On this morning’s show, Beck backtracked – a bit. He moved away from saying social justice is a code word for Communism and Nazism to saying it only means “big government.” Then he said that if social justice means empowering people to act as individuals, it might be okay.
That’s progress, but not enough. Christians can and do have different views of the role of government. Yet we still agree that social justice is central to the gospel and at the heart of our faith. And while we all preach empowerment to follow God’s word, loving our neighbor does not happen only through personal acts of generous charity.
Biblical social justice also involves changing structures, institutions, systems, and policies, as well as changing hearts to be more generous.
A more just society does not necessitate big or even bigger government. Ancient Israel was designed by God to be a just society with a very small (almost non-existant) government.