Friday, March 29, AD 2024 1:20am

Justice: Yes, Social: No

 

Thou shalt not do that which is unjust, nor judge unjustly. Respect not the person of the poor, nor honor the countenance of the mighty. But judge thy neighbor according to justice.

Leviticus 19: 15

For Catholics charity is at the core of our Faith, with the command of Christ to love God and love our neighbor.  What is now called Social Justice, basically repackaged Leftist politics, has nothing to do with true charity, which is the individual responsibility of each Catholic.  Working as a volunteer in a soup kitchen is charity.  Voting for a larger welfare state is Leftist politics.  Helping an illegal alien family lacking basic food is charity.  Voting to have our immigration laws ignored is Leftist politics.  A sign of a religion on its way to extinction is when it becomes indistinguishable from a political movement.  CS Lewis, who saw all this coming, put it well in his Screwtape Letters:

 

The thing to do is to get a man at first to value social justice as a thing which the Enemy demands, and then work him on to the stage at which he values Christianity because it may produce social justice. For the Enemy will not be used as a convenience. Men or nations who think they can revive the Faith in order to make a good society might just as well think they can use the stairs of Heaven as a short cut to the nearest chemist’s shop. Fortunately it is quite easy to coax humans round this little corner.

 

Regrettably, social justice in contemporary Catholicism is used in precisely this manner.  When that phrase is used by Catholics today it almost always means that “I see a problem and this government program is a way to address this problem.  If you disagree you are a hard hearted heretic and do not believe in the Social Justice teachings of the Church!”  At bottom the argument is really not much more sophisticated than that in most cases when the social justice bat is wielded by Catholics, usually, but not always, on the port side of politics, at least on economic issues.  The bleakly hilarious aspect of this is that Catholics, above most other groups, should recall what an enemy Caesar has often been to the Church down through the centuries.  The idea of constantly enhancing the power of the State should be anathema to all Catholics.  Instead, the first impulse of many modern Catholics, especially in issues related to the poor, is to scream for Caesar to do something about it.  This is a betrayal of not only common sense, but the traditional Catholic understanding that we all have a duty to personally help our less fortunate brothers and sisters, and that we cannot simply shuffle off the duty to Caesar.  We also have the problem that anti-poverty programs run by Caesar tend to be immensely expensive, wasteful and counterproductive.

 

Social justice usually in practice ends up with thieves employed by the government taking property from A, keeping a substantial cut, and throwing the much reduced remainder at favored B and C.  This poorly thought out Robin Hood theology is at the basis of the manifestly failing welfare states today.  It is the antithesis of the voluntary charity called for by Christ in the tale of the Good Samaritan and it is beyond shameful that powerful people within the Church still think that the State is the preferred medium for social justice.  For those completely destitute and unable to work through no fault of their own, State support is a last resort necessity.  Where the welfare state ideology, masquerading as social justice, has gone astray is in taking a last resort and always making it a first resort, with disastrous consequences that are obvious to all, and completely ignored by those who ever bleat “social justice” and almost always mean “state control”.

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DJH
DJH
Tuesday, May 12, AD 2020 4:59am

The following article comes to mind. I have long thought we are living back in Roman times–toward the end of the empire, though, not at its founding.
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A friend of mine who works for an agency that does much good admitted she voted Democrat. She probably would anyway, because the Democrats have portrayed themselves very successfully as helpers of the poor, but she also espouses views that are very mainstream GOP. She is well aware her employer and her paycheck depend on government funds. She is, in fact, a government employee without the cushy pension and medical benefits.
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https://www.mackinac.org/3461 Public money for private charity
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Hank
Tuesday, May 12, AD 2020 5:01am

Bud Don

The Social Justice Kitten exclaims:

“We can’t do evil so that good can come from it,
However
We can do gross injustice so that social justice comes from it.”

Don L
Don L
Tuesday, May 12, AD 2020 5:18am

Justice, by any name, that gives/takes away one’s dignity and responsibility to the almighty state is but injustice.

Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus
Tuesday, May 12, AD 2020 5:23am

NO preferential option for the poor. NO social justice. NONE. ZERO. ZIP POINT SQUAT. Jesus said, “The poor you always have with you, but you do not always have me.” And now we do NOT have Jesus in the Eucharist because of COVID-19. Indeed, no amount of social justice can ever possibly create a heaven on earth. Time to eradicate this false ideology form the Church and the Nation.

On the other hand, it is the God-given duty of every single Catholic Christian to voluntarily help the poor out of his own resources. God never gave to Caesar the responsibility of feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, clothing the naked, visiting the imprisoned and caring for the sick. He gave that responsibility to us, the individuals members of the Body of Christ. If we did our God-given duty, then there would be NO reason for a welfare state.

And to all those crying for govt to take care of illegal immigrants, to Hades with the lot of you! I have a household full of immigrants – LEGAL ones who WORK and pay taxes (well, the baby granddaughter & two grand-kids don’t work). I have welcomed illegal immigrant victims of human trafficking into my home since I met my Filipina wife some 7 years ago. I worked to make arrangements for them to get their green cards and become legal (the stories I could tell, but not in a public forum), and would do so again were the necessity to arise. So frack you liberal demon-craps. Worthless useless excuses for human beings, the lot of you. You don’t do a darn thing help the destitute, but you think you get to confiscate my tax money to do what you refuse to dirty your hands doing. My 2nd Amendment right says otherwise. This whole thing about social justice just boils my blood.

Nate Winchester
Nate Winchester
Tuesday, May 12, AD 2020 7:30am

“He who pays the piper calls the tune.” Or to put it more bluntly – the one who pays is the one who has power over you.

Forget theology for a moment, just look at it from a cold gaming perspective for a minute. If the gov pays, what do the poor need the Church for? And if the gov pays the church, by what leverage does the church make demands of it? Indeed the government instead can put pressure on the church via these funds to make it bend the knee.

But imagine for a moment if the Church was in total control of the welfare programs in the nation. Then you wouldn’t just have members as a voting bloc, but all the poor that have been aided could be called upon as well. Who is making demands of who, then? Such a vote bloc at the Church’s command would make it a powerhouse in a democratic nation.

And if you want to argue this theologically: Well a common quote I’ve heard from these social justice types is that “The poor is the treasure of the church.” If true, why then do you give away your treasures to Ceaser? Doesn’t that go against the very command of Jesus?

Steve Phoenix
Steve Phoenix
Thursday, May 14, AD 2020 10:57pm

One could also accurately substitute “government public health administration bureaucracy“ for “welfare state” and with great accuracy describe another aspect of massive “benevolent” social failure. Property taken from A; a substantial cut kept for B, the government medical bureaucracy; and some small dribbles of health care for selectively favored C and D.

But all the government people get paid, even for doing virtually nothing.

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