Social Justice: A Different Gospel, Part 3

Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ. For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power.
—the apostle Paul to the Christians at Colossae in Colossians 2:8-10—

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Key point: The social justice “gospel” is cheating Christians by convincing them to follow a lie instead of the truth.

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You can access all the articles in this series here.

In this third of three articles, we are highlighting the last seven of seventeen specific ways in which the social justice narrative stands contrary to the true gospel of Christ. Our list contains several items that overlap with others, but each one is worthy of focused consideration.

Don’t be fooled or misled. Biblical Christianity and the the teachings of the social justice movement are incompatible.

Eleventh, Black Lives Matter promotes ideas that are thoroughly unbiblical and un-Christian.

Christian pro-life activist Ryan Bomberger writes,

The original BLM founders, the #BlackLivesMatter Foundation (BLMF), created it [BLM] to radically shift culture. The far-left Ford Foundation, the world’s largest population control organization, vowed in 2016 to raise $100 million for the Movement for Black Lives (MFBL)—a nationwide coalition of BLM groups (including BLMF). MFBL released a shocking manifesto of policy positions that are deeply political and deeply disturbing.

Using that list, Bomberger has made a list of his own and shares the “Top 10 Reasons I Won’t Support the #BlackLivesMatter Movement.” You can read them here.

One of Bomberger’s points is that BLM is anti-capitalist. Writer and pro-life activist Sarah St. Onge highlights this reality in an article she wrote on BLM that is available at The Federalist. Let her insights sink in.

While it’s considered lazy scholarship to declare those who have left politics “socialist,” all three founders of the Black Lives Matter movement have openly shared their desires to end capitalism. In their online articles, videos, and interviews, all three allude to concepts that originate in socialism, communism, or Marxism.…

Black Lives Matter’s founders and its political demands are [indeed] overtly socialist. Socialism is an ideology that has caused the violent political suppression and mass murder of millions (emphasis added).

Only a few months ago at Word Foundations, we explored in a series of articles how socialism stands opposed to biblical principles and how the free enterprise model of economic exchange is compatible with them. The track records of both approaches bears this out.

Of course, this isn’t the only concern Mr. Bomberger has raised, even though it would be enough. Additional concerns on his list include

• • • a name that belies the organization’s true agenda,
    • BLM’s having no desire to reconcile the races,
    • BLM’s goal of increasing militant Black power,
    • the promotion of LGBT ideology,
    • the trashing of the nuclear family, including fatherhood,
    • the demand for reparations,
    • the goals of abolishing police forces and prisons,
    • BLM’s camaraderie with radical activist Colin Kaepernick, and
    • BLM’s rabid support for abortion, a practice that actually targets black lives.

Twelfth, the social justice narrative distorts the meaning of authentic justice. Actually, it turns it on its head!

In a Prager University video on titled “Social Justice Isn’t Justice,” Allie Stuckey says this: “Justice is getting what you deserve without favor. Social justice is getting what you don’t deserve because you are favored.” Stuckey and PragerU are correct.

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Justice is getting what you deserve without favor. Social justice is getting what you don’t deserve because you are favored.
—Allie Stuckey and Prager University—

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Dr. Calvin Beisner understands the differences between biblical justice and social justice as far too few individuals do. In 2013 he wrote a booklet titled Social Justice: How God Intentions Undermine Justice and Gospel. It was jointly published by the Cornwall Alliance for the Stewardship of Creation (Beisner’s ministry), Concerned Women for America, and the Family Research Council. You can download a free copy of the first edition of Beisner’s work here. You can order a revised an updated edition of the publication here.

Return to these passages again and again. You’ll find that social justice isn’t justice at all. It isn’t even close. It’s been masquerading as justice for far too long and getting away with it, especially in our churches.

Thirteenth, the social justice movement (SJM) and its narrative tempt “victims” to covet and steal. They’ve been told repeatedly they deserve the resources that should have been theirs because of oppression and “white privilege.” No belief system that fuels temptations is compatible with biblical Christianity and the gospel—none.

Fourteenth, with its message, the SJM tempts alleged “victims” to look to government to supply their needs. The “plan” for restitution of wrongs done by “oppressors” is for the “oppressors” to be taxed so their resources can be redistributed to those who allegedly have been mistreated. Not only is redistribution of wealth an unbiblical idea; so is looking to the government to meet one’s needs and the needs of one’s family. Biblically, how are the needs a nation’s citizens to be met? The people themselves are to meet them through hard work. Not everyone can work, but everyone who can, should.

Fifteenth, the recommended “solutions” to oppression by social justice warriors totally eliminate charity and generosity. Why? Because the government becomes the provider, and the government becomes god. By contrast, Paul wrote to the Christians at Ephesus, “Let him who stole steal no longer, but rather let him labor, working with his hands what is good, that he may have something to give him who has need.” We see God’s concern for the poor in the Old Testament as well. Here is a lesser-known example.

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Let him who stole steal no longer, but rather let him labor, working with his hands what is good, that he may have something to give him who has need.
—the apostle Paul in Ephesians 4:28—

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Sixteenth, rather than affirming the inherent dignity and worth of all people, the social justice storyline exacerbates animosity of the worst sort in both “victims” and “oppressors.” All people, including but not limited to blacks and other minorities, are people of infinite value who have been created in God’s image and who can create, achieve, and produce for their own benefit and for the benefit of others. Minorities won’t hear that message from BLM or the SJM. That idea is out the window! Instead, SJWs tell minorities, “You are victims! You’ve been mistreated and held back. You have been browbeaten, abused, and maligned, and your people have as well. And whites are the culprits!”

There are real problems with this. White privilege is a myth (also go here). The social justice crusaders themselves are using minorities for their own political purposes when they disparage them in this way. Dennis Prager observes, “The Left knows that the only way to retain political power in America is to perpetuate the belief among black Americans that their primary problem is white racism. Only then will blacks continue to regard the Left and the Democrats as indispensable.”

The other side of the coin, of course, is what social justice advocates say about whites. As we have said already (in our discussion of our fourth item in part 1), they disparage them too: Are you white? You are guilty! You are oppressors and tyrants! SJWs ignore all evidence to the contrary, just as they ignore all evidence indicating blacks might not be victims, after all.

My point here is the social justice movement doesn’t affirm the innate worthy of anyone, but disparages everyone in some way. Whatever happened to human dignity, a trait inherent among all people, regardless of race or sex? You won’t find it in the social justice “gospel.” That’s because the social justice gospel has no good news to offer anyone.

Seventeenth, the call to whites to repent of their “whiteness” does not include an offer of forgiveness on the part of social justice warriors. Instead, it’s a call to perpetual, unending penitence that never sees relief. We alluded to this problem when we considered our seventh item in part 1, but this point wasn’t our main consideration at that time.

Ryan Bomberger, whom we mentioned earlier, writes that forgiveness and reconciliation aren’t ever mentioned on BLM’s websites. Emphasizing the past offenses of whites will never bring the races together “if there is no intention of forgiveness. I’m tired of the deeply prejudiced oppressed/oppressor critical race theory paradigm. It’s not Gospel-centered. This should, immediately, be a deal-breaker for Christians.”

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I’m tired of the deeply prejudiced oppressed/oppressor critical race theory paradigm. It’s not Gospel-centered. This should, immediately, be a deal-breaker for Christians.
—pro-life activist Ryan Bomberger—

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Consider the assertion of Pastor Thabiti Anyabwile that white people, including white Christians, need to confess that “their parents and grandparents and this country are complicit” in the death of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., in 1968: Dr. King’s death, wrote Anyabwile,

gives us opportunity to reflect on his legacy. But it also gives opportunity to reflect on that twist in our soul that rose up and killed him. It gives opportunity to repent of the things some have with too much pride too often refused to admit is there.

My white neighbors and Christian brethren can start by at least saying their parents and grandparents and this country are complicit in murdering a man who only preached love and justice.

Recall that Dr. King was assassinated by James Earl Ray shortly after 6:00 p.m. on April 4, 1968.

Further, let us not miss the fact that Anyabwile doesn’t just want white Christians to confess that their “parents and grandparents are complicit” in Dr. King’s death; he wants them to start there!

Virgil Walker, himself black and involved in ministry, wrote this about the never-ending demands placed on whites by social justice crusaders, in this case via the organization Black Lives Matter: “When you follow the BLM/Social Justice Gospel, the lengthy list of ‘works’ required to atone for the sins of others NEVER ends. Furthermore, it changes everyday as someone more WOKE (woker than thou) provides you with a new list.”

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When you follow the BLM/Social Justice Gospel, the lengthy list of “works” required to atone for the sins of others NEVER ends. Furthermore, it changes everyday as someone more WOKE (woker than thou) provides you with a new list.
—Virgil Walker—

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This isn’t the gospel; instead, it is bondage with no relief in sight.

Yet, even Al Mohler, President of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, is buying into this narrative.

Christians Must Oppose this Movement

Followers of Jesus Christ, because of their allegiance to Him, must oppose all movements that preach and teach ideas contrary to the biblical gospel. We’ve now highlighted 17 ways in which the social justice movement does this. Here are the items we listed. Some of these may overlap to an extent, but all are worthy of separate consideration.

• • • We covered items 1-8 in part 1 and
    • items 9 and 10 in part 2.
    • In this article, we have examined the remaining 7 elements.

1. The social justice movement sees people in terms of groups rather than individuals. By contrast, God sees every individual’s heart and invites everyone to follow him. The decision to do so must be an individual’s alone.
2. The social justice movement is racist and sexist; it evaluates people based on external traits. God’s sees people’s hearts; He looks beyond external characteristics.
3. The social justice narrative does not evaluate history objectively, but according to the assumption that history’s story is one of oppressors mistreating victims and victims seeking to overthrow oppressors. This stands in stark contrast to the biblical ideal that all people are created in God’s image and are of equal value and worth.
4. Advocates of the social justice movement and Black Lives Matter show partiality and favoritism in their dealings with people. In the Bible, these are condemned.
5. The social justice movement seeks to blame people living today for their ancestors’ sins or supposed sins, and it seeks to “recompense” people living today whose ancestors were allegedly mistreated. While the sins of one’s ancestors can have an impact on future generations, God does not hold people personally accountable for their forebears sins. Nor do we see in Scripture that restitution is offered to the descendants of people who were wronged.
6. The social justice “gospel” divides; the biblical gospel unites.
7. SJWs ignore all the progress Americans have made in recent decades in the area of race relations. Therefore, to the SJWs, whites are guilty and blacks and other minorities are victims. From a biblical perspective, this amounts to (or it at least it comes close to) hating one’s enemies rather than loving them, and refusing to extend forgiveness for offenses or perceived offenses.
8. Black Lives Matter activists and social justice advocates are all too willing to bury the true stories of black men and women who overcame extreme obstacles and challenges. We see nothing like this in Scripture, where history is told fully, showcasing both negative and positive elements, hardships as well as triumphs.
9. The social justice movement is fueled by emotions over facts. This is contrary to the biblical gospel, which involves emotions but consistently is fact-driven.
10. Riding the crest of the emotional wave of the social justice movement exacerbates the problems at hand, paving the way for additional misunderstandings, upheaval, and disruption. These stand contrary to 1 Timothy 2:1-4, which upholds the importance of societal order for the sake of effectively spreading the gospel.
11. Black Lives Matter, which is a part of the social justice movement, promotes ideas that are thoroughly unbiblical and un-Christian.
12. The social justice narrative turns the definition of authentic justice on its head.
13. Social justice advocates tempt those they deem as victims to covet and steal.
14. Social justice crusaders offer recommendations that call for government redistribution of wealth—an unbiblical proposition.
15. The social justice “gospel” eliminates generosity and charity. How? A social justice “utopia” is a world in which the government is its citizens’ provider. This, too, is an unbiblical proposition.
16. The social justice narrative disparages everyone by demeaning people as either victims or oppressors. With regard both characterizations, it overlooks all evidence to the contrary.
17. Despite its claims, the social justice movement isn’t interested—at all—in reconciliation or forgiveness. Rather, it seeks to keep in a perpetual state of penitence members of the class it assumes to have been oppressive throughout history. This ignores historical facts, defies the demands of the biblical gospel, and is oppressive in itself.

I conclude without any animosity or intention to offend. Yet I must say this: If you need more evidence that the Christians must oppose the social justice movement and its teachings, I would respectfully encourage you to examine whether or not you really believe what the Bible teaches. Don’t let your emotions carry you downstream with the rest of the culture.

The above tenets highlight principles that clearly and undeniably stand opposition to biblical truth.

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Copyright © 2020 by B. Nathaniel Sullivan. All rights reserved.

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture passages have been taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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