. The DOA would be empowered with disciplinary tools to wield over and against policymakers and public officials who do not voluntarily change their racist policy and ideas. “

• This is antithetical to Biblical justice in every way imaginable! 

• Milton Friedman, economist - A society that puts equality, in the sense of the equality of outcomes, ahead of freedom will end up with neither equality nor freedom.  The use of force to achieve equality will destroy freedom.  And the force introduced for good purposes will end up in the hands of people who will use it to promote their own interests. 

Those in the body of Christ do not function in this manner.  We are not about gaining political power in order to force people to do justice. We are about the proclamation of the Gospel.  True justice must and can only come from hearts transformed through the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. 

• Critical social justice will eventually not tolerate the proclaiming of the Gospel in the marketplace of ideas.

• We must pursue justice and injustice is sin.  The difference between social justice and Biblical justice is that we’re going about it in the wrong way.  

  • How do we define injustice?  The Bible defines injustice as that which fails to comply with, comport with, and rise to the level of the law of God.  It would come down to whether or not we are submitting to the law of God.  Social justice defines injustice as anything that produces or allows an inequitable outcome.  For example, the parable of the talents would be an injustice to them.  To them, God would be unjust.