Religious vs. Political Social Justice–Big Difference.

A friend of mine, who tends toward the liberal side of politics, recently challenged my opposition to social justice, by saying he supports social justice because he’s a Catholic. I’ve always held there is a difference between political social justice and religious social justice and it’s truly an affront to Christian teachings when some attempt to contort religious teachings in order to make a political point.

What is the crucial difference between political social justice and religious social justice? Free will. Yes, religious social justice is voluntary, political social justice is not. Church doesn’t compel charity, as if true charity is something that lends itself to compulsion.

What makes Catholic, or Christian, social justice, the sharing of resources with one another, is it recognizes that individuals own property, and it is in their voluntarily giving of their property, to another person who they’ve determined is in more need of it that they are, which makes it a remarkable, generous, and beautiful act.

To legislate the “giving,” transfer, of property to one group of people from another group of people, by force of government, is neither remarkable, generous, and certainly not beautiful. It’s corrupt.