Biblical Perspective on "White Privilege"

The apostle Paul wrote...

"I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace" (Ephesians 4:1–3).

There has been an immense amount of attention placed on white privilege in America over the past 4-months, which has spread like wildfire across social media platforms amidst the backdrop of the Black Lives Matter movement, and even divided the Christian church. It seems everywhere we turn, people are now repenting of their sin of being born white due to receiving infinite privileges not afforded to various ethnic groups, blacks in particular. Consequently, there is an urgency of sorts manifesting itself within the white demographic to appease the masses and avoid being labeled "racist" at all cost, even though radical social justice proponents have already declared with unquestionable certainty that America is unequivocally, systemically racist. Therefore, there is now a push for whites to over-compensate for their presumed lack of care, attention and support on socioeconomic issues (predetermined by secular culture as systemic) via (1.) becoming more "woke" (i.e. aware) regarding racism toward blacks; (2.) accepting full blame for universal injustices against blacks; and (3.) taking ownership to fix all socioeconomic problems impacting blacks systemically. The biggest problem, though, in the white privilege debate is that our culture now assumes systemic racism is ALWAYS at play, even though racism (i.e. ethnic hatred) and prejudice are attitudinal sin issues of the heart (not systems). "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it? 'I the LORD search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds'" (Jeremiah 17:9–10). Granted, there are indeed policies and social reforms which need to be addressed throughout legislative and judicial branches of government to expand economic and social equality of opportunity for minorities. However, predetermining socioeconomic disparities are the direct result of racism and specifically, white privilege, is simply discriminatory, irresponsible, unproductive, hateful and dangerous to ALL races, including blacks.

Make no mistake, there are numerous instances where we are ALL guilty of sinning against man and God, but being born with varying degrees of melanin (i.e. pigmentation) in our skin is NOT one of them. Scripture reminds us, "For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well" (Psalm 139:13–14). To determine our skin color or gender were somehow mistakes from birth is blasphemous to our Creator who made us in His own image. "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them" (Genesis 1:27). Therefore, we should never apologize for or be ashamed of our race or gender, but recognize we are all equal under God as His children, "For God shows no partiality" (Romans 2:11). Therefore, God's Word declares, "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus" (Galatians 3:28). The sad fact is that self-proclaimed, anti-racists are the ones perpetuating guilt into the minds of far too many whites and holding their feet to the fire by labeling them racist without probable cause. Therefore, there is a psychological game of extortion taking place whereby whites are being emotionally blackmailed to support radical social justice initiatives and political, Marxist organizations such as Black Lives Matter in order to avoid suffering the consequences of negative publicity, backlash, protests, boycotts, looting, violence, persecution, and even death.

What is most surprising, though, is how easily swayed people have become to endorsing white privilege ideology, even though the United States population is quickly becoming more diverse year over year. Granted, any country's cultural identity will predominately mirror their racial majority based on population alone. However, according to U.S. census research provided by The Brookings Institution, over the past 40 years, America's population has become more culturally diverse as Whites decreased (-20%), Latinos increased +12%, Asians increased +4%, and Blacks increased +1%. The great irony is that regardless of how the U.S. population becomes more racially diverse, whites will always be labeled as privileged based on the past history of slavery (abolished 155-years ago) and segregation (abolished 56-years ago) in this country. However, radical social justice advocates DESPERATELY NEED whites to identify themselves, both formerly and presently, as racists who have attained immeasurable privilege through systemic means—handed down over time from generation to generation at the expense of innocent, oppressed blacks. Why? Because guilt is powerful motivator when yielded for personal gain, and whites have nothing to gain and everything to lose if they do not fall in the line with radical social justice demands. Therefore, it is imperative we recognize and expose those who use white guilt for political gain to promote ethnic hatred in our country. "For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. So it is no surprise if his servants, also, disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. Their end will correspond to their deeds" ( 2 Corinthians 11:13–15). 

Ironically, consider the perspective of Booker T. Washington, former slave and one of the greatest black leaders and educators of the 19th and 20th centuries, who in a speech delivered September 18, 1895, essentially cautioned against the perils of radical social justice theory (at the time, advocated by W.E.B. Du Bois who helped start the NAACP) which promotes ethnic hatred towards whites: 

Consider also the thoughtful perspective of John McWhorter, professor of linguistics, philosophy, American Studies, and music history at Columbia University in his article, Atonement As Activism, regarding the cultural dilemma whites now face:

"Over the past several years...whites across the country have been taught that it isn’t enough to understand that racism exists. Rather, the good white person views themselves as the bearer of an unearned “privilege” because of their color. 

This brand of self-flagellation has become the new form of enlightenment on race issues. It qualifies as a kind of worship; the parallels with Christianity are almost uncannily rich. White privilege is the secular white person’s Original Sin, present at birth and ultimately ineradicable. One does one’s penance by endlessly attesting to this privilege in hope of some kind of forgiveness.

The self-affirming part is the rub. This new cult of atonement is less about black people than white people. Fifty years ago, a white person learning about the race problem came away asking “How can I help?” Today the same person too often comes away asking, “How can I show that I’m a moral person?” That isn’t what the Civil Rights revolution was about; it is the product of decades of mission creep aided by the emergence of social media.

What gets lost is that all of this awareness was supposed to be about helping black people, especially poor ones. We are too often distracted from this by a race awareness that has come to be largely about white people seeking grace. 

Another problem is that I am not sure that today’s educated whites quite understand how unattainable the absolution they are seeking is. There is an idleness in this cult of atonement, in that it cannot get whites what they want. 

We have gone from most whites being unaware that racism was a problem for black people at all to whites being chilled to their bones at the possibility of harboring racism in their souls, terrified at the prospect of being singled out as a heretic, and forgetting that the indulgences they purchase and the praying they do for their souls has more to do with them than with anyone black and their problems. This is a white America in which the message has become garbled.

Whites today are in a hard place on this, I know. Damned if you do, damned if you don’t. You’re taught that on race issues you are morally obliged to suspend your usual standards of logic. Faced with a choice between some benign mendacity (untruthfulness) and being mauled, few human beings choose the latter."

Make no mistake, cultural persecution has impacted ALL who stand in opposition to the false narrative of whiteness and white privilege, which includes many prominent, highly respected leaders in the black community who do not embrace victimization rhetoric, but vehemently reject it as justification that blacks are just as oppressed today (if not more) than before the Civil Rights Act of 1964, or even the abolition of slavery in 1865. These courageous men and women deserve utmost respect for rejecting the pressures of tribalism within the black community by educating and encouraging others to think clearly and intelligently concerning cultural narratives which oppose Biblical theology and strategically keep blacks enslaved for political gain. Scripture warns, "Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world" (1 John 4:1), and we should be thankful to those who defend God's Word by speaking truth in love and exposing false prophets of black liberation theology, no matter the cost. Scripture affirms, "Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth" (1 John 3:18), which begins with simply exposing cultural lies and relative truths that do not align with Scripture, as noted by Darrell Harrison, Dean of Social Media at "Grace To You" ministries, and Virgil Walker, Discipleship Pastor at Westside Church in Omaha, Nebraska, from their outstanding podcast on Whiteness.

"How did we go in the span of one generation from (the black national anthem) 'Lift Every Voice and Sing' to (the negro spiritual) 'Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen'? This all points to the absurdity and shallowness of this whole idea of whiteness. Like the concept of 'race' itself, the concept of whiteness is just another invented, social construct that has absolutely no basis whatsoever in Biblical orthodoxy. 

I kind of liken it to someone who saunters into their kitchen at home, grabs a mixing bowl, adds a little Critical Race Theory along with a dash of Black Liberation Theology for taste, puts it in the oven, sets the temperature at 375-degrees for 30 minutes, and waits to see what comes out. That's exactly what this whiteness ideology is—namely, a recipe (if you will) for sinful division and hatred within the church and within the broader society. It is nothing more than a regurgitation of post-modernist, socio-cultural rhetoric that has been pontificated for decades by critical race theorists.

Critical Race Theory (CRT) is the view within social science that 'race,' instead of being biologically grounded and natural, is socially constructed, and that race as a socially constructed concept functions as a means to maintain the interests of the majority, white population that constructed it. According to CRT, racial inequality emerges from the social, economic and legal differences that white people create between races in order to maintain elite white interests in labor markets and politics, and as such, create the circumstances and structures that give rise to the poverty and criminality that exists in many minority communities.

CRT's combine progressive, political struggles for racial justice with critiques of the conventional, legal and scholarly norms which are themselves viewed as part of the illegitimate hierarchies that need to be destroyed. Critical race theorists reject the idea that race has a natural referent. Instead, for them, race is a product of social processes of power.

The idea of Black Liberation Theology (BLT) emerged during the second half of the 1960's when a small group of radical, black clergy began to reinterpret the meaning of the Christian faith from the standpoint of the black struggle for liberation in the United States. The main objective of BLT was to 'theologize' from within the black experience rather than be confined to duplicating the theology of Europe or white, North America. BLT represented the theological reflections of a radical, black clergy seeking to interpret the meaning of God's liberating presence in a society where blacks were being economically exploited and politically marginalized because of their skin color. 

In 1966, a group of 51 black pastors known as the 'national committee of black church men' bought a full page ad in the New York Times and demanded in that ad a more aggressive approach to eradicating racism. The statement, which was known as the 'black power' statement, echoed the demands of the black power movement, but the new crusade found its source of inspiration in the Bible. 

For each of these ideologies, CRT and BLT, the focus is on the temporal liberation of black people from the racist structures that exist in America and the demonizing of white people who are to blame for creating those structures, whatever those structures may be... These ideas, all of them (whiteness, CRT, BLT, etc.) are grounded in worldly, man-centered wisdom and not in the wisdom of God. They are worldly theories, worldly solutions, and worldly approaches that are not grounded in Scripture. 

In the final analysis, what proponents of CRT and BLT are attempting to do is use the divisive and sinful language of 'whiteness' to erect walls that Christ already tore down."

Harrison and Walker's exposition is incredibly valuable to properly understanding the cultural narrative and rhetoric surrounding white privilege ideology permeating our country. Unfortunately, both CRT and BLT have infiltrated the Christian church and little is being done to highlight their catastrophic impact and/or articulate how dangerous they are in shifting the conversation away from Biblical truth to politicize black victimization for liberals. That is why Scripture warns, "For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths" (2 Timothy 4:3–4). Enlightening whites by propagating systemic racism through white privilege theory is what radical social justice advocates champion as the universal root of black oppression. Therefore, it is imperative we glean wisdom and perspective from those within the black community, such as Patrick Hall of Freedom's Journal Institute in his article, White Privilege, Black Fathers, who have resisted drinking the cultural Kool-Aid of radical social justice and systemic racism, and critically examined the white privilege argument to extract fact from fiction by articulating what some of the root causes of black suffrage truly are in America.

"It is not white privilege or racism that has retarded the aspirations of the black underclass, it is the lack of a stable family structure which teaches young men not to take responsibility for the women they impregnate (instead of being the useless sperm-donors that many of them have become). It is a lack of a work ethic that views entry level jobs beneath them, or chump work. It is labeling other blacks who are trying to get educated themselves as acting white…whatever the hell that means.

It is not learning or even caring how to present oneself in public. That, too, is labeled acting white by many in the black underclass. It starts with entire neighborhoods not learning simple civic behaviors like picking up garbage that litters the streets in most inner city communities. It is not white privilege, which stops underclass blacks from raising children in such a manner that they take responsibility for themselves. Instead, a victim mentality has entrenched itself in the thinking of blacks in the underclass—even blacks in upper income brackets sometimes display this latent victim mentality."

Shifting gears, what is most interesting in this entire cultural debate is how ironic the term, "white privilege," is from a Biblical perspective if we consider how the color "white" represents purity, holiness, God's forgiveness of sins, and eternal restoration.

"Come now, let us reason together, says the LORD: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool" (Isaiah 1:18).

"Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow" (Psalm 51:7).

The significance of these truths is that those who have accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior, regardless of ethnicity, have been washed by the blood of the lamb, purified by His death, burial and resurrection, born-again, and made alive in Christ. Therefore, the essence of "white privilege" from a Biblical perspective is the PRIVILEGE OF ETERNAL SALVATION through Christ alone, which purifies us from sin, rescues us from the clutches of hell, and presents us as righteous and holy before almighty God on judgment day—white as snow. "Because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved" (Romans 10:9). Make no mistake, we do NOT have to embrace culture's definition of white privilege which creates ethnic division, permeates dissension, and promotes hatred. Rather, we can take back what the enemy has stolen and choose to REDEFINE "white privilege" as the blessing and honor given freely to every man, woman and child, regardless of ethnicity, who accepts Jesus Christ by grace through faith alone for his/her eternal salvation. White privilege does not have to be a derogatory term wielded as a racial weapon to promote hatred, "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23). Rather, as Jesus proclaimed, "I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak, for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned" (Matthew 12:36–37). Therefore, let us not be careless with the words we speak in order to avoid creating division and promoting hatred within the church and society at large. Let us instead consider Matthew 7:1-7 (Jesus' teaching on judging others) by guarding ourselves from focusing exclusively on the sins of others (i.e. speck) rather than identifying our own personal sins (i.e. plank) and need of redemption before God. For white privilege in God's economy is identifying ourselves as HOLY—washed by the blood of the lamb for the forgiveness of our sins REGARDLESS of ethnicity, not because of it.

"But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them" (Ephesians 2:4–10).

POST REFLECTION: If this redefinition of white privilege has gripped your heart and opened your mind to the truth of God's transforming Word, please consider leaving a comment below and more importantly, sharing the link to this blog post with others across social media [CLICK HERE]. It is a critical message our nation needs to hear at this moment in time to promote ethnic healing, understanding and reconciliation among God's children and the world at large. For Jesus said...

"You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven" (Matthew 5:14–16).

Biblical Perspective on "Social Justice"

After writing blog posts on three cultural ideologies currently plaguing our nation (Black Lives Matter, Defund The Police, and Systemic Racism), I am compelled to examine yet another subject flippantly accepted and defended throughout our culture but seldom understood. There are tremendous amounts of misinformation propagated by our liberal media which are strategically intended to convert the masses into endorsing cultural ideologies which blatantly contradict Scripture. However, I am increasingly convinced as time wears on that far too many Christians simply cannot identify a counterfeit when they see and/or hear it, which unfortunately is the case with social justice as well. It is a difficult subject to discern, for the aroma of social justice seems pleasing to the senses. However, as William H. Young explains in his article, Academic Social Science and Social Justice, its tangled web is far more sophisticated and dangerous than most presume.

"For more than a century, American academic social science has advocated the ideal of 'social justice,' supplanting the founding ideal of justice as equality of opportunity. While often an amorphous term, 'social justice' has evolved to generally mean state redistribution of advantages and resources to disadvantaged groups to satisfy their rights to social and economic equality. Communal sharing by group has replaced individual responsibility and reciprocity as the ethos of social science. Ultimately, social justice can only be realized through a command economy and totalitarian state—which is envisioned by the sustainability ideology to impose economic and social 'equity,' considered in the academy to be synonymous with 'equality.'"

In other words, present-day, social justice reform identifies disadvantaged groups and seeks redistribution of wealth and social advantages to create universal equity (i.e. equal outcomes). No longer is social justice about fighting for equal opportunity which Martin Luther King Jr. and the Civil Rights Movement successfully demonstrated in the 1960's through peaceful protests, non-violence, and respectful boycotts. Rather, as David Randall concludes in his article, Social Justice Education in America, social justice of old has evolved into a new breed of radical social justice theory, propagated throughout higher education which categorizes people based on social identity groups, determines oppression based solely on statistical demographic gaps among groups, and ultimately seeks to eliminate privilege.

"What we may call radical social justice theory, which dominates higher education, adds to broader social justice theory the belief that society is divided into social identity groups defined by categories such as class, race, and gender; that any 'unfair distribution' of goods among these groups is oppression; and that oppression can only—and must—be removed by a coalition of 'marginalized' identity groups working to radically transform politics, society, and culture to eliminate privilege."

Therefore, radical social justice requires that advantages and resources enjoyed by a culture's hegemonic order (i.e. perceived social class dominance) must be redistributed to those who do not belong to the hegemony. Presently in the United States, hegemonic order has been unequivocally stereotyped as white privilege and superficially identified as heterosexual, cisgender (i.e. gender identity matches his/her sex assigned at birth), able-bodied, native-born, etc., white males. Therefore, whomever does not identify with any of those attributes is oppressed individually and more importantly as a group (i.e. the more boxes unchecked, the higher the oppression). One of the fundamental problems with radical social justice, though, is it segregates people into subgroups and stereotypes them based on demographics, seeking reparations to remedy grievances which subjectively determine what is just vs. unjust. For example, consider the popular argument presented by Joe Feagin of the American Sociological Association which under-girds the true foundation of the social justice movement:

"As I see it, social justice requires resource equity, fairness, and respect for diversity, as well as the eradication of existing forms of social oppression. Social justice entails a redistribution of resources from those who have unjustly gained them to those who justly deserve them, and it also means creating and ensuring the processes of truly democratic participation in decision-making…. It seems clear that only a decisive redistribution of resources and decision-making power can ensure social justice and authentic democracy."

Keep in mind, based on Feagin's argument it makes no difference whether people have legitimately worked their way from meager and humble beginnings, overcoming numerous obstacles to achieve prosperity through hard work, discipline, determination, integrity and work ethic IF they belong to the hegemonic order (i.e. heterosexual, cisgender, able-bodied, native-born, etc., white males). From a radical social justice perspective, determining whether prosperity is achieved justly or unjustly is solely based on which demographic group you belong to. Therefore, if you identify demographically with the perceived cultural hegemony, social justice requires your wealth, power, influence, privileges, advantages and resources be redistributed because you gained them unjustly as a result of your hegemony. However, this solves nothing. Rather, it creates unnecessary animosity between people groups, cultivates identity politics, and promotes entitlement to those who do nothing more than bang the drum of radical social justice and demand immediate, never-ending reparations, compensation, and universal acceptance.

However, God's Word offers a far different perspective. "What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God" (James 4:1–4). Make no mistake, James speaks directly to the heart of the radical social justice movement in our country, because "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble" (James 4:6). In retrospect, it takes an immeasurable amount of ignorance and foolishness to blame others for every disadvantage a demographic sub-group incurs without ever considering the problem might be self-imposed. However, it is far easier to manipulate the emotional sensibilities of others under the banner of victimization rather than accept responsibility and personal accountability for problems (which have nothing to do with oppression) within a subgroup. For example, the unarguable #1 cause of death in the black community is abortion (i.e. over 1,000 murders per DAY), yet the only aspect of abortion radical social justice proponents will champion is providing greater/easier access opportunity for women to legally kill their babies and accept personal responsibility. Moreover, black on black gang violence (for youth, especially) is plaguing inner cities across the United States and further exacerbating prison populations, yet radical social justice advocates demand the decriminalization of illegal drugs and prostitution, and immediate release of all drug-related convictions to solve the problem (and justify sin). However, is white privilege to blame in either of these examples? No. If anything, both can easily be attributed to the +75% rate of fatherlessness in black communities, yet radical social justice supporters refuse to consider any argument which proves some economic challenges and disparities are indeed self-imposed. 

The problem is radical social justice advocates are determined to hide the fact that what they really covet is equal outcomes, not simply equal opportunity, which elicits a victim mentality under the umbrella of unconscious bias and systemic racism as described by social psychologist Jonathan Haidt in a March, 2017, Wall Street Journal interview on the Cultural Roots of Campus Rage.

"The left… has undergone an ideological transformation. A generation ago, social justice was understood as equality of treatment and opportunity… Today justice means equal outcomes. There are two ideas now in the academic left that weren’t there 10 years ago. One is that everyone is racist because of unconscious bias, and the other is that everything is racist because of systemic racism. That makes justice impossible to achieve. When you cross that line into insisting that if there’s not equal outcomes then some people and some institutions and some systems are racist, sexist, then you’re setting yourself up for eternal conflict and injustice."

Haidt's assessment is incredibly profound for many reasons, but mainly because there are distinct differences between equality before God, equality of opportunity, and equality of outcomes. For example, the U.S. Declaration of Independence states, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." Notice how equality before God and equality of opportunity are both exemplified as justice, but equality of outcome is NOT because our founding fathers never sought social justice as defined by the leftist, liberal generation of today. "He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor" (1 Corinthians 3:8). They intended a capitalistic economy of competitive supply and demand which relies upon free markets controlled primarily by private asset/business ownership to determine price, incomes, wealth and distribution of goods. Government control was meant to be minimal and non-intrusive to maximize individual potential and opportunity for its citizens. The challenge is that radical social justice theory demands equality of outcomes, which is impossible to achieve without essentially replacing capitalism with socialism to maximize government control and ensure equal outcomes across an entire country's population. In other words, no one goes without in a socialistic economy and no one has more resources or advantages than anyone else. Socialism creates neutrality by destroying social classes and the perceived hegemonic order. However, it also surrenders personal freedoms for government control and suppresses individual opportunity. It is an age old debate between capitalism and socialism which conservatives and liberals have been waging for years, but is easily identified in the crucible of radical social justice which pits equality of outcome (finish line) vs. equality of opportunity (starting line). In other words, generally speaking...

Keep in mind, the goal of radical social justice, per Dr. Voddie Baucham, Dean of Theology at African Christian University in Zambia, in his lecture, Defining Social Justice, is as follows: 1. Identify disadvantaged groups (not minorities); 2. Assess group outcomes; 3. Assign blame for disparate outcomes; and 4. Redistribute power and resources in order to redress/rectify those grievances. The problem is radical social justice assumes cultural disparities are the result of intentional, racially-motivated oppression, requiring reverse-oppression and racism to remedy the problem. Therefore, in order to cure social justice, the perceived hegemonic order must be suppressed and eventually eradicated to pave the way for minority equality, feminism, women's rights, and LGBTQ+ rights. However, disproportionate demographic results are not necessarily evidence that discrimination truly exists. For example, consider the following parable Jesus told:

"For the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. After agreeing with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard. And going out about the third hour he saw others standing idle in the marketplace, and to them he said, ‘You go into the vineyard too, and whatever is right I will give you.’ So they went. Going out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour, he did the same. And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing. And he said to them, ‘Why do you stand here idle all day?’ They said to him, ‘Because no one has hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You go into the vineyard too.’ And when evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the laborers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last, up to the first.’ And when those hired about the eleventh hour came, each of them received a denarius. Now when those hired first came, they thought they would receive more, but each of them also received a denarius. And on receiving it they grumbled at the master of the house, saying, ‘These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.’ But he replied to one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? Take what belongs to you and go. I choose to give to this last worker as I give to you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity?’ So the last will be first, and the first last" (Matthew 20:1–16).

Notice that all laborers were given the same opportunity to work and earn a wage when hired with no discrimination present whatsoever. In no way were the first laborers not given full disclosure on what compensation they would receive for an honest day's work. Therefore, they accepted the opportunity given without reservation. It was not until the end of the day when those who worked far less received equal compensation that the first laborers expressed their displeasure for not receiving more compensation than what they were promised. Their focus shifted from equal opportunity to equal outcomes, and the selfishness of their hearts was exposed. "Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall" (Proverbs 16:18). Therefore, we must ask ourselves the following questions. Were all laborers given the equal opportunity to work? Yes. Were all laborers given equal outcomes in compensation? Yes. Therefore, what is the problem? Is this example not radical social justice personified? Yes. However, is it fair and just? It depends on who's perspective we're considering. Would the outcome be fair and just if the laborers who worked 11-hours were white and those who worked 1-hour were black? What if the demographics were reversed? Would radical social justice advocates feel the final outcome was fair and just if the 11-hour laborers were black and the 1-hour laborers were white? Keep in mind, equal opportunities do not always lead to equal outcomes, but when they do, are they fair and just or conditionally subjective?

Undoubtedly, what is inherently flawed in today's social justice debate is the role equal outcomes play in shifting the narrative from preventing injustice to victimization. Therefore, socialism seeks to even the playing field so that none go without, but it also stifles creativity and a pursuit of excellence because it perpetuates mediocrity. There is no motivation to excel above and beyond if the end-result is exactly the same. Moreover, Scripture teaches it is fruitless to pursue social justice from a worldly perspective because loving the world and pursuing worldly passions is meaningless apart from God. "Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever" (1 John 2:15–17). Keep in mind, it is imperative we immerse ourselves in God's Word to filter out worldly passions which seek equal outcomes rather than equal opportunity, so we all can aspire to fulfill the calling God places on our hearts. Therefore, "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him" (Colossians 3:16–17).

Make no mistake, equality of opportunity based on our equality before God should be the sole focus of social justice reform in our country. However, that is simply not the case based on current political trends and social propaganda from left-wing, liberal activists who are perpetuating greater dissension and division between demographic subgroups rather than reconciliation and partnership. For far too many people leverage social justice incorrectly to perpetuate white guilt, cast judgment on others' religious beliefs, and demand free handouts. Consequently, far too many people have been taught to believe they are victims—indoctrinated with this false narrative their whole lives. Therefore, the only way to appease their demands is through concessions and reparations, even though doing so only exacerbates the problem further. The Bible states plainly, "If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat" (2 Thessalonians 3:10b), because "the soul of the sluggard craves and gets nothing, while the soul of the diligent is richly supplied" (Proverbs 13:4), and "in all toil there is profit, but mere talk tends only to poverty" (Proverbs 14:23). Therefore, let us guard ourselves from the false narrative of radical social justice theory our culture seeks to desensitize us with by replacing our social media exposure with greater time spent in God's Word. For only then will the scales of deception fall so our eyes can recognize false narratives when we see and hear them, enabling us to speak truth in love to those who abuse social justice endeavors by demanding equal outcomes.