Glenn Beck said this on a recent radio show (transcribed by CT):
I beg you, look for the words “social justice” or “economic justice” on your church Web site. If you find it, run as fast as you can. Social justice and economic justice, they are code words. Now, am I advising people to leave their church? Yes! If I’m going to Jeremiah’s Wright’s church? Yes! Leave your church. Social justice and economic justice. They are code words. If you have a priest that is pushing social justice, go find another parish. Go alert your bishop and tell them, “Excuse me are you down with this whole social justice thing?” I don’t care what the church is. If it’s my church, I’m alerting the church authorities: “Excuse me, what’s this social justice thing?” And if they say, “Yeah, we’re all in that social justice thing,” I’m in the wrong place.
So is he right? Is “social justice” a code-word for bleeding-heart liberalism that quickly slides into godless socialism? Yes and no.
Social justice was a rallying cry for mainline churches 100 years ago who didn’t like to focus on individual sin and the necessity for repentance and life change required to deal with it. So instead they focused on societal sin and the things it bred: poverty and oppression. Walter Rauschenbush was a leading proponent of this major theological shift, and said this:
Because the individualistic conception of personal salvation has pushed out of sight the collective idea of a Kingdom of God on earth, Christian men seek for the salvation of individuals and are comparatively indifferent to the spread of the spirit of Christin the political, industrial, social, scientific, and artistic life of humanity, and have left these as the undisturbed possessions of the spirit of the world. (quoted from Walter Rauschenbush by Dores Sharpe)
This kind of thinking has dominated mainline churches in the West for the last century, leading them to equate holiness exclusively with social justice. This torch is now carried by emerging church leaders like Brian Maclaren, who said this:
I wonder if this gospel about how to get your soul into Heaven after death is really only a ghost of the real gospel that Jesus talked about, which seemed to have something to do with God’s will being done on earth now, not just in Heaven later. …
Even if only a few would practice this new way, many would benefit. Oppressed people would be free. Poor people would be liberated from poverty. Minorities would be treated with respect. Sinners would be loved, not resented. Industrialists would realize that God cares for sparrows and wildflowers–so their industries should respect, not rape, the environment….The kingdom of God would come. (quoted from A Generous Orthodoxy)
In a sense, this liberal usurpation of the gospel is not unique to liberals. We all want to have tangible yardsticks to measure our faith by. A fundamentalist Christian measures his righteousness by how many beers he hasn’t consumed and how many godless companies he’s boycotted. A liberal Christian measures his righteousness by how many visits to a homeless shelter he’s taken and how many donations to a relief organization he’s made.
Instead, the Bible calls us to measure our righteousness by the perfect righteousness given to us by Christ. When we repent of our sins and accept Jesus as Lord, then the perfect life he lived for 33 years on earth is laid on top of our own:
He has clothed me with the garments of salvation; he has covered me with the robe of righteousness. (Isaiah 61:10)
By the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous. (Romans 5:19)
When we live in Christ’s righteousness, the result is that we become concerned about personal holiness and social justice. We start to live out the prophecy of Isaiah:
If you pour yourself out for the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then shall your light rise in the darkness and your gloom be as the noonday. (Isaiah 58:10)
We start to imitate the first words Jesus spoke when he began his ministry:
The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. And he began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” (Luke 4:17-20)
We start to heed the admonishment of James:
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. (James 1:27)
Social justice is not a dirty word, as long as it is a fruit of personal holiness rather than a means of obtaining it. So sponsor a Compassion child. Bring dinner to a homeless guy. But do it with the humble realization that you are just as spiritually poor apart from God’s grace as the people you help are physically poor apart from yours.