Tuesday, January 9, 2018

Jesus the Social Justice Warrior

One of the greatest debates in the 21st Century has been the role of Jesus within Jewish society and the Biblical interpretation of His own capabilities regarding justice; depending on the framing of the congregation which we may worship in, Jesus has been viewed as either a deliverer or a shining example of pulling one up from his own bootstraps – rather, sandals. It has also often been stated that the co-opting of Christ is what has driven so many of our youth and emerging adults away from the Church due to how the lowercase churches routinely mistreat and dismiss them either shortly after graduating from high school or at the latest, their early twenties when they see the hypocrisies of religion for the first time leaving them so shaken they avoid the tax-free havens of outward piety and ostentatious worship centers permanently. Yet they seek something more noteworthy in their lives as Jesus’s birth, life, death, resurrection, and eventual ascension represented some two millennia ago.

When one hears the term social justice warrior, or SJW, what is the average stereotype? The pejorative term is defined as a person who expresses or promotes socially progressive views by repeatedly and vehemently in arguments on social justice via internet, often in a shallow or not well-thought manner solely for raising his or her own reputation. Because a passion – or life’s work – has not been fully identified, the young warrior climbs on every hill in protest not knowing the systemic manner of how justice is meted unequally. Recall the Occupy movement earlier this decade which gave the rise/reintroduction of Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders to the national limelight:  The same twentysomethings who were protesting wealth disparity with 1 > 99 bumper stickers on hybrid cars were exerting their political influence in addition to following a prime lesson Jesus was teaching the Jews the first time around in Matthew 26:11.



Understand shaming the poor is anathema to everything in the Gospel as fortune, fame, and prestige comes and goes. One can build a house of straw, and at the first gust of wind, that house falls apart. Why is that? Earthly treasures are not meant for us to live for alone; as the little pig who built the straw house learned, nothing without a firm foundation is going to last long. Ditto for those who build their names and affluence on the backs of the less poor and disadvantaged. In this context, SJWs are no better than the Pharisees and Romans they intend to castigate when we look at their own braggadocio as they talk loud but stay in the house when it is time to clock in for work. Their ideologies do parallel that of the “Jesus Freaks” and “Promise Keepers” from the 1990s in the sense of being simultaneously overly zealous and surprisingly superficial.

To those people, Jesus reminds us collectively that we cannot have it both ways. The Book of Matthew explicitly outlines the reason why in Chapter 6:  a confused soul is one who loves the ideas that come with social justice yet yearns to maintain the trappings of a privileged existence. Consider the plight of Nicodemus the dashing young ruler who had heard Jesus teaching and was so intrigued he met with Him at night only to depart saddened when he was told to surrender his worldly treasures to come follow Him.


No man can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one, and love the other, or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon. Matthew 6:24

But didn’t Jesus flip over the moneychangers’ tables?

Or touch the leper, healing him in contrast to expulsion for immorality?

Or talk with the Samaritan woman about her faith publicly at the fountain during midday?

Did He say He is here for the poor and oppressed?

Did He anger the political elites when He declared God as sovereign and solely worthy of worship over Caesar in the polytheistic era?

Would He refer to the Religious Right as a brood of vipers?

Did He feed five thousand people with two fish and a few loaves of bread?

Lastly, did He heal someone on the Sabbath?

Matter of fact, Jesus did all of that and then some. To say Christ is a social justice warrior alone is a gross understatement and misses the point of His soul-saving existence. Jesus was the King of the Jews but let us forget He was mocked, ridiculed, spat upon, and sentenced to death by crucifixion!


What I have found is the version of Jesus Christ that people tend to disagree with is the one that does not assuage their wee feelings. “My God is nice, sanctimonious, and He wouldn’t do such things as being a rabble-rouser!” Child, please! What they are looking for is a sad-looking Caucasian sugar daddy with long hair to excuse their imperialistic tendencies of supremacy and justify the status quo just so they can make it to the nearest Applebee’s by noon each Sunday. With the perception of Christians being a bit soft, it does more than rock the boat when His followers express anger or in the case of black Americans over the course of the past hundred years or so, nonviolent protests (see Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Colin Kaepernick, as examples) are met by the vilest of white Christianity so uncomfortable when injustice is brought face to face. Our Lord and Savior knew this was part of taking on a physical form that certain death was imminent – and in a few days as we observe Brother Martin’s birthdate and life, most Americans will recite his now-whitewashed “I Have a Dream” speech without any respect to the complexities of the principalities and spiritual wickedness he fought that some days seem in vain thanks to the Trump Administration, Congress, and most state Legislatures across the country rolling back the few advances made. Even in the more presumed socially progressive climes, few things strike fear like seeing a small group (three or more) black men exercising their First Amendment rights – ask their real opinions of Black Lives Matter and I bet you’ll get the contrived answers from Fox News that it is a terrorist organization instead of our generation’s civil rights movement for demanding accountability within law enforcement and the legal system!

Turning up didn't apply to all Americans

The Christian rapper Lecrae spoke of the historical context within the picture on his social media accounts (either Twitter or Instagram, I’m not certain anymore) and was immediately called a racist and SJW, among other labels proving that even his blackness supersedes the Gospel in the minds of his onetime followers.

If you desire to push the issue further, ask which Israel is referred to as God’s chosen people – the one in the Old Testament namely the days of Moses’s exodus from Egypt, or those inhabitants of the right-wing state established in 1948 with America’s help.

Open thy mouth, judge righteously, and plead the cause of the poor and needy. Proverbs 31:9

I was going to find a supporting example of how Jesus was not a social justice warrior, but you know what? My Father which art in Heaven is a deliverer, and to say otherwise is a clear contradiction of not only my own faith but also the words we sing out of mouths every single Sunday morning. As often as we sing the words from Charles Jenkins’s “Awesome”, it would be quite the hypocritical travesty if we placed conditions on how we acknowledge God for delivering us from one situation or another as judge while others prioritize street (and today, social media) justice to mete out their preferred brand of fairness; providing for us in our most destitute moments; curing the seemingly impossible ailments of the world such as leprosy, smallpox in most of the developed world, and working the minds of talented pharmacists and chemists to invent solutions for a better quality of life; protector of the poor and disadvantaged in a climate which favors the overly well-heeled privileged; and a host of other superlatives. Furthermore, African-Americans Christians who are so frequently praised for their willingness to forgive even the worst of offenders (see Dylann Roof) have endured the worst of slavery; Jim Crow segregation; capital punishments for seemingly minor and often falsified offenses (read: looking a white person in the eye or sharing a sidewalk); a justice and political system blatantly slanted against us for 399 years; and some of the more covert aspects of white supremacy not limited to the Talented Tenth principle.

This also included the culturally-driven motto instilled by our parents to become “twice as good as them to get half of what they have” not for recognition but for basic survival.

In 2018 terms, would Jesus side with those without family health insurance, or those who voted to take away access from the less fortunate?

Does the 1% really need another tax cut when time and time again, the small business owners who have formed the middle-class struggle to stay afloat?

Where are the landfills located in most communities? Why does Flint still have dirty water?

Who do our representatives serve, the people or their financial backers?

What brand of the Gospel is being espoused in the church today, the original words of Christ or the bastardized American Christianity version defending white supremacy?


For those who are offended by SJWs, what is your idea of equality? The gradual kind like the South has allegedly attempted since Brown v. the Board of Education? Or maybe the “sit in the corner like a good colored boy and we’ll get to it. We take care of our own” coded phrase which means we get the leftovers, if anything at all as they suckle the government’s teat until it shrivels.

The next time people question if Jesus was a social justice warrior, kindly remind them He was hated for speaking the truth about the powers-that-be and preaching love instead of overthrowing Caesar and the Holy Roman Empire. An unsung teaching of Christ – which was also applicable to black America as recently as 1968 – was to excel within the frameworks of the law; just as the Jews paid taxes to Caesar as they were lawfully required to do (see Matthew 22:21 or Romans 13:1), self-sufficient black communities thrived in the face of American racism often to the chagrin of those in prominence (Tulsa, Rosewood). Once we take respectability politics out of the equation, we grow a greater appreciation of how we have been delivered from spiritual wickedness in the highest of places as well as the daily struggles suffered and tangible proof of this has manifested itself throughout American history from President Lincoln signing the Emancipation Proclamation to the Supreme Court ending segregation and for one blustery November 2008 night, the election victory of now-former President Obama culminating the dreams of so many of our elders and ancestors.

Modern SJWs would be better served by learning and following the example of the ultimate social justice warrior Jesus Christ who did not need the verbal affirmations at every corner nor bask in the puffery we occasionally fall for calling it Kingdom Building nor did He thrive on slamming His critics alone without providing a teachable moment.












Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Keep your comments civil and clean. If you have to hide behind anonymous or some false identity, then you're part of the problem with comment sections. Grow up and stand up for your words/actions.

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)