Is It Just?

As I’m confronted more and more with the evangelical social justice movement I find myself torn between two thoughts: 1) This is necessary, and 2) This is insincere.

What is injustice? I’ve heard it described as the strong taking from the weak. That, I suppose, is a good enough, albeit broad, definition of injustice. Few things break the heart of God more than injustice. God, himself the strongest of the strong, wields his power with grace and humility, both of which are supremely evident at the cross. God exercises his strength in mercy and grace, and I am forever grateful for that.

The evangelical social justice movement is right to call the strong to exercise their strength in mercy and grace. This is how we ourselves should move in any strength and power that we may possess. The world needs to be a more merciful and gracious place, and who better to lead us to this calling than those who are following Jesus Christ?

But somewhere along the line this calling has become corrupt. It has become perverted in its politics.

If injustice is the act of the strong taking from the weak, then what is the lowest act of injustice? Is it poverty? Perhaps. But at least in our American, capitalistic context, the injustice of poverty gets muddy. Is it slavery? It’s hard to imagine a more unjust act than slavery. What about rape? Or murder? These are all acts of horrible injustice.

But I think there is one act that goes beyond all of these. One act in which the gap between the strong and the weak is as wide as an ocean. I submit that there is no greater act of social injustice than abortion. You cannot find a weaker human vessel than an unborn child. These cannot speak, fight back, or even be seen. We don’t even call them human, though what else they could possibly be has not been satisfactorily answered.

And my criticism of the evangelical social justice movement is that it cares more about a “more equitable redistribution of wealth” than the foundations of human life. It cares more about health care than caring for the least of us. The evangelical social justice movement has forgotten about abortion, and it now runs the risk of becoming merely a politically-liberal activist group.

If you truly care about social justice than you must be concerned for the unborn. But instead the evangelical social justice movement has swept them under the rug, and has chosen the praise of the liberal men and women of the world rather than the praise of God, who is concerned for the least of us. Ask yourself: Is abortion just?

To my socially-justice minded brothers and sisters, your work is important, but you are forgetting the truly least of us. The hungry need to be fed. The naked need to be clothed. The slaves must be set free. The sick must be healed. And the unwanted must be rescued. This is what we have done for 2,000 years. Let us not give up on doing good for the sake of a fleeting political trend and the ever-shifting tide of public opinion.