Social Justice Warriors

The scene may change but the activity of social justice warriors remain the same. What once started out as an online strategy to combat racism and bigotry has morphed into something else entirely. It once had a positive connotation, but that has given way to a very negative association. Why is that so? What are social justice warriors, anyway?

Social justice warriors (SJWs) is the label used to denote those who advocate for societal change, usually in a very vocal or even physical way. They may perceive certain situations as morally offensive and so work hard to make improvements. It’s ironic, however, that modern SJWs sometimes advocate for change whether or not they believe in what they are fighting for. Advocating for change may or may not be a good thing, but the real issue is the motivation (the why) of  social justice warriors.

Background History

People have demanded change in their societies  since the beginning of time, and the United States is no different. The current culture wars we see are simply a continuation of that internal pressure. Social justice warriors strive to make changes in how others act, and even how they think. However, they want others to think as they do and anything else is considered an affront! That is why you see the demand for politically correct speech on university campuses, in businesses and in public policy debates. They mandate that others believe what they believe, and speak the same things they speak. Because of this they make little – or no – allowance for freedom of speech.

While the suppression of free speech is bad enough, the cause for this abhorrence is even worse. Social justice warriors want to change society to match what they think is best. Unfortunately, many of those concepts are directly opposed to the Bible, as well as to the foundational principles of the United States. It is no secret that social justice warriors are atheists, or at least that their world view is framed by unbiblical ideas. That presents a huge problem!

Ongoing Active Pressure

Social justice warriors have taken many forms throughout the years, but they all share a common ideal – the removal of God and biblical principles from society. It happens in the social engineering experiments we’ve seen in the courts via the normalization of homosexual ‘marriage.’ It happens in the military as we see decisions made for political gain. It happens in the attempts to remove the influences of Scripture in how our government operates. The problem is that these attempts run contrary to how, and why, the US government was initially formed.

Ultimately, social justice warriors rely on what they think is right or wrong. That thinking is based on what they perceive, separate of God’s wisdom as found in the Bible. The dangers of that mindset are numerous because they will change with temporary cultural values. They are not fixed on the anchor of God’s unchanging Word.

The Solution

It’s important to understand that the original social justice warriors were, in fact, Christians! Women’s rights, abolition, freedom of commerce and personal property rights, all these things were espoused and encouraged by the followers of Jesus. The changes that the early Christians wrought in the world changed the societies around them.  Paul the Apostle, Perpetua, Boniface, Peter Waldo, Isaac Newton, William Carey, William Wilberforce, Martin Luther King, Jr. All these people were, in their own way, social justice warriors. Some were missionaries, some were martyrs, all were faithful to the Lord.

That practice still goes on today! As we follow Christ and live out His life in us we can become the catalyst of change that the world seeks. Not through suppressing those that disagree with us, but by living out the life of Jesus everywhere we go.

It’s up to us to be the real social justice warriors!