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Social Justice

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scenario Scenarios

  • I believe in social justice

oneliner One-liners

  • Everyone has a sense of justice, it just needs to be informed by the facts

body In-brief

  • “Social justice is a deceptive title for what should be called collective envy.” John MacArthur

    This seems a bit harsh, after all some people do not seem to be getting their fair share of society's bounty.

    Christians are naturally keen to work towards justice in society, but it has to be God's justice not ours. He is the judge. Any right of judgement, or assessment of fairness, that we have has been delegated from him. If we step outside a desire to follow his wisdom then our words lose their legitimacy. This also applies to civil judges and law enforcers.

    Currently this term is often not meant to mean a fair determination of need as we would understand it but, confusingly, to promote particular groups (based on gender or other 'intersectional' characteristics) to have preferential treatment. Sometimes their 'need' is implied to be the result of persecution by the rest of society. 

    This often reflects the idea of equality of outcome not equality of opportunity eg if I fail an exam it's just because I'm oppressed rather than that I'm not skilled enough. This is what the John MacArthur quote above is aiming at.

    This is obviously not good as it diverts resources from where they are needed and promotes a particular partisan ideology. So we need to seek to see the world from God's perspective (eg Parable of the Talents) and not be affected by false guilt.

shield Shield verses

  • You shall do no injustice in judgment; you shall not be partial to the poor nor defer to the great, but you are to judge your neighbour fairly Lev. 19:15
  • Whoever oppresses the poor to increase his own wealth, or gives to the rich, will only come to poverty Prov 22:16

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