In his book Confronting Injustice without Compromising Truth, author Thaddeus J. Williams shares…
Twenty years ago, Sid, a Hindu monk, shared his belief in the concept of karma and reincarnation, which explained the inequality in the world. He believed that some were born into wealthy families and others into poverty due to their poor prebirth karmic performance. This concept is central to the Social Justice B movement, which seeks to address the root causes of inequality.
In the West, many struggle to understand the same unfairness that led Sid to a Hindu monastery. However, the current trend in academia, entertainment, and media suggests that it is not the self or personal choices that explain inequalities but rather systems. This includes capitalism, white supremacy, and patriarchy.
Systemic injustice, such as slavery, Jim Crow laws, apartheid, caste systems, and human trafficking, can be framed by statute. The Bible warns against “frame injustice by statute,” which involves injecting disobedience to God’s law into human legal codes. Evil humans make evil laws and build their sins into their systems. Examples include Heinrich Himmler, Hermann Goering, and Adolf Hitler’s anti-Semitism, anti-black racism, and the caste system of India.
We build our sins into our systems.
We build sin into our systems.
Thaddeus J. Williams
However, this biblical insight that sin can be supersized and systematized is not what Social Justice B means by “systemic injustice.” There are important differences between social justice and salvation, and if we don’t consider these differences, the church may bow down to trendy ideologies rather than Jesus as Lord.