Confronting Injustice without Compromising Truth

12 Questions Christians Should Ask

How is the Book Organized?

What is “Social Justice”?

Scripture commands us to seek justice, but the term “social justice” has two different meanings, depending on who you’re talking to. Social Justice A is biblical justice—rescuing infants left out to die, dismantling the trans-Atlantic slave trade, opposing the Third Reich—while Social Justice B conflicts with a biblical view of reality—the oppressor vs oppressed narrative of Marx, Engels, Gramsci, and the Frankfurt school; the deconstructionism of Foucault and Derrida; gender and queer theory; etc. Everybody is pro-justice, but our worldviews determine what we mean by the term.

Part 1: Jehovah or Jezebel? Three Questions about Social Justice and Worship

Justice is giving others what is due them, so ultimately justice is about worship and giving God his due.

  1. The God Question: Does our vision of social justice take seriously the godhood of God?

    The opening of Romans describes humanity when we’re at our worst, from the horrors of the Aztec empire and its conquest, to Hitler, Stalin, and Mao. We inherently know God and what he requires of us, but we continually put something else in his place in our lives. Any attempts to fix things via political or economic control will ultimately fail due to the failure to address the problem of sin in each of us. The first commandment is first for a reason, and if we try to do justice without first giving God his due, we’re not really doing justice.

  2. The Imago Question: Does our vision of social justice acknowledge the image of God in everyone, regardless of size, shade, sex, or status?

    Idolatry is the first injustice, and the carcinogenic source of all other injustices. When we reduce people to inside-the-box (meaning a naturalistic worldview) categories, we become oblivious to the beyond-the-box fact that every human being is a divine image-bearer.

  3. The Idolatry Question: Does our vision of social justice make a false god out of the self, the state, or social acceptance?

    • Idols of the right: material prosperity, rugged individualism, Christianity that is only heavenly-minded, status quo, skin tone.

    • Idols of the left: political correctness, critical theories, postmodernism, intersectionality.

    • The idol of self: We, not God, are the author of human telos (meaning), but we buckle under the impossible weight of that self-assigned responsibility.

    • The idol of state: “Once we abolish God, the government becomes God” (Chesterton), so we turn there for validation of our self-defined selves that we absolutely must have.

    • The idol of social acceptance: We want to somehow hold to our Christian beliefs and practices, while at the same time allowing culture to trump the truth of God’s word. Basically we don’t want our Christianity to cost us anything.

Part 2: Unity or Uproar? Three Questions about Social Justice and Community

Tribalism is the idea that we should divide people into group identities, then assign undesirable or evil traits to each group in such a way that we don’t see the image-bearers of God before us. It’s been the idea behind It inspired racism in America, genocide in Germany, the gulags in Siberia, the killing fields of the Khmer Rouge, the killings in Rwanda, Darfur, the Congo, etc. The idea has such staying power because humans have a need to belong in a community, but we need to fill that need without our groups becoming self-righteous and resulting in tribal warfare.

  1. The Collective Question: Does our vision of social justice take any group-identity more seriously than our identities “in Adam” and “in Christ”?

    Extreme groups on all sides of the spectrum tend to attract and keep adherents not necessarily because of their ideology, but because of the community they provide. Though we all belong to the single group of the human race, what we believe about human nature differentiates us. Christianity believes that the human nature is sinful and in need of redemption, while ideologies influenced by Rousseau believe that mankind is naturally good, but that our institutions make us wicked. It’s interesting to note that if you tackle the evil in the individual, you have the possibility of solving the problem of evil both in the individual and in our social institutions, but if you only tackle the social institutions and the evil really lies in the individual, you don’t have a hope of solving either. In Christ, all our divisions no longer matter. Unfortunately there are those, even within the church, who insist that something or other trumps our identity in Christ.

  2. The Splintering Question: Does our vision of social justice embrace divisive propaganda?

  3. The Fruit Question: Does our vision of social justice replace love, peace, and patience with suspicion, division, and rage?

Part 3: Sinners or Systems? Three Questions about Social Justice and Salvation

  1. The Disparity Question: Does our vision of social justice prefer damning stories to undamning facts?

  2. The Color Question: Does our vision of social justice promote racial strife?

  3. The Gospel Question: Does our vision of social justice distort the best news in history?

Part 4: Truth or Tribes Thinking? Three Questions about Social Justice and Knowledge

  1. The Tunnel Vision Question: Does our vision of social justice make one way of seeing something the only way of seeing something?

  2. The Suffering Question: Does our vision of social justice turn the “lived experience” of hurting people into more pain?

  3. The Standpoint Question: Does our vision of social justice turn the quest for truth into an identity game?

Epilogue: 12 Differences between Social Justice A and B

Questions

What is “Social Justice”?

  1. How does Williams define/describe Social Justice A and Social Justice B?

    A is biblical justice and B is in conflict with the biblical view of reality.

Part 1: Jehovah or Jezebel?

  1. What are the three questions Williams says we should ask about Social Justice and Worship?

    1. Does our vision of social justice take seriously the godhood of God?

    2. Does our vision of social justice acknowledge the image of God in everyone, regardless of size, shade, sex, or status?

    3. Does our vision of social justice make a false god out of the self, the state, or social acceptance?

  2. Give a summary sentence or two explaining why each question is important?

    1. Justice is giving each his due, so any attempts at justice without first giving God his due are ultimately not doing justice.

    2. We can’t pursue justice (giving each his due) without first acknowledging that those we’re pursuing justice for are image-bearers of God.

    3. Pursuing idols of self, the state, social acceptance, etc., will inevitably lead to injustice.

Part 2: Unity or Uproar?

  1. What are the three questions Williams says we should ask about Social Justice and Community?

    1. Does our vision of social justice take any group-identity more seriously than our identities “in Adam” and “in Christ”?

    2. Does our vision of social justice embrace divisive propaganda?

    3. Does our vision of social justice replace love, peace, and patience with suspicion, division, and rage?

  2. Why does Williams say “Tribalism” is the worst and most destructive idea in the twentieth century?

    Tribalism is the idea that we should divide people into group identities, then assign undesirable or evil traits to each group in such a way that we don’t see the image-bearers of God before us. It’s been the idea behind It inspired racism in America, genocide in Germany, the gulags in Siberia, the killing fields of the Khmer Rouge, the killings in Rwanda, Darfur, the Congo, etc.

  3. What does he say are three fundamental human needs (chapter 4)? How do these needs manifest in our cultural moment?

    The three fundamental human needs are for identity, community, and purpose. The question of identity is answered via identity politics, critical theories, and intersectionality. The answer to the identity question automatically provides you with a community of everyone else in the same group. Each group, then, has its own sense of what the highest purpose is, whether that’s achieving political victories over the rival party, campaigning for [insert qualifier here] justice, etc.

  4. In what ways does he say James Cone inverts the Apostle Paul’s three truths that bring the Church to unity?

    Issue

    Paul

    Cone

    sin

    universal human affliction

    oppression, a white man’s game

    “in Christ”

    transcends all group identities

    subordinate to racial identities

    who decides justification

    God

    the black community

Part 3 : Sinners or Systems?

  1. What are the three questions Williams asks about Social Justice and Salvation?

    1. Does our vision of social justice prefer damning stories to undamning facts?

    2. Does our vision of social justice promote racial strife?

    3. Does our vision of social justice distort the best news in history?

  2. William says, “We build our sins into our systems.” What examples does he give?

    Antisemitism in Nazi Germany, anti-black racism in early American history, the caste system in India, Apartheid in South Africa, and the one-child policy in China.

  3. How is the equation “Disparity = Discrimination” not biblically or practically true?

    It’s true that disparity can be caused by discrimination, but it can also be caused by a whole host of other factors, some nefarious, many benign. The Bible does speak against discrimination, but not against disparity. It calls out people for sinning in their pursuit of wealth (e.g., Solomon), but never rebukes those who earned their wealth righteously and steward it well (e.g., Job). Indeed, Jesus even reminds us that “the poor you’ll always have with you” (Matthew 26:11).

  4. What examples do you find helpful to understand Williams’s argument?

    • Speeding violations on the New Jersey Turnpike: Twice as many blacks speeding as whites. Black population is younger, and younger drivers tend to speed more.

    • Bank lenders reject twice as many black applicants for home loans: Whites turned down at higher rate than Asians or Hawaiians. Black banks reject black applicants at an even higher rate.

    • Average age within a group can explain differences (e.g., more maturity leading to better outcomes).

    • Month of birth leading to different outcomes in sports.

Part Four: Truth or Tribes Thinking?

  1. What are Williams’s three questions about Social Justice and Knowledge?

    1. Does our vision of social justice make one way of seeing something the only way of seeing something?

    2. Does our vision of social justice turn the “lived experience” of hurting people into more pain?

    3. Does our vision of social justice turn the quest for truth into an identity game?

  2. How does he use the concept of “tunnel vision?”

    If you’re only able to process the world in a single way—that is, if the problem, no matter what it is, must necessarily be explained by racism, sexism, heteronormativity, or whatever else your tunnel is—then you wind up blinded to all other explanations, many of which may better explain the data than your own viewpoint. You see this same tunnel vision not only in the critical social justice issue, but in most of the divisive issues of our current cultural moment: pandemic response (vaccines, masks, lockdowns), election integrity, economic planning activities, media communications, climate change, etc. If you’re unable to view an issue from multiple perspectives, dialogue is effectively dead before it ever begins, which means your ability to solve the problem is predicated on you having assumed the correct answer before encountering any evidence. There’s some hubris for you.

  3. Explain what Williams means when he says, “The Bible is as anti-fear as it is anti-oppression.”

    The Bible clearly demonstrates God’s concern for the oppressed, with numerous admonitions to care specifically for them. It also commands you over 100 times to “fear not,” but instead to trust and hope in the Lord.

Epilogue

  1. Is the chart of the twelve differences between Social Justice A & B helpful? Does it seem forced at points? Does it faithfully represent a Christian Worldview, in your opinion?

    It’s a nice concise summary, so it should be helpful to reference later. I didn’t notice any points that seemed forced. I don’t think it’s a comprehensive representation of a Christian worldview, but it seems to be faithful in what it presents. Something that stood out as missing was what exactly the church is and what role it is to play in God’s redemptive work in the world.