When did "social justice" become a bad term?

When I am on long drives, I frequently listen to political talk radio. In most of the country, this means conservative talk radio such as Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Glen Beck, etc. Over the last couple weeks, I probably spent 30 hours in the car, and a significant amount of that time I spent listening to these conservative talkers.

While listening, I heard an unusual theme. Far more often than I would have expected, they ripped on the concepts of "social justice" and "economic justice". Unfortunately I did not get enough context to find out why this was the target of particular wrath, but it was clear that most of them were talking about it and warning about its "dangers".

Glen Beck was particularly interesting to me in this regard, because he was spelling out the dangers as if they were theological heresy. He was opposing it on religious grounds. Although I am not an expert on all the theological positions of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (aka, the Mormons) to which Beck belongs, I am fairly certain they do not have any official theological objections to social justice, as they frequently practice it as a church. But Beck was ranting on it the way I have heard some ministers rant on dangerous theological heresies (ironically, such as the LDS).

Beck, while being the most explicit, was not alone. All of the hosts I heard talk about it, with the exceptions of Limbaugh and Neal Boortz, spoke of it as antithetical to their faiths. This included two professed Roman Catholics and two professed Evangelicals.

My guess is that these conservative talkers were conflating two very different concepts: "social justice" and "social gospel". Adherents of the "social gospel" might argue that "sharing the good news" means helping the poor, and does not deal with personal salvation from sins. "Social justice", however, does not necessarily do this at all. In fact, many evangelical leaders today argue that helping the poor and disenfranchised goes hand-in-hand with sharing the Good News of salvation from sin and restored relationship with God.

So, what happened? My guess is this is a legacy of "Fox News Channel Christians", people who conflate the teachings of the Bible with American conservative ideology. (See my previous post if you want to read more about that concept.)

This has not been my first post on social justice, and I'm sure it won't be my last. If you are interested in my thoughts on this, please browse around the blog.

Fox News Channel Christians

I started using the term "Fox News Channel Christians" back in the late 1990s. I'm not sure if I came up with it or if I heard it from someone else. While it is admittedly a derogatory term, it is not intended to be derogatory toward Fox News, people who watch Fox News, or conservative ideology in general.

When I speak of "Fox News Channel Christians", I speak of those professed Christians who have somehow come to believe that the most important features of their faith are those expressed by contemporary conservative American ideology. They act as if lower taxes is more important than salvation by grace through faith.

I wish I could say that I was making this up--that people like this don't actually exist. Unfortunately, I encounter this all too often. I remember leading a Bible study where the husband of a woman who was a regular attender would occasionally drop in. We would be discussing sin in Romans, and he would talk about how those Democrats are going to face eternal damnation because they were pushing sinful big government. And, yes, according to his wife, he was serious. Granted, this is a really severe case, but more nuanced versions are common throughout predominantly White Evangelical churches. I know because as soon as a Fox News Channel Christian learns that I am an evangelical with a PhD in government, I start hearing everything.

This, I believe, is dangerous. It is not dangerous because conservative ideology is inherently dangerous (in my opinion), but rather because it is placing something besides the Word of God as the final say in theological purity. Which should take precedence--God's words, or Fox News?

Even if you are of the belief that American conservative ideology does contain proper Christian principles as applied to government, does that mean that the application of principles to government (about which the New Testament is very vague) trumps in importance the principles the Bible speaks on a lot?

Don't get me wrong. I am a political junkie. However, my fascination with politics should not shape my interpretation of the Bible, or even what parts of the Bible I emphasize in my study. If anything, it should be the other way around. I should be a Christian first, and and adherent to my political ideology second (or much further down that ladder).