During the 2020 unrest and violent protests in the US over the death of George Floyd, racism, critical race theory, and social justice issues flooded into the foreground and have been dominating the socio-political arena and influencing the religious landscape ever since. For Christians, the Bible clearly teaches God is very concerned with justice, and so conversations have been resounding throughout the church, and sadly, often in divisive ways.
While the church is called to peacemaking, to be effective it first needs to understand where the true conflict lies. Scott Allen’s Book Why Social Justice Is Not Biblical Justice: An Urgent Appeal To Christians In A Time of Social Crisis is a great resource in this regard.
Allen’s credentials are clear in that he spent “twenty years working with Food for the Hungry that took him to some of the poorest nations on earth”. And while it took years, he eventually, came to realize that his “assumptions about wealth and poverty actually… fostered a destructive sense of paternalism and guilt on one side, and a damaging sense of dependency and entitlement on the other.”
For Allen, this was not just a matter of a updating a few basic beliefs, but rather, he discovered he had been operating within an anti-biblical worldview that redefines biblical justice as redistributive justice and equality of opportunity as equitable outcomes. And, as Allen notes, this worldview now pervades the most prominent aspects of our society, from K thru 12 to the highest levels of academia, big business, media, entertainment, government, and our justice system.
According to Allen, the Bible defines the meaning of truth, love, and justice, but social justice co-opts and redefines these aspects of human interaction, misleading many Christians into a dangerous cultural counterfeit by creating the impression of shared values. This has caused great division in the church and is at the heart of Scott Allen’s concerns for whether the church will be effective in her mission to the poor and oppressed.
Thankfully, Allen helps us navigate this challenging issue by contrasting the biblical justice worldview with the social justice worldview in a side-by-side presentation. In short, he shows the solutions of the social justice worldview do “not see the poor as fully human, created in the image of God, with dignity, responsibility, and the capacity to create new wealth and new opportunities… But largely as helpless victims, dependent upon the actions of beneficent Westerners to overcome poverty.
This actually perpetuates poverty and oppression by reducing the role of all peoples to that of either oppressor or oppressed, while “the power of the biblical worldview lifted people out of poverty and built free and prosperous nations.”
That our culture is in crisis with social justice driving radical change is without a doubt. We see it touted as all sorts of “justice” issues, i.e., climate justice, sexuality and gender justice, reproductive justice, voting rights, and immigration justice, etc., etc..
The long and growing list of “justice” issues is weaving a dangerous web of groupthink, social control, and solidifying power structures contrary to biblical values. Allen warns that the church must become more discerning of the true nature of social justice and its goals to avoid its destructive cultural and anti-biblical ensnarements.
Certainly, differing opinions within and without the church will continue to challenge relationships with believers and no-believers alike. But, as Allen rightly directs us, we must humbly work toward a clear understanding of biblical justice and our responsibility to execute it wherever we have the opportunity. Understanding anti-biblical philosophies is key to the church countering destructive practices and policies with biblical wisdom and grace to effect truly positive change.
For this, I highly recommend Scott Allen’s book
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Perfect replacement book received !!! Thank you . . . Book was in good shape except the first 18 pages were missing - see photo. I did not start reading it until after the return period expired, so the book may have been replaced if the problem had been noted earlier.
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Top reviews from other countries
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LUIZ ANTONIO CAVALCANTEReviewed in Brazil on January 4, 2021
Totalmente Esclarecedor
- P A Jones (PhD)Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 21, 2020
A much needed introduction to the debate
- James BambrickReviewed in the United Kingdom on October 1, 2020
Excellent critique of social justice and intersectionality
