The Bible is brimming with ideas that seem opposed to the current social justice movement, yet there’s an undeniable overlap. This overlap can be both inspiring and confusing.
Common Ground
Let’s clear the smoke. Christianity and social justice share beautiful common ground. Justice, respect, dignity, fairness, peace, kindness, charity, and compassion – these are core Christian values. Galatians talks about the Fruit of the Spirit, listing love, joy, peace, patience, and kindness. Similarly, 1 Corinthians, amidst a toxic church environment, highlights love as the greatest virtue. But this love isn’t blind; it’s patient, kind, and delights in truth.
The Parting Ways
Here’s where things get tricky. The “woke” movement’s ideas, like critical theories and intersectionality, often don’t align with the Bible. Both Christianity and social justice seek a better world, a kind of heaven, but their paths diverge. Ministries like the Center for Biblical Unity point out the potential dangers of some social justice movements’ approaches.
The Desire for Justice
The fight for justice feels inherently Christian. It’s tempting to jump in and say, “This is what Jesus wants!” But the methods can be problematic. Take racism. We fight racism to dismantle racial distinctions, yet some anti-racism rhetoric ironically emphasizes these differences, reinforcing stereotypes.
Discernment and Order
Helping refugees is undeniably Christian. However, discernment and order are important too. The Parable of the Good Samaritan highlights the practicalities of compassion. The Samaritan assessed the situation, not just offering help blindly. Similarly, Christians should advocate for responsible aid that doesn’t become unintentional enablement.
Indignation vs. Bitterness
Protest is okay, but riots are not. We can be angry at injustice, but bitterness shouldn’t lead the way. Anger can morph into impatience and a desire for revenge, which ultimately harms faith. Humans tend to get extreme when they believe they can save the world. Ironically, it was our attempt at self-sufficiency that led us astray in the first place.
God’s Plan vs. Our Impatience
We’re called to be harmless as doves and wise as serpents. We should champion God’s causes, but remember we’re not God. While we can contribute to solutions, God will ultimately bring order and justice. Our role is to stand for what God stands for, but to do so in a Christ-like way: humbly, wisely, discerningly, lovingly, and with reverence for God. Otherwise, we risk becoming what we sought to destroy, mirroring Adam, Eve, or even Satan in their prideful attempts to usurp God’s role.
Photo by Edrece Stansberry on Unsplash
Full disclosure: I wrote this article with Gemini, Google’s AI chatbot. I rambled to it and asked it to make sense of that rambling — to organize my thoughts better, and edit it the best way it can. I have a day job, I want to do other things, but I still want to blog. So I use AI to make that possible for me. I would go through the generated article a few times over. I would go back-and-forth with Gemini to at least make sure it still had my voice and the stuff that I actually wanted to say in my original rambling. It’s great help, but please don’t do this in your school essays or work (if you aren’t allowed to do so, obviously). This disclosure notice, though? No AI here. And you probably felt that because it sucks.