Is Social Justice Just Ice?

Marvin Olasky has a short article in World Mag about social justice.  He says the following:

One of the favorite words of President Obama and his supporters is “justice,” often combined with the adjective “social.” We hear calls for government-imposed economic redistribution through taxes and various kinds of welfare, and advocates of same-sex marriage also talk about “social justice.”

Do Christians have an alternative? We should begin by asking, “What is justice?”—and that question should drive us first neither to Aristotle nor to Bill Ayers, but to the Bible. One observation: Over 50 times God’s inspired writers link the Hebrew word mishpat, “justice,” with the Hebrew word tzedek, “righteous.” They regularly declare that a central purpose of justice is to increase righteousness, as Isaiah 26:9 states: “When your justice is present, the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness.”

The Bible also emphasizes justice between individuals. Psalm 112:5 praises the person who “deals generously and lends, who conducts his affairs with justice.” Jeremiah 22:13 pronounces: “Woe to him who builds his house by unrighteousness, and his upper rooms by injustice, who makes his neighbor serve him for nothing and does not give him his wages.” Justice isn’t charity—recipients pay back loans and work—but it is generally interpersonal rather than collective: We might call it “relational justice” rather than “social justice.”

He closes:

I’ve also examined the New Testament linkage of justice and righteousness: It’s similar, and there’s a telling emphasis on relationship. “Religion” comes from the Old French religare, to bind (same root as ligament), and most religions emphasize binding to a set of rules, but Christianity emphasizes bonding into a relationship with Jesus. Most religions are exchange religions: “I do this for Shiva, he will give me a son.” The apostle Paul, though, emphasized love for Christ—”We make it our aim to please Him” (2 Corinthians 5:9)—that leads to loving our neighbors.

Many other aspects of justice need consideration, and I’ll deal another time with what role modern government should and should not play. I’ll leave you for now with C.S. Lewis’ advice: “Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in. Aim at earth and you get neither.” Today, “social justice” aims at earth and produces just ice. Relational justice aims at heaven, and the just acts that occur along the way can melt many frozen hearts.