Social justice ideology is a religion for people who make gods out of their skin-colours or self-interests. Social justice ideology is a religion with its own orthodoxies and heresies, its own priests and prophets, its own sacred slogans and confessions or catechisms—and particularly, its own version of sin and righteousness.
One of the most popular slogans from protestors over the last couple weeks is, “silence is violence, silence is compliance.”
The slogan suggests people—especially white people—who are silent about the perceived racist basis for George Floyd’s murder are complicit in systemic racism and racist police brutality against George Floyd and other black people.
The slogan has been repeated and retweeted by many people, including Christians, to compel others into speaking out against perceived systemic racism.
However, there are major theological implications to the slogan. If the slogan is true—if silence is violence, if silence is compliance—then what the Bible describes as wisdom is foolishness. And especially: if silence is violence, if silence is compliance—Jesus is a sinner.
Social justice ideology is a religion for people who make gods out of their skin-colours or self-interests. Social justice ideology is a religion with its own orthodoxies and heresies, its own priests and prophets, its own sacred slogans and confessions or catechisms—and particularly, its own version of sin and righteousness.
Therefore, after social justice followers experienced a revival a couple of weeks ago—one of the most righteous things a person can do right now, in their mind, is speak out against perceived systemic racism. And consequently, according to their rhetoric, one of the most sinful things a person can do right now is to be silent about perceived systemic racism.
However, Black Lives Matter isn’t the standard for righteous reactions to injustice—the Bible is. And according to the Bible, silence isn’t always compliance to injustice or sin.
The Bible says, “Open your mouth for the mute, for the rights of all who are destitute. Open your mouth, judge righteously, defend the rights of the poor and needy.” (Proverbs 31:8-9)
God commands us to speak for justice. That’s why I’m a pro-life advocate. That’s why I’m a blogger. I know we Christians have a responsibility to affirm justice in a culture that labels evil as good and injustice as justice.
