Duh!!!!!!!
While it is true that people can distort the real meaning of any set of words, "Social justice" are not bad words. Micah 6:8 reads, "He has shown you O man what is good. And what does the Lord require of you, but to do justice, to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God."
Glenn Beck's unnuanced attack on "social justice" is at best irresponsible.
Of course, Christians will not all agree on just what government policies and social mores are most conducive to achieving a just society. However, Christians do not disagree that it is our duty to do what is in our power to foster justice, social well-being, prosperity, health, equality.
So, yes, I'm a social justice Christian.
(Thanks to Ryan Bell, pastor of the Hollywood Seventh-day Adventist Church, for calling us to speak up in response to Glenn Beck's intemperate, inflammatory rhetoric.)
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Most of these posts are manuscripts for sermons I preached at the Green Lake Church of Seventh-day Adventists. You can access audio and video of the sermons through the Church web site. The manuscripts are not identical to the actual preached sermon. I retired in December, 2020.
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- John McLarty
- Enumclaw, WA, United States
- Pastor, Green Lake Church of Seventh-day Adventists, Seattle, WA. Husband and father of animal people, ergo farm handyman. You can contact me directly via gmail. My name with middle initial t, no spaces, should work.
4 comments:
Thanks for addressing this. I recently interviewed Ryan Bell for a podcast on what it means to be a social justice Christian http://www.religiousliberty.tv/podcast-ryan-bell-im-a-social-justice-christian.html
Micah has it right - "Do justly, love mercy, walk humbly" seems to be what God is looking for.
(new comment with improved spelling, probably still missed something, but oh well) Just because Glenn Beck doesn't know what Social Justice means doesn't make it bad, or that we should take him seriously. Just the opposite in fact. Say... If I define ice cream as traitorous Brussel Sprouts, and then vilify anyone who enjoys an occasional desert can I have my own TV show?
Is it the society or the individual which has the relationship with God; the church or the people that make up the church? It is a personal charge to do justice. It is the exercise of justice at the personal level which can create a just society, not government policies and social mores. Achieving a just society requires that everyone in it “do justice”. Yet, each individual’s justice may, perhaps should, and likely would, differ from everyone else’s. “Social justice” is therefore an oxymoron, and while a just society may be one result of everyone in a society doing what the Lord requires, unless every individual in that society is also reasonable, it won’t be a just or reasonable society.
Here's Glenn Beck's definition of social justice: “Forced redistribution of wealth with a hostility toward individual property rights, under the guise of charity and/or justice.”
On a recent radio program, he said “if your church is promoting Jeremiah Wright-type social or economic justice, you should run from it or at least get educated on what progressives mean by this.”
That’s highly nuanced.
He did not say an individual should not choose to give of his wealth to anyone who he thinks might benefit from it, whether directly or by proxy through his church.
Rhetoric is the art of using language to communicate effectively. Inflammatory is to generate passion or an angry response. Intemperate is unrestrained. Mark 3:1-6 & 11:15. Good and angry.
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