Generous/mercy/social/gospel/biblical:- justice

http://freedomtorch.com/blogs/3/2762/tim-keller-and-social-justice
the original source I found is above

http://www.trevorloudon.com/2011/04/is-%E2%80%98social-justice%E2%80%99-a-christian-virtue/

I think this is a more full version and includes comments
http://www.trevorloudon.com/2011/04/is-%E2%80%98social-justice%E2%80%99-a-christian-virtue/#comment-260292

Socialists and Progressives pushing for Communist societies use this phrase most enthusiastically.  They use it to agitate the people and motivate them to revolution.  And it can’t be overlooked that it is today’s Communists and radical liberals who constantly use this phrase to make us feel that things here in the most just society on earth – are horribly unjust.  (If you doubt this just check out the Communist party website  http://cpusa.org – and search on “social justice”).

In fact, this quote from the CPUSA site would be perfectly consistent with Keller’s take on “social justice”:  “We fight for the daily needs of working people … as a matter of social justice…”  (http://cpusa.org/club-educational-study-guide-reflections-on-socialism/) No, I’m not calling Tim Keller a Communist!  I am only pointing out that his use of the term “social justice” has a historical context and that context is decidedly on the far Left of the political spectrum.

With that history behind the term “social justice”, there really is nothing for conservatives to “reclaim” or claim at all!  It has never meant anything else.  When Keller says ‘conservatives have suspicions about the term’ – he’s right, we do – and for well-founded historical reasons.

“Just” Confusion

Why does Keller call what have traditionally been ministries or acts of mercy – “justice”?  Throughout his book I was confused on why he was using the term “justice” when it seemed “mercy” or “compassion” would be more appropriate.  Possibly it is because “mercy” and “compassion” are something more along the lines of what individuals can do and apparently Keller wants to look beyond individuals to the entire society.  This would be in keeping with his belief that “the primary purpose of salvation is cultural renewal.”  But when you talk about “justice” you’re talking about societal structures.  A single individual cannot effect society-wide justice.  Justice is a function of public policy and politics.

Rob Haskell who is the Director of Senderis – a teaching mission to Latin American pastors, wrote in a blog post last year the following about “justice”:

“Why not look to the Bible, if we really want to find out what “justice” means?  The first operational definition I can find is in Exodus 23: “Do not follow the crowd in doing wrong. When you give testimony in a lawsuit, do not pervert justice by siding with the crowd, and do not show favoritism to a poor man in his lawsuit.”

When people talk about “justice” in context above, they typically mean “good works.” Yet the Bible seems to be completely devoid of any such meaning. Instead, as in the verse above, “justice” refers (unsurprisingly) to a judicial context: giving someone what they are legally entitled to.

Note that where (social) “justice” usually means reflexively siding with whomever seems to be weakest, the Bible’s first word on the matter is to call such a tendency a perversion of justice, based on a tendency to want to fit in with others. (We shouldn’t do the same with the rich either, mind you — see verse 6 and Lev 19:15).

To use such a term for handing out food, charity, etc. implies that people are legally entitled to such. Yet the bible calls this “mercy”. For example, when hurting Jews approached Jesus asking for healing, they did not ask for “justice”, they asked for “mercy” (see Matthew 9:27, Luke 10:37, the parable of the good Samaritan).

So why do we want to call “justice” what God calls “mercy”?  What is this language doing to our conceptions?

Mercy implies unwarranted favor, justice implies you deserve it. So mercy is eliminated by “justice”, since no one should be grateful to receive what they’re owed.

Further, anyone can show mercy, but only a judge can hand out justice. So this formulation makes us believe we must sit in the seat of the judge (running society, deciding who really gets what) before we can begin to deal with the poor and downtrodden as we’ve been commanded.

I don’t see what is Christian at all about this conception. Nearly every aspect of it seems to fly in the face of the Bible’s teachings on the subject.”

Odd Interpretations

One thing I found especially disturbing about Keller’s book, “Generous Justice” is that in footnote #15 in Chapter 1, he says that while he normally uses the NIV (New International Version) translation of the Bible that, “Sometimes I provide my own translations.” This was stunning to me when I read it.  I’ve never seen a Christian writer provide “their own” translation of the Bible!  Not that they couldn’t if they’ve learned Hebrew and Greek, but I’ve just never seen anyone else do that.  Normally a writer will use whatever translation he uses and then expound upon it if he has some broader insight that he has gained from reading it in the original languages.  But Tim, in the instances where he quotes Scripture, simply provides his own translation at various points without bothering to notify us of when!

This sets a dangerous precedent because one, it insinuates that there’s something fundamentally flawed with the existing translations.  And it leads people to treat them as less dependable than they deserve to be treated.  And two, the official translations have a whole system of checks and balances in place to insure that they are done as accurately as possible and with as little bias as humanly possible.  When a single author decides to provide his own translation, what checks and balances keep his biases out of the process?  Who is he accountable to? And how can we the readers ever challenge the author when his personal translations make it seem as if the Bible is in complete agreement with his views?

Keller provides us a couple examples of his personal translations.  One is taken from Psalms 33:5 which in the NIV says:

“The Lord loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of his unfailing love.”

And Keller retranslates it to say this:

“The Lord loves social justice; the earth is full of his unfailing love.”
A Socialist reading this would think the Bible was in perfect alignment with socialist thought.

Keller did two disturbing things here. First he took out the word “righteousness” altogether (which conveniently removes the idea of sin, something Keller tends to avoid) and he replaces the word “justice” with the term “social justice” which when looked at from its historical usage is most definitely NOT what the Lord loves!  There’s a reason the Bible translators have not used the phrase “social justice” there!  Because they are presumably aware of its socialist connotations derived from the historical context and usage of the phrase.  However, by providing his own personal translation, Keller makes it appear as if the Lord is in complete agreement with a socialist view of justice.

At this point anyone familiar with Keller’s teachings would scold me for saying he has a “socialist” view on anything.  Because he fastidiously tries to remain above the political fray by never revealing his true political leanings.  And he is fond of saying that the Right gets some things wrong and the Left gets some things wrong, making it appear that he is evenhanded when it comes to politics.