I recently read an article by Michael Giere called Can the Gospel Survive the “Social Justice” Fad? It is basically a critique of Tim Keller’s Generous Justice. I have to make two confessions. One is that I have not read Keller’s book, and so I cannot defend or critique his specific points. Secondly, I have been informed in the past that as a Canadian, I am not qualified to talk about such things as I do not sufficiently understand the cultural war between conservatives and liberals in the United States. Having said that, I will attempt to make a few comments and will just have to be prepared for the consequences.
One of the things that this article does is acknowledge the difficulty in defining social justice. Ironically, the author condemns social justice as if he does know what it is. I did a search for definitions and of course there is a wide range. I found this one fairly helpful: “The fair and proper administration of laws conforming to the natural law that all persons, irrespective of ethnic origin, gender, possessions, race, religion, etc., are to be treated equally and without prejudice.” Whatever the precise definition, what is common is that has to do with society and not just the individual and that its aim is to narrow the gap between the rich and the poor.
Having talked with a number of people in addition to having read this article, it is clear that a number of evangelicals see social justice as completely incompatible with Christianity. One person on Facebook described social justice as “demonic.”
I had hoped that the church had moved beyond this. Last century there was a split in the church where conservatives focused on an evangelistic gospel and liberals on a social gospel. There was much suspicion between the two camps, and the expectation was that there would be no overlap. What I have seen in recent years is an increasing embrace of a whole Gospel that includes both personal salvation and social justice aspects. Apparently, this trend is not welcomed by everyone.
Although I understand there is a culture war going on, I personally am more concerned with what the Bible says than defending conservatism or liberalism. Does the Bible give any indication that God is interested in social justice? One of the clearest examples is: “And when you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap your field right up to its edge, nor shall you gather the gleanings after your harvest. You shall leave them for the poor and for the sojourner: I am the LORD your God.” (Leviticus 23:22 ESV) I was told that this doesn’t count any more as this is the Old Testament. I have no idea how often I have heard evangelicals quote the OT in attacks on homosexuality and yet the passages on caring for the poor no longer count? Another important passage is Isaiah 1. In this chapter, God indicates he hates the worship of Israel, even though they are doing what God commanded for worship. Why? “When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I will not listen; your hands are full of blood. Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes; cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s cause.” (Isaiah 1:15–17 ESV) This passage should cause us to pause in our attitudes toward the poor. Of course this is from the OT as well, and perhaps is easily dismissed. By the way, I would suggest that whatever transition from OT to NT in terms of commands, these passages tell us something about God’s heart and what he values.
What about the New Testament? Jesus has some strong words about how we treat the poor:
“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me,I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’ “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink,I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ Then they also will answer, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to you?’ Then he will answer them, saying, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’ And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.” (Matthew 25:31–46 ESV)
One of the passages that came up in the article responding to Keller was this:
“So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder! Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless?” (James 2:17–20 ESV)
One of the themes that is extremely strong in James is the relationship between the rich and the poor.
“Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world. My brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory. For if a man wearing a gold ring and fine clothing comes into your assembly, and a poor man in shabby clothing also comes in, and if you pay attention to the one who wears the fine clothing and say, “You sit here in a good place,” while you say to the poor man, “You stand over there,” or, “Sit down at my feet.” (James 1:27–2:3 ESV)
“Come now, you rich, weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you. Your riches have rotted and your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver have corroded, and their corrosion will be evidence against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up treasure in the last days. Behold, the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, are crying out against you, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts. You have lived on the earth in luxury and in self-indulgence. You have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter.” (James 5:1–5 ESV)
It would be very reasonable to conclude that the kind of work James expects to accompany faith includes care for the poor. I am not saying that salvation requires so many hours of social justice activity. But both James and Jesus seem, to see care for the poor as more than some voluntary activity to participate in if we so choose.
Now some may respond by acknowledging that care for the poor is important for Christianity but still disagree with social justice. The problem with social justice is that it includes people trying to bring structural change, including government reform and programs. That is something that evangelicals should not be involved in. Really? What is up with all that pro-life activity? The pro-life movement is social justice. We are saying unborn children have the right to life to an equal degree as other humans and we are willing to lobby in order to bring about legal protection for the unborn. What about all that work to try and protect the traditional form of marriage? When we look at the things that Jesus stressed, do we really believe that homosexuality deserves legal action but that poverty is not important enough to get involved in?
As an apologist, I often hear atheists claim that religion only brings harm to society. I am thankful that there have been people like John and Charles Wesley who were involved in social justice. I am thankful for the work of Wilberforce to end the slave trade. I am thankful for Martin Luther King Jr. and other Christians who fought for civil rights.
Can social justice be abused? Sure, so can religion. But the basic concept of Christians working to improve the lives of the poor and marginalized is very much in line with Old and New Testament ethics. It may feel too “liberal” but the real question we have to ask is: What does God want?
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