Very penetrating nugget here from C.S.Lewis' book The Screwtape Letters. HT: AOSHQ
Screwtape is a senior devil, writing to a junior devil Wormwood on the ways of bringing the multitudes to Hell. That's why he refers to God as 'the Enemy.'
In this short passage, we find Lewis mentioning a............Jesuitical........use of the phrase 'social justice'.
...Certainly we do not want men to allow their Christianity to flow over into their political life, for the establishment of anything like a really just society would be a major disaster. On the other hand we do want, and want very much, to make men treat Christianity as a means; preferably, of course, as a means to their own advancement, but, failing that, as a means to anything — even to social justice. The thing to do is to get a man at first to value social justice as a thing which the Enemy demands, and then work him on to the stage at which he values Christianity because it may produce social justice. For the Enemy will not be used as a convenience. Men or nations who think they can revive the Faith in order to make a good society might just as well think they can use the stairs of Heaven as a short cut to the nearest chemist’s shop. ...
A lot of Catholics (and many Protestants) will jump up and rattle on about Pp. Leo XIII's encyclicals on the topic of social justice, assuming that Leo's writings mean that Catholicism (Christianity) demands social justice.
That's not true. The Pope described it as a goal, noting a number of injustices and suggesting remedies; but the Pope never cited a passage from the New (or Old) Testament wherein Christ mandated such remedies as political goals.
"Wait, wait!!" you say. "The Beatitudes!!! They're all about social justice!!! And 'love your neighbor,' too!!!! You're just a racist homophobe nazi tyrant pile of privilege!!!"
Really?
Christ did not say "Blessed is the nation...." He said "Blessed are they....." See the difference? He did not say "Love your neighbor by making your other neighbor pay for his college education." He put the onus square on you. See the difference?
There's a good reason for the old saying that you cannot legislate morality: you can't.
Enforceable laws prohibit IM-morality. So, for example, when a ditz-Marxist says that she will 'prohibit price-gouging and excessive profits,' she is not talking about good laws, because her suggestions cannot be enforced. Go ahead: tell me what is "gouging" and what are "excessive" profits? No Congress--nor any two courts--will agree on the precise, enforceable, meaning of those terms.
Marxists are happy to wrap themselves in the flag of Christianity by blathering about social justice as though it were a mandate from Heaven. That's why Screwtape said "we do want, and want very much, to make men treat Christianity as a means..." The Marxists fell right into Screwtape's trap, and would love to have your company.
That makes "the Enemy"--God--a 'convenience.' He doesn't like that, friends.
Can I prove that He doesn't like that?
Yup. Show me one Marxist "social justice" nation that endured. Go ahead. I'll wait.
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