Social justice a red herring?

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I feel (not objective observation) that many of my friends and acquaintances - even parishes - engaged completely in social justice work are rebellious catholics and seem to have more than their share of personal immorality. Including myself at one point.
Has anyone else seen this? I have read the CDF document on Liberation Theology, but I still don’t understand why this is so.
 
“Social justice” is whatever someone imagines it to be. It’s “an enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in mystery.”

It’s what many religious trotted off to “do” in the 60’s.

For many Christians and Catholics, being pro-choice is “social justice.”

Stealing from the wealthy to give to the poor is “social justice.”

Present an anomaly to a group of people and they will self identify its use and meaning.
 
For example, the Newman Center on a college campus where a social justice retreat is held and those students who attend come out of it as newly self-proclaimed socialists.

Or a Catholic Church whose focus on social justice leads the priests, the musicians, and the campus ministers to always sing and speak with (and in some cases, change the words of the Mass to use) “gender neutral language” (i.e., not using the pronoun “He” when speaking about God) in an attempt to not offend women.

I understand social justice is an important part of Christian teaching. However, I think there are some members of the Catholic Church who have hijacked the meaning of “social justice” and use it as a tool to instill a political ideology in young people.
 
oneplustwo said:
I understand social justice is an important part of Christian teaching. However, I think there are some members of the Catholic Church who have hijacked the meaning of “social justice” and use it as a tool to instill a political ideology in young people.
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Yep, me too.

It’s group think and group speak directed toward control by the government.
 
oneplustwo said:
For example, the Newman Center on a college campus where a social justice retreat is held and those students who attend come out of it as newly self-proclaimed socialists.

Or a Catholic Church whose focus on social justice leads the priests, the musicians, and the campus ministers to always sing and speak with (and in some cases, change the words of the Mass to use) “gender neutral language” (i.e., not using the pronoun “He” when speaking about God) in an attempt to not offend women…
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That’s it?
 
“Red” herring is right.

Generally I think that “social justice” is code for “subversion of Christianity by Marxist ideology”.

Remember that part of Marxist revolution is to undermine the common use of “bourgeoise” language and categories, which are considered to constrain thought to un-Marxist ideas. So naturally they want to change the way words are used, and change the categories and associations, in order to build a “revolutionary consciousness”.

Obviously in actual Communist countries the life of the working class is that of brutal serfdom to hateful, unfeeling overlords. But their trick is to get everybody to think that they are the true saviors of the working people. So they will fight for the very freedoms that they plan to eliminate later. Since Marxism eliminates morality as a category, it’s all just empty “revolutionary tactics”.
 
oneplustwo said:
I understand -]social justice/-] pro-life is an important part of Christian teaching. However, I think there are some members of the Catholic Church who have hijacked the meaning of “-]social justice/-]” “pro-life” and use it as a tool to instill a political ideology in young people.
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Seems to work both ways, doesn’t it?
 
Adeodatus said:
“Red” herring is right.

Generally I think that “social justice” is code for “subversion of Christianity by Marxist ideology”.

Obviously in actual Communist countries the life of the working class is that of brutal serfdom to hateful, unfeeling overlords. But their trick is to get everybody to think that they are the true saviors of the working people. So they will fight for the very freedoms that they plan to eliminate later. Since Marxism eliminates morality as a category, it’s all just empty “revolutionary tactics”.
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Well said.
 
For a good understanding of the Church and its view on “social justice” the following documents should be a must read.👍

Rerum Novarum (On the Condition of Labor) – Pope Leo XIII, 1891
Quadragesimo Anno (After Forty Years) – Pope Pius XI, 1931
Mater et Magistra (Christianity and Social Progress) – Pope John XXIII, 1961
Pacem in Terris (Peace on Earth) – Pope John XXIII, 1963
Gaudium et Spes (Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World)
Vatican Council II, 1965
Populorum Progressio (On the Development of Peoples) – Pope Paul VI, 1967
Octogesima Adveniens (A Call to Action) – Pope Paul VI, 1971
Justicia in Mundo (Justice in the World) – Synod of Bishops, 1971
Laborem Exercens (On Human Work) – Pope John Paul II, 1981
Solicitudo Rei Socialis (On Social Concern) – Pope John Paul II, 1987
Centesimus Annus (The Hundredth Year) – Pope John Paul II, 1991
Evangelium Vitae (The Gospel of Life) – Pope John Paul II, 1995
Fides et Ratio (Faith and Reason) – Pope John Paul II, 1998
Deus Caritas Est (God Is Love) – Pope Benedict XVI, 2005
Sacramentum Caritatis (Apostolic Exhortation on the Eucharist) – Pope Benedict XVI, 2007
Caritas in Veritate (In Charity and Truth) – Pope Benedict XVI, 2009
 
This thread is a red herring,— smacks of right wing propagander
 
*“I understand social justice pro-life is an important part of Christian teaching. However, I think there are some members of the Catholic Church who have hijacked the meaning of “social justice” “pro-life” and use it as a tool to instill a political ideology in young people.” *

Koheleth,

Being “pro-life” isn’t a social justice issue. It a human rights issue.

You write as if you disagree with the pro-life movement.
 
Barbkw said:
*“I understand social justice pro-life is an important part of Christian teaching. However, I think there are some members of the Catholic Church who have hijacked the meaning of “social justice” “pro-life” and use it as a tool to instill a political ideology in young people.” *

Koheleth,

Being “pro-life” isn’t a social justice issue. It a human rights issue.

You write as if you disagree with the pro-life movement.
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No, I see his point and he’s right.

Social justice is part of the teaching of the Church, just like pro-life. Deal.
 
Tnx for (name removed by moderator)ut. My social justice friends know they’ll be on Jesus’ right hand with the sheep at judgement because He said so. I don’t see anything wrong with that…except for their rejection of other church teachings, church authority in general, and personal sin.
I’ve accepted that I will be in the dark myself about many things. Sometimes you have the information but still lack understanding. God grant the obedience of faith.
 
Social justice isn’t a red herring. What is a red herring is the way some Catholics have mis-applied the term or abused it to mean all sorts of things the Church never intended. The real argument isn’t with social justice or with the Church’s teaching, it’s with the ways that teaching has been misused, taken out of context or expanded to mean all sorts of other foolishness that either distorts or abandons the gospel and the Church’s true mission.

ChadS
 
Justice works just fine, and is by nature both public (social) and private. Someone at the Vatican or a-local diocese-near-you made a grave error in judgement by tacking on “social” to it, which has succeeded only in confusing people, and causing opportunity to supplant simple justice with something else, under the guise of justice. Something - anything - is either just or it is not.

Pax,
Tim
 
ChadS said:
Social justice isn’t a red herring. What is a red herring is the way some Catholics have mis-applied the term or abused it to mean all sorts of things the Church never intended. The real argument isn’t with social justice or with the Church’s teaching, it’s with the ways that teaching has been misused, taken out of context or expanded to mean all sorts of other foolishness that either distorts or abandons the gospel and the Church’s true mission.

ChadS
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I agree with that.
To me, it comes back to the old argument about equal opportunity or equal outcome. The church, and Christianity in general, encourage people to perform acts of charity to help out people less fortunate than themselves. However, some people go too far by supposing the Church supports a social and political policy of equal outcomes, that policies and programs should be in place that ensure everybody has an identical standard of living (by taking from the rich and giving to the poor). Personally, I think this policy is wrong. Some people deserve what they get, whether it is good or bad. That is where justice is served. (Personally, I believe in equal opportunity)
 
I find my social justice friends are almost always liberal Democrats.

I have never understood social justice. As Christians, we are obligated to care for the poor and downtrodden. Voting for the government to do that doesn’t mean you have fulfilled that responsibility; on the contrary, I would argue it is a huge cop out. My thoughts on this is that in the 19th century and early part of the 20th century the Catholic Church built hospitals, schools and orpahanges in America. Today, the government does these things. The tax rate is also much higher today than it was then. I think the money that Catholics use to donate to fund these church sponsored programs has been replaced by the taxes they pay to the government to run these programs. And that is where I have the problem. The Church, not the government, needs to lead the way in fighting these important moral and social issues. If it is a government funded program, it will always lack Catholic moral foundation.
 
turtle18 said:
The Church, not the government, needs to lead the way in fighting these important moral and social issues. If it is a government funded program, it will always lack Catholic moral foundation.
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Actually, in his last Encyclical (and in several others, now that I think about it), Pope Benedict XVI exhorts goverments to enact social policy to care for the poor, the workers, the environment, and many other “social” issues. I’ll provide citations if you like, but I really can’t believe that this is still at issue here.

Also, if all of our Christian bretheren had been doing their fair share, we wouldn’t need government. But they don’t. So we do.

Reading this thread, it sounds like a lot of people don’t believe the Church has any business effectuating “social justice” either. It’s in these instances where I find the arguments against government action least persuasive.

There’s been a lot of talk about “justice” here. But aren’t we forgetting that the twin attributes of God the Father are justice and mercy? That’s the case for all three Abrahamic religions, this is nothing new.

I don’t see the “every-man-for-himself” social policy anywhere in the teachings of the Church; I really don’t. The “I’ve got mine, now go get yours” philosophy doesn’t jibe with the parable about the rich man who died with his massive storehouses of grain that we heard a few weeks back. He was, in our Lord’s words, I believe, a “fool”.
 
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