On a recent radio broadcast, (http://www.politicsdaily.com/2010/03/08/glenn-beck-urges-listeners-to-leave-churches-that-preach-social/) Fox News personality Glenn Beck urged Christians to look for the words “social justice” or “economic justice” on their church website, discuss what the leader of the church (“your priest”) understood the meaning of those words to be, and then encouraged members to leave those congregations (“run as fast as you can”), and report the church leader to higher church authorities (“alert your bishop”). The reasoning behind this encouragement was vague, but hinged on the idea that the words “social justice” are “code words.” Later in the broadcast, Beck pointed to communism and Nazism as movements that espoused “social justice.” Presumably, he meant that “social justice” is a “code word” for communism.
He told a concerned caller whose daughter is attending Catholic confirmation class that “social justice is a perversion of the Gospel,” in the sense that we are to look to the government to provide for the needy. http://mediamatters.org/mmtv/201003110017
In a later broadcast, (http://mediamatters.org/mmtv/201003120015,) he asserted that if by “social justice” the church means “when you empower yourself to go out and help the poor, then that’s exactly what Jesus or Allah or Buddha, or whoever it is, would like you to do.” But if it means “supporting big government” and “big government programs” then “you don’t have a church, what you have is an organ of the government.”
The later broadcast seems to have been in response to church leaders’ protests of his earlier statements, in particular that of evangelical pastor Jim Wallis.
I am of two minds on this subject. One is that it is probably counterproductive to argue about what Beck means, since he is speaking in vague generalizations. He uses a lot of loaded words. He makes a point, but seems to make it in the same way a political cartoon does, and with the same kind of reaction. People either immediately agree or disagree. They think the interpretation is true or they don’t. His purpose appears to be to agitate, not spark reasoned discussion and problem solving.
The other perspective is that Beck is a shaper of public opinion, and the only way to counteract bad shaping of public opinion is to engage in public discourse. I stay out of most of the political stuff, because I am a minister of the gospel. But now we are talking about the gospel. So let’s dance.
So, my plan is to dodge the gut reaction route, unpack some of the loaded words for those who have ears to hear, and instead ask a better question:
Q: Is “social justice”, as most churches and Christians understand it, a code word for communism and big government?
A: No. It is not.
“Social justice” at its broadest meaning, means a just society . It means a society founded on justice and a fair shake for all people, not only the advantaged. It means that no one is forgotten, no one is abandoned, and no one is excluded.
Beck is correct in that various groups and movements have had as their purpose, in reality or in word only, a just society. Do all groups that seek a just society propose to go about getting there in the same way? Let’s see.
When most churches or individual Christians speak of social justice they mean Biblical social justice. It is, as you would guess, based on the Bible. The Bible speaks of social justice powerfully from the Torah (orphans, widows, and immigrants get special mention, and then there’s the year of Jubilee) to the OT prophets (condemning the corrupt, advocating for the poor) to Jesus to Acts and the New Testament and even Paul (sharing a common meal and raising money to help victims of famine). I can give you verse references if you want, but that would get overwhelming real quick, so I’ll just give you one that I think sums it up nicely “Whoever has the worlds’ goods, and sees his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him?” – 1 John 3:17
The only way you can avoid the clear teaching of the Bible about social justice is to ignore large sections of the Bible, or interpret those sections to mean the opposite of what they clearly say, which amounts to the same thing.
Social justice is not the only thing the Bible teaches. A false distinction has often been made between the spiritual needs of people and the physical needs of people. The Bible does not make that distinction, and presumes that the people of God will care about BOTH the spiritual need of the world to be reconciled to God and for the physical needs of the those who lack to be taken care of.
A just society is a goal that is perhaps unreachable by human effort alone. But it is still the Biblical goal for all human relationships, based on the model provided by a good, gracious, and merciful God who desires none to perish, and sends rain on the just and the unjust, and on the belief that all people are created in the image of God, and are equally beloved of God. It is to be reached for, according to the Bible, by sacrificial giving and meeting needs in the name of Christ.
Is this the same thing as communism?
Well, there’s at least two definitions of communism. Theoretical communism proposes a classless, stateless society, in which all property is commonly controlled. But it is not based on the example of or authority of God. It is based on the concept of the pure equality of humanity, and that all people can be equal in the eyes of one another.
So, that kind of communism doesn’t exist. It is similar in theory to the kind of society envisioned by Biblical social justice, but is not at all based on the same foundation.
Which leads us to historical communism , the kind the USSR had and China has, in which the government owns the means of production and has a centrally planned economy. It excludes a belief in God entirely from its system, and though it preaches the equality of all people in theory, it is far, far, from executing that in practice. THAT is clearly not Biblical social justice.
Historical communism is a form of socialism , which is a broad term that in theory means that the public owns the means of production that there is equal access to resources, but in history usually ends up with government owning the means of production and giving access to resources however it feels like. That was the socialism of National Socialism, otherwise known as Nazism. That Nazism has nothing to do with Biblical social justice is so obvious that it needs no comment.
It is important to note that the vision of a just society of both theoretical communism and socialism would require the end of capitalism. Biblical social justice envisions a just society that could theoretically exist within any economic system. It stands over and above any economic system, because it sees humans as more than cogs in a system, even an equal system. It sees them as children of God.
I think, as far as I can tell from his statements, that Beck is equating socialism and communism with government-run assistance programs. Those, by the way, would fall under the category social democracy , which aims to democratically reform, or lessen the effects of, unjust practices of a capitalist state through state-sponsored regulation and programs. Medicare and Medicaid are examples of social democratic programs. So is TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, commonly known as welfare), Social democracy and socialism are not the same thing.
And here’s where the real issue is. Buried and obscured underneath loaded terminology, is the question, does Biblical social justice encourage Christians to support government attempts to provide justice and basic well-being for all of its citizens? I actually think there’s room for debate here, but here’s my two cents.
Three things:
1. Ideally, any community, city, state, or nation with enough Christians in it wouldn’t need government sponsored welfare programs, because we would already be all over it. The love of God would prompt us to meet the needs of those around us - all of them.
But apparently we don’t love God that much, so we have left the care of the needy to others.
2. That’s the cynical view. The more positive view is that the government’s influence by definition is more far-reaching than any Christian community. Christians are members of this marvelous democracy of ours, and we get a say in how our government seeks to establish justice and provide for its citizens’ general welfare. It makes sense to me to advocate for practices and policies that will get us closer to the vision of society provided by Biblical social justice.
3. Among the various purposes of our government, as stated in the Preamble to the Constitution, is to “establish Justice” and “promote the general Welfare.” So the United States was founded on the attempt to attain a just society. The Constitution is a document of social justice. As the government does its version of justice, we may find that we agree with the purposes and ends of programs that do things like care for the elderly, the poor, and especially the children of poverty. Just because Christians and the government are seeking justice and general welfare in the same direction does not mean that one has become the tool of the other. Either CAN become the tool of the other, but that’s the beauty of Biblical social justice – at its heart its allegiance is to God, and to seeing His will done on earth as it is in heaven. It is led by the living Holy Spirit, who corrects it when it loses its way.
I welcome your thoughts and comments on the issue of Biblical social justice, and the way it relates and doesn’t relate to current or proposed government attempts to establish justice. I would like to avoid comments along the lines of “Glenn Beck is genius/Glenn Beck is crazy person.” That’s not what I want to talk about. I much prefer talking about the Bible and how it instructs us to live, and even better than that is actually doing what it says.
1 comment:
Very well said!
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