Social Justice Unmasked - Word Foundations

A Collection of Three One-Minute Commentaries
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What Do People Mean When They Talk About Social Justice?

Calvin Beisner and his teenage son A. J. frequently play ping-pong. Typically the score is lopsided, with one player beating the other badly. Some observers may object. Isn’t the winner being heavy-handed and hardhearted, callous and lacking compassion? Shouldn’t Beisner and A. J. simply add up the total number of points, divide by two, and assign the same score to each player? After all, both are made in God’s image. Leveling out the score would only be “fair,” rectifying the disparity between players and compensating for the strengths and weakness of both. Pride and feelings of inferiority would be eliminated, gloating and discouragement overshadowed.

In a booklet titled Social Justice: How Good Intentions Undermine Justice and Gospel, Dr. Beisner uses this unconventional approach to ping-pong to illustrate the politically correct idea of redistribution of wealth. Progressives call it social justice. Is it biblical? Tune in next time.

Calvin Beisner, Social Justice: How Good Intentions Undermine Justice and Gospel, (Burke, VA and Washington, D.C.: Cornwall Alliance for The Stewardship of Creation, Concerned Women for America, Family Research Council, 2013), 1.

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Does the Bible Advocate Redistribution of Wealth?

In his important booklet titled Social Justice: How Good Intentions Undermine Justice and Gospel, Dr. E. Calvin Beisner examines the modern appeal to social justice and the problems that arise from strategies implemented to practice it. Often proponents of social justice advocate policies that redistribute wealth to achieve “fairness” and “equality.”

Is redistribution of wealth a biblical concept? For example, did the early Christians practice it? Sometimes progressives contend they did by pointing to passages in Acts that describe charity in the early church. Beisner examines these and other passages and shows that the Bible doesn’t call for wealth redistribution. Consider that Acts 2:44-45 and 4:34-35 describe voluntary giving, not the forced apportioning of resources. The Bible certainly encourages generosity among individuals, but it also affirms the concepts of private property and individual sovereignty. What does biblical justice mean? Tune in again next time.

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What Is the Biblical Concept of Justice?

Social Justice: How Good Intentions Undermine Justice and Gospel by E. Calvin Beisner examines the modern concept of social justice and contrasts it to the biblical ideal. While Beisner offers many more insights than I can summarize here, his discussion of Hebrew and Greek words appearing in the Bible that relate to the idea of justice is vital. Hebrew words convey the ideas of adherence to God’s standard of ethics and morality, as well as referring to governmental processes and government in a broad sense. The Greek concepts include fairness and uprightness, as well as the idea of legal judgment or the dispensing of justice, righteousness, and fairness. On this basis, biblical justice means “rendering impartially and proportionally to everyone his due in accord with the righteous standard of God’s moral law.” Biblical justice isn’t about equalizing wealth, but about impartiality and making sure people receive what they rightly deserve.

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