My friend Jeff sent me this quote from the populist pundit: "I'm begging you, your right to religion and freedom to exercise religion and read all of the passages of the Bible as you want to read them and as your church wants to preach them . . . are going to come under the ropes in the next year. If it lasts that long it will be the next year. I beg you, look for the words 'social justice' or 'economic justice' on your church Web site. If you find it, run as fast as you can. Social justice and economic justice, they are code words. Now, am I advising people to leave their church? Yes."
Glenn would perhaps grow wiser and deeper not by scouring church web sites for themes of justice, but by searching the scriptures themselves for references of our duty to bring social and economic justice to all people, especially those on the bottom of the social ladder.
As for us who are a part of the kingdom, we can grow wiser and deeper if we search these scriptures and make sure they describe the kind of actions, thoughts, and attitudes that are growing within our lives and within our community of faith. If I was the kind of guy who scoured church websites, I think I might be more nervous about a church website devoid of references to justice…be it social or economic justice. Those references are so prevalent throughout the bible, and so key to understanding the ethic of Jesus, that you'd have to be Glenn Beck to miss them.
Here’s a sampling:
Leviticus 19:15
'Do not pervert justice; do not show partiality to the poor or favoritism to the great, but judge your neighbor fairly.
Deuteronomy 16:20
Follow justice and justice alone, so that you may live and possess the land the LORD your God is giving you.
Deuteronomy 27:19
"Cursed is the man who withholds justice from the alien, the fatherless or the widow." Then all the people shall say, "Amen!"
Job 37:23
The Almighty is beyond our reach and exalted in power; in his justice and great righteousness, he does not oppress.
Psalm 33:5
The LORD loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of his unfailing love.
Psalm 106:3
Blessed are they who maintain justice, who constantly do what is right.
Psalm 140:12
I know that the LORD secures justice for the poor and upholds the cause of the needy.
Proverbs 28:5
Evil men do not understand justice, but those who seek the LORD understand it fully.
Proverbs 29:7
The righteous care about justice for the poor, but the wicked have no such concern.
Isaiah 1:17
Learn to do right! Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow.
Isaiah 10:1-2
Woe to those who make unjust laws, to those who issue oppressive decrees, to deprive the poor of their rights and withhold justice from the oppressed of my people, making widows their prey and robbing the fatherless.
Isaiah 30:18
Yet the LORD longs to be gracious to you; he rises to show you compassion. For the LORD is a God of justice. Blessed are all who wait for him!
Isaiah 51:4-5
"Listen to me, my people; hear me, my nation: The law will go out from me; my justice will become a light to the nations. My righteousness draws near speedily, my salvation is on the way, and my arm will bring justice to the nations. The islands will look to me and wait in hope for my arm.
Isaiah 61:8
"For I, the LORD, love justice; I hate robbery and iniquity. In my faithfulness I will reward them and make an everlasting covenant with them.
This was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had pride, excess of food, and prosperous ease, but did not aid the poor and needy.
Ezekiel 34:15-16
I myself will tend my sheep and have them lie down, declares the Sovereign LORD. I will search for the lost and bring back the strays. I will bind up the injured and strengthen the weak, but the sleek and the strong I will destroy. I will shepherd the flock with justice.
Micah 6:8
He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.
Zechariah 7:9
"This is what the LORD Almighty says: 'Administer true justice; show mercy and compassion to one another.
Matthew 12:18
Here is my servant whom I have chosen, the one I love, in whom I delight; I will put my Spirit on him, and he will proclaim justice to the nations.
Matthew 23:23
"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cummin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former.
Luke 4: 16-21
When he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he went to the synagogue on the sabbath day, as was his custom. He stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written:
‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to let the oppressed go free,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.’
And he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. Then he began to say to them, ‘Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.’
Luke 11:42
"Woe to you Pharisees, because you give God a tenth of your mint, rue and all other kinds of garden herbs, but you neglect justice and the love of God. You should have practiced the latter without leaving the former undone."
Acts 17:30-32
In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead."
Take a number....
Glenn Beck joins a long line of people who misuse the term “social justice” (or simply “justice”) as a synonym for questionable political and moral ideologies. At the same time it’s no secret that some mainline Protestant denominations and parachurch organizations have used a concern for “social justice” as an excuse to endorse everything from homosexuality to abortion rights to South American dictatorships, among other things. See, for instance:
http://www.boston.com/news/world/europe/articles/2008/01/01/episcopal_leader_defends_gay_bishops/
And you can’t get more blunt than:
http://www.catholicsforchoice.org/news/inthenews/2008/abortionitsanissueofsocialjustice.asp
This co-opting of the term “social justice” has been going on for years by the left, so for me the question is: why are we at Hopwood upset when a right wing troll uses the term in an unbiblical fashion, but silently complacent when progressives use the term to embrace moral positions contrary to scripture? Don’t you think that our sudden concern about Glenn Beck smells of hypocrisy? Or at least a (willful?) case of myopia? In any event, it seems to me that if Christians who submit to the authority of scripture in moral issues (including social justice issues) had been more quick to speak out against those on the political left who have been twisting this concept, we wouldn’t be needing to speak out against those on the political right who are only now hopping on the heretical bandwagon.