What Is 'Social Justice'?

Everything we see pushed down the throats of the American people right now — TARP, the stimulus, health care, immigration reform, bailouts, cap-and-trade — they all have one thing in common: Their PR campaigns contain two words: "social justice."

You've probably heard it a lot lately:

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: I think that there is a strong tradition of social justice in the Catholic Church that had a profound influence on me.

OBAMA: I received one of those letters a few days ago. It was from our beloved friend and colleague Ted Kennedy.... "What we face," he wrote, "Is above all a moral issue. At stake are not just the details of policy, but fundamental principles of social justice."

VICE PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: So the measure here is what can we do with the major initiatives in the areas of the economy — economic recovery — jobs, education, housing, health care, are all designed to advance social justice.

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What is that? It seems like such an innocuous phrase. It paints a picture of fairness — many churches use the term as a substitute for "outreach to the poor." Who could possibly be against that? Well, if you've read the news lately: I am. In fact, I even learned from TIME magazine recently that I hate Jesus.

I'm just full of hate and I want to stop justice!

I'm glad to see Time suddenly cares about God... or am I? The other "news" from The New York Times was that I recommended leaving church if those churches help the poor. And I would have gotten away with it too, if it wasn't for those pesky, meddling "journalists"!

I'm not sure why I would expect the media to start searching for the truth now, when they've never let it get in the way before. The truth is this: The term "social justice" has been completely perverted and hijacked by progressives. It doesn't mean simply "help the poor" to them. It does to some people, but not to radical progressives.

And now, just for The New York Times and everyone else who thinks I hate poor people — I know your attention span is about 20 or 30 seconds, but try and pay attention — we'll set the record straight for you here on social justice. The kind I am talking about vs. the kind that they are talking about.

Ready?

Here's my definition of social justice: Forced redistribution of wealth with a hostility toward individual property rights, under the guise of charity and/or justice.

On my radio program, I said if your church is promoting Jeremiah Wright-type "social or economic justice," you should run from it or at least get educated on what progressives mean by this.

Here's someone who took my advice: Barack Obama.

Rev. Wright's church teaches "economic parity" and claims that God is not pleased with "America's economic mal-distribution." Progressives are good at changing words — for instance:

• "Federal assistance" has replaced the word "welfare"

• "Welfare" replaced the word "handout"

• "Subsidy" has replaced the word "self-reliance"

• "Bailout" has replaced the words "corporate accountability"

• The "stimulus bill" becomes the "jobs bill"

They do this over and over again.

Churches that preach his type of "social justice" are what I was referring to when I said "run." This kind of social justice being preached in Rev. Wright-style churches not only resembles what many of these radical progressive and socialist and communist groups preach today, it is what they preach: Government forcibly taking wealth and spreading it around — leveling the playing field, so there's no "economic inequality."

When you are in church sometimes it's not so easy to see it. But here's a simple rule of thumb: Make sure your church puts God first and politics and government last. Here are the clear warning signs: "social justice" or "economic justice" or "ecological justice."

A couple weeks ago, I told you about Father Charles Coughlin. Coughlin founded the National Union for Social Justice, co-opted the phrase and began publishing Social Justice Weekly. Coughlin, an anti-Semitic religious broadcaster in the 1930s, used the publication to attack capitalism and promote his adoration for Italian fascist Benito Mussolini. He used social justice as cover and it's happening again.

I want to make this clear: Some people look at social justice as going out on mission and going out and doing good works for God. That's great — as long as it's Jesus and the church or your synagogue or whoever is who you are serving, not a government-bloated program.

For example: If your church is preaching social justice and education, your church is doing it, great but remember the Defend Education rallies that happened recently? Of course everyone wants to "defend education." But if you go to the National Day of Action to Defend Education Web site, you'll find a list of endorsers and you'll realize that you've just entered a hot-zone of activist, progressive, socialist groups trying to hijack another movement.

If you go to Jeremiah Wright's United Church of Christ Web site, it looks fine and dandy. But check out the "related links" page and you will be recommended to visit the Ella Baker Center. The Ella Baker Center — why does that sound familiar? Oh that's right, it was co-founded by Van Jones, the communist.

That's the "social justice" they are fighting for and the kind of social justice you need to be fighting against.

You are going to hear a lot of crazy things, including that Glenn Beck hates Jesus, etc. Let me make it extraordinarily clear to you: Every issue this government is bringing up right now is being framed as moral issues.

Remember, we are talking about the extreme left. Does Moral Majority come to mind? What about the Christian Coalition? They were enemy No. 1 to the left. Why is it that the extreme left is talking about social justice and moral responsibilities?

The left understands that if there is a wall you can't get around, then go through the cracks like a mist — infect it and use it for yourself.

So it's interesting to me that we are now being taught by social justice extreme leftist preachers about your Christian duty to have a big government or a big government program. And all of the issues are being framed around morality.

Americans are a moral people; we care, we have big hearts. So if there's a problem — say, global warming — you've got to sell it to people: You don't want to hurt the planet, do you? How do you fix it? Ecological justice. What is ecological justice? Cap-and-trade: The United States — a country with a lot of wealth — will go to a country with no wealth... and we'll buy their air. Wow, that sounds like socialism or the forced redistribution of wealth, which is Marxism.

Health care: Don't you just want to help people without health care? Yes, I do — I don't want to see anyone hurt. I want to help. Well, they can't afford it — we need economic justice to fix it. Now wait, that sounds like socialism or the forced redistribution of wealth, which is Marxism.

Education: Who doesn't want to help people get an education? Some people didn't have an opportunity to get an education. It's just about social justice and balancing the scales. No, it actually sounds like socialism which is the forced redistribution of wealth, which is Marxism.

Let's hear what the FCC's diversity "czar" Mark Lloyd has to say about social justice:

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

MARK LLOYD, FCC: We're in a position where you have to say who is going to step down so someone else can have power.

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It's a moral thing to do! It is social justice.

What makes us a moral people? God. God teaches us to be moral so that we care about issues like health care and education and so on.

But what if you're a Marxist and you really want the forced redistribution of wealth? Let's call it socialism? No, that doesn't work. How about we call it "social justice"? And we use a topic like education and we can sell it to people because they are moral.

We can't sell socialism, but we can sell "economic justice." And we can point out that it's about health care, because they are moral — they'll serve God.

Our foundation needs to be restored. What is our foundation: God, which makes us a moral people; which makes us charitable; which makes us care about health care. And the government is the smallest part — they should administer what we can't.

But if you want to fundamental transform America, you turn that pyramid on its head: Government is your foundation, from which flows social justice. If they can convince you that God is the smallest part of the pyramid, they win.

Notice what they all have in common: Taking from one and giving to another. The second half of that equation — giving to another — is charity. But then President Obama's spiritual adviser says this:

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

REV. JIM WALLIS: We have to be very clear about this. Voluntary, faith-based initiatives with no resources, no resources to make any serious difference in poverty reduction, is not adequate. That's a charity that falls far short of biblical justice.

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Voluntary charity doesn't go far enough? Give to the poor by taking from the rich? Unfortunately that means theft.

You can boil these justices down to one thing: It is a fancy name for socialism, which is forced redistribution of wealth, which is a fancy name for Marxism.

Jesus preached many things, but he never preached socialism. If you voluntarily wanted to live in a commune, Jesus would be cool with that. But he never said take from someone and not give to anyone else.

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