How ‘Social Justice’ Becomes Idolatry in a Post-Christian Culture and in Progressive ‘Christianity’

 

‘Idolatry’ can be understood both literally and metaphorically, but with the same effect.  Literally, it is the worship of human-made deities—crafted idols.  From the perspective of religions that state that there is only One God, Creator of heaven and earth, things visible and invisible, idolatry involves not only turning to other deities but also inventing religion to suit cultural tastes and human needs.  Metaphorically, idolatry involves placing anything above God—or replacing God with something else.

The history of Christianity in many parts of the world has involved a Christian challenge to other religions over the centuries.  In the 8th century, St. Boniface chopped down the sacred oak of the god Donar of Germanic tribes in the Frankish Empire.  As the story goes, a wind came up and helped to topple the tree.  With no challenge from Donar, the tribes turned to Jesus Christ instead.  Such encounters with pagan religions have often been repeated.  Christians do not believe in forcing people into the faith, but they also insist that there is only one true faith and that this will challenge all other religions. 

Such challenges to idolatry were also part of Israel’s encounter with other cultures and religions.  The One True God demanded singular devotion to Himself of all peoples, tribes, nations, and tongues.  In the 9th c. BC, Elijah the prophet similarly challenged the 450 priests of Baal and 400 prophets of Asherah on Mt. Carmel.  They built an altar for the sacrifice of a bull to Baal and pled with him to supply the fire.  Elijah did the same for the true God and also drenched the wood and sacrifice with water three times.  No matter how much the prophets of Baal danced about, pled, and cut themselves, no fire came down from heaven to consume their waiting sacrifice.  Fire did come down from heaven and consumed the sacrifice of Elijah, God’s prophet, though.  It consumed the wood, stones, dust, and water in the trench around the altar, so mighty a display of God’s reality did it present (1 Kings 18).  A religion that claims that there is only One God is, whether in words or in actions, a direct challenge to the religions of others.

In a Postmodern world, where truth is deemed relative and religion a matter of, at best, private belief, a direct challenge to the beliefs of others is viewed as offensive.  Early Postmodernity wished to see culture as softly inclusive, whereas late Postmodernity has become aggressively exclusive against all claims of truth.  It wants more than toleration: it requires plurality.  It sings the praises of social diversity.  It celebrates subjective claims over facts.  In this, it places the creature over the Creator.  Truth is denied; his or her truth is affirmed and protected.  Nature is denied; orientation is the new truth.

Take, for example, the jailed father in Canada who committed the crime of not calling his son his ‘daughter’, and not agreeing to his using puberty blockers.[1]  This version of ‘social justice’, of course, has nothing to do with justice in the world created by God.  It is the very stuff of Eve’s and Adam’s sin—to wrest the definition of ‘good’ and ‘evil’ from God and attempt to become like God by determining morality by oneself—by made-up identities rather than how God created us.

The move to idolatry in the Post-Christian West in the name of social justice is also seen in the historical revisions of the so-called Cancel Culture.  Christianity is seen as an abusive power that undermined other cultures by preaching One God.  The logical development of this is to appreciate the pre-Christian cultures around the world and, of course, that means some sort of reintroduction of pagan deities.  For example, a current issue being considered by the California Department of Education is a newly proposed ethnic studies curriculum that is intended to accomplish ‘social justice’ by ‘decolonizing’ American society.[2]  White Christians (note both terms are abhorrent to this Cancel Culture) are considered to be guilty in their collective past for ‘killing’ Native American deities and teaching Christian faith instead.  Preaching the Gospel is now viewed as a form of cultural destruction—social injustice.  The co-chair of the curriculum and primary author of this curriculum, according to an article in the Christian Post, is R. Tolteka Cuauhtin.  He asserts, ‘White settlers thus established a regime of coloniality, dehumanization, and genocide.’  To right this social injustice, he seeks a ‘countergenocide’ against whites that will ‘name, speak to, resist, and transform the hegemonic European neocolonial condition.’

This is not the stuff of early Postmodernity, which might have sought some sort of inclusion of diverse religions, including Christianity.  Now, social justice is so understood that it cannot abide any exclusive claim from Christians.  Christianity is seen as a tool of white supremacy, colonialism, hegemonic power.  To counter this, Cuauhtin proposes through this new curriculum to reintroduce Aztec gods.  In a direct challenge to the First Amendment’s separation of Church and State, students will, if the curriculum is approved, according to the Christian Post article, be introduced to and participate in a chant to an Aztec god, Tezkatlipoka, who has been appropriated as a god giving power to now social justice warriors.  The Aztec religion is also being recommissioned for social justice as deities for ‘healing epistemologies’ and a ‘revolutionary spirit’.

‘Social justice’ has, in this case, literally become idolatry.  Another example of this trend toward idolatry might be cited from within Christianity too—or, at least, within some parts of Roman Catholicism.  Catholic missions is known for bending far in the direction of religious syncretism, and there has been a shocking example of this even in Rome.  Once again, ‘social justice’ is involved in the story.  Pope Francis’s ecological concerns for the earth became an open door to introduce pagan deities from South America during a Pan-Amazon Synod in 2019.[3]  This blatant act of sacrilege has about it all the marks of Post-Christian, Postmodern culture: environmental concerns twisted away from our Creator and developed around other gods, inclusion of other religions, sensitivity to other religions, and, of course, that ever-present, sacrosanct term—‘diversity’.

And so, what sounds so pure and good, ‘social justice’, actually becomes an avenue for the introduction of idolatry, both literally and metaphorically.  People are caught like deer in the headlights of the current culture.  The beams of social justice are turned on, and to run is to admit injustice, but to stand one’s ground is to face being shot by the hunter.  One is damned either way, all the while the agendas of social justice, which are no justice at all, are driven right in.  Worse, however, the idolatry of manmade deities, if not actual deities of pagan religions, are also introduced.



[1] See Michael Foust, ‘Father Jailed after Calling Transgender Child His ‘Daughter’ and Using Wrong Pronouns,’ Christian Headlines (March 18, 2021); online at: https://www.christianheadlines.com/contributors/michael-foust/father-jailed-after-calling-transgender-child-his-daughter-and-using-wrong-pronouns.html.

[2] The description of this curriculum is taken from Brandon Showalter, ‘California “Ethnic Studies” proposal teaches kids white Christians are evil, chant to Aztec gods,’ in Christian Post (Friday, March 12, 2021); online at: https://www.christianpost.com/news/calif-ethnic-studies-plan-teaches-kids-to-chant-to-aztec-gods.html?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=facebook&fbclid=IwAR1YYEydJdGLKc07zDrnoo--KUxkxLscvDamqyDDhIALKksqQr0RWCLdWiA.

[3] Among the many articles that captured this shocking event, see, e.g., George Neumayr, ‘The Strange Gods of Pope Francis: His project is to weaken Catholic faith while strengthening the UN-Vatican alliance,’ The American Spectator (October 10, 2019): online at: https://spectator.org/the-strange-gods-of-pope-francis/.

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