Why Evangelicals Hate Social Justice Movements

Social Justice is considered oppression on a society according to many Christian theologians. They claim that social justice theories such as diversity training, critical race theory, and inclusion policies limit freedoms to others by forcing political policies and legalities on everyone else to supplement the lives of the disadvantaged. They consider this a form of Marxism and reverse racism.

There are prominent preachers in the evangelical churches that label social justice advocates as Marxist who are out to indoctrinate children through education and corrupt corporate boards and employees with workplace policies of diversity training. Many have resorted to harsh name calling and vehement slanders from their pulpits, indoctrinating their congregations with hatred and animosity toward the opposing political party of Democrats, liberals and indirectly, Blacks.

Many seminary graduates and low-level social media influencers have adopted this teaching and also attack groups promoting social justice. Parents, school boards, and whole communities have been encouraged to speak against social justice agendas such as critical race theory and diversity training, all things that are meant to eliminate racial biased and bigotry in society and promote a social atmosphere of racial solidarity.

However, evangelicals make it a point to prove that God’s justice is not the same as the justice that social justice theory is calling for. Their argument is that God’s justice by nature made everyone different as pertaining to color, height, intellectual levels and so on; so how could God’s natural laws of justice be unjust if everyone is different on a natural level? they ask.

In contrast, they say that social justice definition of justice is that everyone should be the same according to outcomes. According to their logic, social justice advocates are asking that all people should be the same height and color, which would make all things equal. But this is an extremely irrational argument because God laws are by creation of nature and man’s laws are social and political.

For example, the concept of social justice is meant to address laws and decrees written by men, such as civil and criminal laws, the Constitution of the United States and the Bill of Rights. The Declaration of Independence even claims that “all men are created equal”, which is true based on God’s concept of natural law and justice, but in practice of that claim, only white men during the time of its drafting had the advantages of this written law. 

These ideas were literally written into man’s laws and decrees. In the 1857 Dred Scott decision, the Supreme Court upholds the denial of citizenship to African Americans and rules that descendants of slaves are "so far inferior that they had no rights which the white man was bound to respect." It is these type laws and policies that social justice advocates seek to address and change; because these  are the literal definition of social injustice, and antithetical to God’s justice of loving thy neighbor.

While God’s concept of justice is based on natural law whereby, He created humanity based on culture, nations, and language, man’s law is based on his own stipulated definitions of who is equal and who is not. Social justice movements fight to change man’s laws so that the phrase “all men are created equal” means exactly that in the form of God’s laws and not man’s interpretation of what is equal.

There are many examples of social injustice that are written into law and many unwritten rules which imply that white men are expected to be treated different, and better than anyone other race. This is evident in many studies done throughout America, and world history. The problem with evangelicals is they refuse to admit that these laws need to be changed because that means they would have to admit they exist, which gives them - as white men - an advantage in life.

Some of the many social justice topics that need addressing are: voting rights (at one time only white men could vote, now they are once again limiting who can vote by written and unwritten laws to diminish the opportunities of people of color to vote). This is happening today through gerrymandering and voter suppression laws around the country.

Another topic is healthcare: one preacher says that when COVID claimed the lives of more Blacks than anyone else, that social justice advocates pointed to the injustice of COVID. The preacher’s argument was that COVID was an act of nature and that God’s justice cannot be limited to certain people otherwise God would be unjust in the eyes of social justice advocates. However, that argument is illogical in the face of discrimination in the healthcare industry, where more Black people are ignored and denied equal access to healthcare. This is the point of social justice.

Other topics of social justice include immigration, income inequality, poverty and homelessness: all issues that are the result of man-made laws, not God’s laws of nature. Of course, God did not make everyone poor or homeless, nor is everyone wealthy with a home, it rains on the just and the unjust equally. All people are born into the world with nothing and we leave with nothing; this also, is God’s justice. God inspires righteousness into humanity for us to practice righteousness toward others, regardless of the circumstances they were born into. 

The problem is when man practices self-righteousness and decides who gets a home, the best income and privileges by writing laws that allow those opportunities to some and not others based on the color of their skin. This is social injustice, not God’s justice by nature.

Another example is the murder of George Floyd and the unrest that followed. Evangelical preachers cannot seem to take their eyes off the rioting and see the issue behind the rioting, which is injustice in law enforcement. Floyd was killed by an authority figure that was supposed to uphold the concept of law and order. Their embedded hatred for the intrusion and plight of people of color into their world distorts their sense of Divine justice, which is “Thou shalt not kill.”

Floyd was killed like an animal in the streets by a law enforcement officer, (who evangelicals claim to be the ministers of God), and the world saw it and protested the inhumanity of the killing. Social justice is simply asking that the officer be held accountable and that they stop – as government authorities – killing innocent Black men indiscriminately. God also, does not condone such killing and considers it murder.

Evangelicals see social justice movements as a threat to the order of capitalist America and the white man’s land of milk and honey they believe God gave to them for being His children, which is a lie. They believe that the movement consist of everyone except them and it is out to get them and remove them from power. Therefore, they teach social justice movements as antithetical to Christianity and God. They demonize it as evil.

This is not the truth at all. Social justice movements are there to limit to power of wealthy white men from oppressing those who cannot protect or fight for themselves because of lack of the resources they have been deprived of over many years, specifically in America. Evangelical Christians are an extension of wealthy white men who possess the spirit of “the love of money is the root of all evil, which while some covet after, they have erred from the faith” 1 Timothy 6:10.