BS and Social Justice

In recent discussions at seminary, we have broached the topic of ‘social justice,’ which seems to me a loaded and very elastic term. It’s elastic because different people mean different things when they say it, and it’s loaded because it opens the door to broader economic and political discussions. The very term ‘social justice’ strongly implies that if you are opposed to it, you are, in fact, promoting ‘injustice.’ The definition of ‘social justice’ becomes an important part of the discussion, what, exactly, are we talking about?

This is the basic problem in any discussion of anything, and particularly social justice: it isn’t very clearly and concisely defined, and there is no broad agreement among theologians of a biblical understanding of just exactly what social justice is. Without a clear definition, anyone interested in the problems of human society and how to resolve those problems (all of us?) ought to enter the discussion with their BS detector turned on and tuned in.

Social justice seeks a foundation in the biblical understanding of man as created in God’s image, and as a result of that creation, humankind should interact with mutual respect and honor. There’s no problem here. The problem comes when mutual respect and honor are violated, either through abuse of power or by indolence. It is wrong for the rich to use their position to marginalize the poor, but it is also wrong for the poor to expect their support from others at no cost to themselves. The same Bible that admonishes the rich to use their wealth properly (1 Tim. 6:18) also implements a no-work, no-food tough love ethic (2 Thes. 3:10).

One of my favorite books begins like this: “One of the most salient features or our culture is that there is so much bulls**t. Everyone knows this. Each of us contributes his share. But we tend to take the situation for granted.” Any discussion of social justice must be rigidly defined and carefully compared to what the whole Bible says about human interactions. What I’ve examined recently reads Scripture selectively to affirm its narrow vision of ‘social justice’ and conveniently ignores important contrary evidence.