Thursday, January 7, 2016

January 8, 2016

“Thus says the Lord of hosts, Render true judgments, show kindness and mercy to one another, do not oppress the widow, the fatherless, the sojourner, or the poor, and let none of you devise evil against another in your heart.”  Zechariah 7:9-10

"Social Justice". 
That phrase sounds good doesn't it?
Social refers to people and relationships. Those are good things!
And who doesn't like justice? God knows we could use a lot more justice! Different forms of the word "justice" appear 200 times throughout the Old Testament! So, obviously it is an important concept.
What is the problem with social justice? Why should you be concerned about it?
Social justice is a problem when it is understood and applied as a moral justification for the implementation of socialism and when it attacks the wealthy successful people in our nation. Social justice is the philosophy that motivates most liberals and progressives who reside in Congress and other high positions of leadership in America.
I will assign well-intentioned motives to these leaders whose worldview assumes the only way one person becomes successful and wealthy is to oppress the lower classes. They see a moral mandate to use their power to punish the wealthy by forcibly redistributing their wealth through taxation and regulation.
If we were to apply their philosophy to the Parable of the Talents, they would have gone on strike against the  master who "unjustly" distributed his money to his three servants - five talents to one, three to another and only one to the third. Today's "social justice" activists  would send  in community organizers in an attempt to unionize these servants. Probably they would take legal action against this master for unfair labor practices. They would put pressure on the Romans to raise this guy's taxes and call on the scribes to write about how unjust and greedy this master is.
When this master returned to reward the successful five-talent servant with five more talents and the three talents servant with three more talents and take the one talent from the servant who failed only to give it to the guy with ten - they would have brought the full force of "social justice" against this evil capitalist! All available pressure would be applied against the ten talent servant and the six talent servant to be equally distributed to the one with no talents. This master would have been maligned and marginalized and re-educated into their value system!
That is far different from how Jesus told the story isn't?
Apparently there are different concepts of justice at work in this world. The "social justice" version of justice obviously values fairness even if it has to use force to make it "fair".
The version of "justice" in the Parable Jesus told values fruitfulness over fairness and freedom over force.
Which concept of justice do you believe?
Which concept will you embrace?
Which concept of justice will you practice in your life today?