God does not play favorites

In any work, there are times when some things done in it are of greater importance than most others. One of the more important entries here at Emergent Pillage was the one against what is today called social justice, and why I do not believe in that concept. This one likely ranks up there with that one, at least in my mind, because it deals with one of the more important aspects of this thing called social justice.

It has to do with the idea with emergents and progressives likely picked up from liberation theology, which as well likely came from Marxism, that God favors the poor. On this rests their attempts to make socialistic economic politicies and wealth redistribution into necessary aspects of their attempts to impliment social justice.

To say that, in any aspect of justice, God favors any social or economic class or another, is to go against what God Himself told the people to do. Consider these passages.

Do not pervert justice; do not show partiality to the poor or favoritism to the great, but judge your neighbor fairly.
Leviticus 19:17

Do not show partiality in judging; hear both small and great alike...
Deuteronomy 1:17

These are the sayings of the wise: To show partiality in judging is not good:
Proverbs 24:23

So, I will contend here, that to say that "God favors the poor" is to say that God practices injustice. God Himself has said that justice should be given to both rich and poor without partiality, and to show partiality would be to pervert justice.

And, of course, we can see that is true, at least in part. We know that it is wrong to favor the rich in our judgments, simply because they are rich. We know that it is wrong for a judge or political ruler to take a bribe so that their decisions will favor the wealthy. I don't think many people will argue against those things.

But in order to understand things the Bible says about defending the rights of the poor (Prov. 31:9) and caring about justice for the poor (Prov. 29:7), it needs to be understood that justice for the poor does not mean injustice for the rich, and defending the rights of the poor does not mean taking away the rights of the rich.

In other words, social justice is actually injustice, which is why the concept of social justice needs to be abandoned in order for real justice can be given to all of any economic class. And it's why social justice and socialistic economic policies can only administrated through immoral and unethical political means or violence.

Consider the names of these countries or former countries--Russia and the entire USSR, China, North Korea, Vietnam, Cambodia, Cuba. All of these have had communism and socialism "thrust upon them", so to speak. And all the attempts were failures, filled with bad economic thinking, political oppression, suppression of the people's rights and freedoms, and lots of deaths.

And perhaps most of all, considering the topic, poverty. The poor were certainly NOT helped in those countries; if anything, their situation was worsened. China, the closest to a success on a that list, only achieved it's success when it loosened its socialistic stance to allow some free market into the economy.

The rhetoric of "God favors the poor" is simply the tired rhetoric of class warfare with a dash of theological flavoring.

It is not hard to imagine some trying to interpret me as saying things that I am not here saying. They may try to say that I am against charitable giving, which I am not. They may try to say that I am saying that God does not care about the situation of the poor, which I am not.

What I am saying is this--social justice will not help the poor. Practicing injustice against the rich does not equate into justice for the poor. Social justice, which by definition plays favorites, is not true justice. History shows that the poor are not helped by socialistic and redistributive policies.