Just what is social justice?

I am struck by Bonhoeffer, always, whenever I read his insights.

The following quote tends to underscore my feelings about true social justice.


In a Christian community, everything depends upon whether each individual is an indispensable link in a chain. Only when even the smallest link is securely interlocked is the chain unbreakable. A community which allows unemployed members to exist within it will perish because of them. It will be well, therefore, if every member receives a definite task to perform for the community, that he may know in hours of doubt that he, too, is not useless and unusable. Every Christian community must realize that not only do the weak need the strong, but also that the strong cannot exist without the weak. The elimination of the weak is the death of the fellowship. Dietrich Bonhoeffer
I was visiting with a young man who I hold in high esteem this morning. We were discussing the topic of social justice.

What does that mean?

I hadn't ever really given any time to thinking about that.

Usually, in my experience, it is a topic I hear social work folks use, in dealing with the complications and the frustrating plight of the poor. Those issues really chafe me, especially with the issues affecting the working poor.

In general, social justice is a concept, having to do with basic human rights and society...the concept has specific meaning for those who tend to be right wing--or free market proponents, and another nearly wholly different for the left wing--which tend to drift towards socialism.

In my experience, social justice covers many issues, such as----the right to vote, the right of people to receive adequate health care, the minimum wage, language issues, such as mandatory English speaking in schools and public institutions, and many others.

I think social justice in the Kingdom community is a sense of the need we have for one another, in the Body of Christ. It means the preservation of the dignity and worth of the individual, no matter what his or her socio-economic state, but it also means the acceptance of responsibility of work and labor by the able bodied among us.

It is a two edged sword, the sword of justice.

It means equity.

It means responsibility.

It means welfare for all.

It means fairness.

It means not being lazy or freeloading.

Maybe it means that those who do not work... for the common good, do not have it as good as those who do...if that is what it means, then I am all for it.





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