Amway Justice

Introduction
The problem with all materialistic forms of social justice is that they are inherently unjust. There, I said it. And enough said, right? I mean, if social justice is a matter redistributing material means, opportunities, and privileges, how in the world are you going to get the exact same amount to everyone? This is like that hair cut you gave your kid that one time where you were trying to get that line in the back or on the bangs exactly straight. Yes, we all know what happened and why he wore a baseball cap for two weeks after. You cut on one side, and then a little bit on the other and then a little more in the middle and then a little more on the left and then the right, and then you cried. 

Glorious Inequality
So this is the problem: there is only so much material to work with, and it is simply impossible to equally distribute all the stuff. And if for some wild, insane (impossible) moment you could get it to 99% equality, the very next instant that equality would be in free fall, disappearing out of sight because it turns out you still can’t completely equalize the bodies and minds and instincts of all the people, much less their geographic locations or weather. Their health and fitness is different; their intelligence is different; their preferences are different. And as we are actually now being told, there is also weather and environmental inequalities. And they would immediately respond to all the resources, money, opportunities differently. I mean if we had the exact amount of raw materials, most of it would go to waste with most of us because we wouldn’t even know what to do with it, much less want to do anything with it.

The first point then is that it is utterly impossible to equally distribute all things in every way, and this means that there will always be differences between people. Some people will have more things, more money, more expertise; some will be taller, some will have better eye-hand coordination, some will have more patience, and some will actually like working with numbers. And others will not. Some people will want to spend all their time doing back flips off of diving boards. Others will want to garden. And still others will want to build space shuttles.

Now, I can hear the howls of our woke priests in the distance shrieking about how hateful and bigoted all of this is, but I would like to take this opportunity to say that I don’t care. In fact, I’m not sorry at all, and I would even go so far as to say that I think such a situation with people doing different things with their different opportunities, gifts, resources, and abilities (and weather!) is a good thing. In fact, it’s good for everyone. It’s the best thing for everyone. This diversity of gifts, abilities, and interests is what creates a diversity of goods, a multiplicity of additional opportunities and resources down the road. It means I don’t have to do some things and because of this division of labor, if I need what they are making, I can pay them for it and do something else with my time.

There is No Mercedes
But let me say one more thing, specifically to Christians who are tempted by the woke justice scam. What you are being offered is Amway Justice. Ok, maybe you don’t understand that. How about this: What you are being offered is Essential Oils Justice. What I mean is that it’s a multilevel marketing scheme, a pyramid scheme, a Ponzi scheme. The promise is that everyone will get rich, everyone will get an opportunity, everyone will get a Mercedes, but the problem is that it’s like musical chairs and there really aren’t enough chairs for everyone. It’s justice for people who are bad at math, which come to think of it is probably why so many government-schooled Americans are being duped by it.

The point isn’t that we should object to Critical Theory and similar schemes because we don’t want real biblical justice and fairness for all, the problem is that it doesn’t actually deliver the product. There is no Mercedes. A few people get old beaters and everyone else has to settle for somebody’s old, rusted bike that somebody wrote “Mercedes” on with a black sharpie. Shut up and be grateful, sucker.

The reason Christians should hate every form of intersectionality and woke justice is because they aren’t actually just. They are inherently unjust. They keep shouting “no justice,” and then what they demand is more injustice, programs and plans and charts and ministries and letterhead that all amount to that bad haircut you gave your kid. You scurry around distributing stuff, redistributing stuff, listening, empowering, meeting, planning, and doing all the things, and lo, it’s never equal enough, it’s never fair enough. Meanwhile, while you are busy divesting and kneeling and surrendering and woking all your privileges and opportunities, if you stop and listen for a moment, you can hear the sound of all your money, time, and energy pouring down the drain. If you ever look up and look around, you should realize that you will never actually get there. You will never get to equality. You will never get to exact material sameness, whether racial, ethnic, intelligence, physical, monetary, etc. And if you did, you find the planet desolate and the human race extinct. The materialistic social justice project is like spooning sand into the ocean hoping to build an island and promising everyone beach front property. The end of this road is despair, apathy, and in the end you have only made matters worse. 

Another Way
But here’s the thing: you don’t have to do that in order to work for real biblical justice and peace in the world. There is something wrong with every human being and with human societies; there is a great deficiency, a systemic injustice problem wound through every society, but it is not primarily material. The problem is sin. The great hole in the human race is our fallen nature. But this really is good news. There is an infinite supply of grace, forgiveness, and justice for the human problem. And it is immediately available to everyone, and it is immediately useful to everyone. What is that resource that everyone needs, that everyone can have immediate access to? The blood and righteousness of Jesus. Sin is the universal oppressor, and Jesus is the universal Savior. 

Is there real injustice in the prison system? Is there real racial animosity and injustice in neighborhoods and courtrooms? Is there economic oppression and employment partiality? Is there child abuse, sexual abuse, human trafficking, rape, and murder? Yes to all of it. Are there material factors wound through them all? Yes, again. But this is the point: you can’t count that high. You cannot quantify the material factors, much less organize them all on a spreadsheet and then place the order. First off, just listen to yourself trying to turn tragedy and heartbreak into a numbers game. People are not numbers, but when you reduce people to their material circumstances, you cannot help but dehumanize them. But second, you do not know what is needed, beyond immediate shelter and safety in moments of pure emergency, but beyond that, you do not know what all the factors are, what all the needs are, but Jesus does. 

Conclusion
We are Christians. And this means that we know and believe that Jesus lives. Jesus died for our sins, for the sins of the world, and He rose from the dead in order to make all things new. He is not dead; He is alive. We have met Him. We have seen His hand at work in our lives and in our world. This is no excuse making. This is no spiritualizing, no gnostic gospel hand-waving. This is the solution: Jesus Christ Himself. And there is no other solution. When we preach Christ crucified, when call the world to come to Christ, we are not minimizing their material challenges or wounds. We are maximizing their opportunity for healing, for wisdom, for real success and glory in this world and into eternity. We are not the Maker; we are not the saviors. But we know Him, and so we bring the world to Him for healing and forgiveness. And since He made them, He loves them more than us, and He knows how to minister to their needs. 

We do believe in the equality and justice of the gospel: we preach the same blood of the same Christ for the same salvation, but since we are bringing the world to the Maker, He knows how to re-make them into the unique and gloriously diverse people He intends them to be.