Social Justice Is Not Compatible With Christianity

Earlier this month, America spoke at the polls, and it said, “We reject Far Left agendas,” among other things. Former President Trump is now President-elect Trump. Y’all, he’s back. He’s polarizing, and I’m not planning on getting into the pros and cons of our next American President. However, I do want to discuss a response I’ve noticed from Americans on both sides of the political aisle and from nearly every religious background. There’s concern about President Trump being racist, misogynistic, and a phobe. Yes, I’m just saying phobe because, according to those concerned citizens, he’s a phobe of all the things. Overall, they are wondering how he will harm the social justice movement in this country, but I’m wondering, “Who cares?” Sounds harsh, but it’ll make sense soon.

Social Justice

Social justice is justice in terms of the distribution of wealth, opportunities, and privileges within a society. As it stands today, that justice is meant to be realized through equal outcomes for all people. Notice that outcomes are very different than opportunities. Can you think of a form of government that operates with the same goal? Socialism.

Ultimately, social justice stems from socialism via Conflict Theory. Therefore, in order to grasp the significance of social justice showing up in churches, you have to understand Conflict Theory first.

Conflict Theory

Conflict Theory was inspired by Karl Marx, the philosopher known for publishing “The Communist Manifesto.” This theory claims that society has different social classes competing for limited resources. These resources can be jobs, homes, education, etc. Conflict Theory requires that there always be winners and losers with competition rather than cooperation as the basis of society.

Critical Theory

Around 1937, a group of theoreticians from Frankfurt School developed Critical Theory. It essentially takes Conflict Theory and adds some bite to the bark. Its aim is to identify and expose societal injustices and enact change for improvement in those areas. The heart behind Critical Theory is not reform and cooperation. Instead, there is a desire to eliminate perceived problems and engage in revolution by challenging power structures.

Critical Race Theory (CRT)

CRT came together as an official theory in 1989. To keep this complicated topic manageable, we can boil it down to this. Critical Race Theory says systemic racism is an inherent part of American society. Healthcare is racist. Education is racist. Housing is racist. It wasn’t all that long ago that I was hearing people claim punctuality is racist!

CRT Presuppositions

According to Richard Delgado, one of the founders of CRT, there are four presuppositions for Critical Race Theory. So, just to clarify, CRT assumes these things are true from the word go. In other words, these four beliefs are baked in the CRT cake.

1. Racism is a part of everyday life. It’s normal, and we engage in it daily.

2. Convergence Theory. This theory says that civil rights for marginalized groups only occur when the group in power has interests that align with that marginalized group. So, for example, White people only supported the civil rights movement in the 1950’s and 1960’s because the interests of White and Black people converged. Think about it. This assumes no White person ever wanted to see civil rights for minority groups until it benefited him or herself!

3. Anti-liberalism. CRT critiques how race issues have been and currently are legally addressed. Some examples include color-blindness, affirmative action, and meritocracy. A key argument is that a value-neutral law has helped maintain racism. Ask yourself, though, who CRT would put in charge of determining whose values should inform how we interpret the law.

4. Knowledge is socially constructed. There is a blatant rejection of truth through reason and science. CRT places those approaches to understanding the world in the White camp. On the other hand, CRT pushes the idea that Black people should tell their own personal stories to explain racism instead.

My two cents? We can’t invalidate the very real experiences Black people have with racism, but we also shouldn’t be throwing aside any use of science, reason, and statistics. The truth about racism exists somewhere among the stories and experiences combined with reason and science.

Intersectionality

Mixed in with CRT and social justice is the idea of intersectionality. Essentially, it’s a way to measure how marginalized you are. Put another way, how much of a victim are you? To figure this out, all you have to do is measure yourself with identifiers such as ethnicity, social class, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, etc. White male? You’re no victim. Black, female, non-binary, Unitarian? You poor, dear. You’re a victim!

Is this how Christians should view the world and themselves? These are just temporary states of being with no eternal value. Am I a Christian or a White, female, heterosexual Christian?

Why Did The Church Buy Into Social Justice?

Everything I’ve shared so far sounds questionable at best. With so much focus on race, power struggle, and Marxist ideas, any biblical church would back away from this ideology, right? If so, why have so many gone all in on social justice? Lies. A narrative surrounding racism in the United States has been brewing for years, and the falsified stories the media bombarded us with made people rally around the alleged victims.

Jussie Smollet

Smollett is an actor best known for his role in a television series called Empire. Correction. He is now best known for masterminding and being convicted of a hate crime hoax.

Jussie Smollett claimed that he was walking home from a Subway restaurant in Chicago in the middle of the night in a polar vortex at the end of January 2019 when two men attacked him. He alleged they poured bleach on him, put a noose around his neck, and yelled “This is MAGA country!” Smollett reported the incident in person that night.

After an investigation, the police discovered the two strangers were extras from Empire that Smollett hired to participate in the hoax. Smollett had hoped to pass this off as a hate crime for his race and sexuality. All the while he wasted Chicago police officers’ time, manpower, and money to investigate a hoax. However, the media ate it up, and people across the country were outraged.

George Floyd

George Floyd died in Minneapolis, Minnesota in May 2020. A store employee called police when Floyd, appearing intoxicated, used a counterfeit $20 bill to buy cigarettes. The police arrived and Floyd was cooperative at first. However, upon being put in the squad car, a struggle began which led to a police officer restraining Floyd on the ground with his knee on the back of George Floyd’s neck. Floyd struggled, said he thought he was going to die, and was obviously having a very difficult time. George Floyd was taken to a hospital after the arrest and pronounced dead about an hour later.

It’s a tragic story, and CRT pushers and the media grabbed a hold of it. George Floyd became the example of an innocent Black man being ruthlessly killed by cops. If you’ve seen the video footage, then you know it was an emotional scene. Cue the riots.

Was the narrative surrounding the terrible event true, though?

NPR reported that George Floyd’s autopsy report “indicates that Floyd had fentanyl and methamphetamine in his system at the time of his death, although the drugs are not listed as the cause.” It was also possible he had Covid-19.

In addition, despite the way people talk about him, Floyd was not an innocent man. He was a criminal. Fox News reported Floyd’s criminal history in Texas. He faced drug and theft charges between 1997-2005. In 2009, he was convicted of aggravated robbery after confessing he robbed a woman at gunpoint in search of money and drugs. In 2019, Floyd was arrested in Minneapolis and appeared to have pills.

Did he deserve to die? I don’t think so, but there is more evidence to suggest that Floyd was a known criminal caught in the act of committing yet another crime, resisting arrest while high on drugs, and dying as a result of drugs paired with a controlled restraint. George Floyd’s death is not a commentary on the plight of Black men in America. If anything, it’s a commentary on the devastation of drugs on a man’s life.

Breonna Taylor

Breonna Taylor awoke to the sound of police banging on her door in Louisville, Kentucky in March 2020. The police had a no-knock drug warrant for her boyfriend, Kenneth Walker. Walker, after an exchange with the police, fired at the officers. They returned fire, and Breonna Taylor was shot and killed in the exchange.

Her death was tragic, but her death is not indicative of systemic racism. Her boyfriend shot at the police… Of course they shot back! Walker’s response to the police is to blame. And though it isn’t Taylor’s fault, let us all take a lesson from her untimely death and reconsider who we let into our lives.

The Bible And Lies

Eventually, the truth has come out about all these cases…and more. However, Christians and churches have maintained support for social justice, in part, because of these stories. They refuse to acknowledge the truth about them. If this is your church, run. It’s a huge red flag.

Now, let’s consider what the Bible says about lies and liars. Also, who is the father of lies?

“Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.”

Exodus 20:16

“He that worketh deceit shall not dwell within my house: he that telleth lies shall not tarry in my sight.”

Psalm 101:7

“These six things doth the Lord hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him: A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, An heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief, A false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren.”

Proverbs 6:16-19

“Lying lips are abomination to the Lord: but they that deal truly are his delight.”

Proverbs 12:22

“Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.”

John 8:44

The Effect Of Social Justice Propaganda On The Church

The narrative asserting that America is inherently racist, and all minorities are victims (especially people of color) has had some nasty side effects. And the Church hasn’t been immune to them.

Silenced

For instance, the Cato Institute reported in 2020 that 62% of Americans reported refraining from saying certain things in public because the political climate made them fear causing offense.

The poll doesn’t directly address Christians, but in a political climate which demands we accept lies as truth and reject anything “traditional,” where can a Christian stand but in the crosshairs? That is, unless we join in.

Social Justice Churches

American churches jumped on the bandwagon after the 2020 death of George Floyd. Celebrity pastors, Matt Chandler and JD Greear, both called out believers who were skeptical of Black Lives Matter (BLM). To clarify, the skepticism was about the political group, not the fact that Black lives, indeed, matter. They spoke from the pulpit, sometimes shaming their congregations for their lack of participation in social justice.

Chandler has even gone as far as to say, from the pulpit, that he would choose a less qualified person of color over a more qualified White person. According to Jen Wilkin, a former staff member at Chandler’s The Village Church, she and other staff sought to hire a balance of males and females. This, of course, sounds more like affirmative action than best hiring practices.

Pandora’s Box Of Social Justice

How do we join in, as a church, with social justice and not also affirm the agenda concerning transgenderism, sexuality, and religious prejudice toward Christianity?

Education for Justice, a Catholic justice organization, lists thirty-seven issues for which Christians should fight. I won’t list all of them, but examples include healthcare, land grabbing, economic justice, global poverty, and consumerism. “Reproductive health” (i.e., free unmitigated abortion access) isn’t named, but most social justice warriors are constantly seeking it.

Despite overturning Roe v. Wade, Live Action reports that there were 2,841 abortions a day in the United States in 2023. That’s approximately one every thirty seconds. If the Church joins hands with social justice, it yokes with an agenda that hopes to pump up those numbers rather than feel grieved over the tragedy of so many lost lives.

Social Justice Works Against Christianity

Social justice, though it sounds warm and fuzzy, is an attack on Christianity. It was founded on conflict. There are winners and losers rather than love and cooperation. Social justice is more about experience and the feelings of particular people than objective truth. Moreover, a person’s identity and value are intrinsically tied up in skin color, sex, and gender identity. None of that can coincide with a Christian worldview.

Plus, let us not forget that Christians are a part of the oppressing class. Some of us are less oppressive because we have a victim identity or two, but I’m not sure there is hope in a social justice worldview for White, male, heterosexual, cisgender, able-bodied, US-born Christians.

Caught In A Trap

Here we are again, believers. We’re stuck in a situation where we seem terrible and hateful if we reject the cultural agenda, but we’re not being true to our God if we embrace that agenda.

I want social justice. I think you do, too. It’s heartbreaking to see people targeted for superficial qualities, and I’d much rather that everyone had enough to eat, a safe place to live, and easy access to a quality education. Man’s attempts to create that world, however, are a mess. In order to rectify the wrongs done to people in the past, social justice would simply revolt and do the same thing to new people. But those social justice warriors call it justice because it’s happening to people they think deserve it.

How Do Christians Fight For Social Justice?

This is the part where I pretend to solve the divide in America with five easy steps. What if I told you I only need four? These few steps to fight for social justice and unite America require God to move in a big way, but we can each still do our part. (Also, I know this isn’t going to fix the world, but it can make a difference in your sphere of influence.)

Be Faithful To The Gospel

Share the gospel. I mean it! I know it seems too simple, but nothing can meaningfully change if people don’t have Jesus as their Lord and Savior. So, yes, tell people about Jesus. Imagine the impact we could make if all of us led even just one person to the Lord this year.

Be Faithful To God’s Word

As a believer lives out God’s commands and obeys Him, she will influence the people around her. You don’t have to say anything about your faith to get people interested. Eventually, you’ll have to say something about Jesus, but your godly character can draw people in.

Biblical Justice In God’s Word

All justice, social or otherwise, is God’s business. If we are faithful to God’s Word, then we will appropriately handle justice without getting pulled into cultural agendas. Hopefully, people around us will follow our biblical example.

We can trust God because He is just, truthful, and perfect.

“He is the Rock, his work is perfect: for all his ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he.”

Deuteronomy 32:4

“Justice and judgment are the habitation of thy throne: mercy and truth shall go before thy face.”

Psalm 89:14

We see His concern for those in need when the Bible speaks about the fatherless, widows, and sojourners (i.e., those who can’t fend for themselves or have no support network).

“He doth execute the judgment of the fatherless and widow, and loveth the stranger, in giving him food and raiment.”

Deuteronomy 10:18

“Thou shalt not pervert the judgment of the stranger, nor of the fatherless; nor take a widow’s raiment to pledge:”

Deuteronomy 24:17

“Cursed be he that perverteth the judgment of the stranger, fatherless, and widow. And all the people shall say, Amen.”

Deuteronomy 27:19

James reiterates the believer’s concern for widows and orphans.

“Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.”

James 1:27

In the New Testament, Jesus impresses the importance of doing for others.

“And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.”

Matthew 25:40

We have a responsibility to the less fortunate, but that responsibility falls on each individual. Most importantly, it should be done in Jesus’ name – not forced upon us by the government or societal pressure, media narratives, and riots. Each of us can take personal responsibility for the small corner of the world we inhabit in the hope of being a help, loving our neighbors as we love ourselves (Matthew 22:39), and telling others why we love them…Jesus.

We know what to do, and it’s our responsibility to do it.

“He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?”

Michah 6:8

Fight For Social Justice In Unity With The Body

Recently, I shared why I’m not in favor of ecumenism, but that doesn’t mean I’m against unity. If we come together as believers and, armed with the gospel, commit to use our resources to help where we can, we could do so much to help our communities both physically and spiritually. Showing God’s love through action truly does make the gospel more tangible to an unbeliever.

Discipleship

The best way to combat lies is to teach truth. We can build each other up, grow in our faith together, and take time to help those who aren’t as far along in their walk with Lord as ourselves. Through discipleship, we can train and encourage more believers to reach out into our communities with the gospel and aid.

Final Thought

Don’t be swayed by friendly words that sound biblical. Get that Bible out and check for yourself. “Is this idea I’m hearing congruent with biblical teaching?” Sometimes we agree with the cultural idea until we get into the details. Yes, Christians want social justice, but the hateful, racist, man-hating, family destroying rhetoric the social justice movement touts is not the kind of justice the Bible teaches. It is our job to love and serve God, and any social justice we participate in should point back to Jesus Christ.

Where do you stand? Should Christians get involved with the social justice movement?

Image courtesy of Koshu Kunii via Unsplash.