What Exactly Is This Social Justice Thing?

I have talked about Vox Nova on here several times. It deals with Catholic viewpoints on culture , society, and politics. The rub is of course that what an "authentic" Catholic viewpoint should be is not so clear cut

Vox Nova is a blog that has several commentators that post articles on a variety of subjects. It is a challenging blog. The posts challenge me often. I do think they the cumilative effects of some posst go a tad overboard. Check out the Fourth of July in the archives as aprime example IMHO.

Today Katerina Ivanovna posted this piece on what the Catholic doctrine of Social Justice is and is not. I have noticed that the posts Ivanovna writes are generally pretty good. I think this is because unlike some posters on Vox Nova she doesn't come off as condescending to us poor lost politically and economically conservative republican fools. I think she knows she can catch more bees with honey and still get her point across.

The doctrines of the Church regarding Social Justice are not suggestions. They are things we have to consider and in fact implement in our daily lives and in our political decisons also.

Again, I think she gives a pretty fair introduction to the topic. Let me quote this part:

Some Catholics try to make the term “social justice” so complicated and far-fetched that almost seems as something foreign or evil. To work towards a just social order or to ensure the common good is to simply care for each other, to love Christ in everyone: the sick, the prisoner, the stranger. When we take this love to a greater level in which we serve the criminal, the homeless, the immigrant, unconditionally united by a "sincere mutual love" (1 Peter 10:22) and we actively work in the political and social realm to take care of them and protect them as if they would be our own families or friends, that is when we are working towards a new social order, and this is what all Christians are called to do, to love one another intensely!
The Church, in her Social doctrine, is so clear as to how we can answer the question posed in Lk 10:29 ("who is my neighbor?") that it takes us away from our comfort zone--it challenges us our traditional way of thinking and acting. That may be the reason why we often do not welcome these doctrines, which are at the very core of Christianity itself and the great commandment to love one's neighbor.

That is true. They do take us out of our comfort zone and do challenge us. I think there are reasons why some Catholics get a bad feeling when they start hearing "social justice".

First, there is the issue of bad prior experences. Often in the past, social justice was put above the primary business of the Church. That is saving souls. In fact certain advocates and workers in social justice made the argument that the Church doctrines were a problem itself. Both Pope Benedict and Pope John Paul the II have gone to great lengths to combat that false notion.

Second, social justice touches greatly on the area of economics. Most people know little about economics. I find that often voters time after time make certain systematic mistakes regarding economics when they vote. For instance they benefit from non protectionist policies but vote for people that advocate protectionism.

Third, social justice is seen as too tied up with "liberal" economic policies and ideas. I think most people think the "welfare state" when they hear social justice. That is a idea that sadly is sometimes reinforced by those working in the field. The market is always bad and corporations are always evil etc etc.

Fourth, the immediate reaction is that someone is going to take something from me and give it to someone else. That is the efforts of my labor will be distributed to someone else. Actually this happens all the time through taxes. But we can see how people go on the defensive here.

Fifth, social justice sometimes comes across as one sided. That is the problems of the have nots are always the result of the haves. That is of course not true at all. Sometimes a moral rot in certain communties is much more responsible for the problems of the weakest among us than our actions.

Finally, these issue do make us uncomfortable. She is right that they push us out of our comfort zone. I saw that on immigration recently.

So it seems that putting social justice into practice is impossible. That people will disagree about how to implement it or use it as a device to advance some secular political agenda. Well the problem is that no matter how tough it is too put into practice we are still called to do it. Catholics and all Christians must be open to do ideas of how to advance these goals. That includes Catholics that need to engage conservative and republican viewpoints on tax policy , tax credits, and other related ideas.