John MacArthur, president of The Master’s University, founder of Grace to You, and respected speaker and author of many books, has made some strong statement against social justice in the Christian world. You can listen to and read a transcript of his sermons here and here and here.
Bloggers and commenters are pejoratively called “Social Justice Warriors” when they write passionately about social justice but don’t actually do anything about it. That’s understandable. But what John MacArthur says here is something different.
I believe that much of his speech mischaracterizes, minimizes, even caricatures, what those who claim to work for social justice are really trying to do. But I want to focus primarily on two things. I believe he is saying first of all that the call for social justice is wrong because everyone is claiming to be a victim and secondly and most important, the call for social justice in Christian circles is not the gospel or even part of the gospel, and we need to keep the gospel the main thing.
I’d like to look at both of those claims.
When we call for social justice, what constitutes a victim?
During slavery days, the primary words used for victimization were “oppression,” “cruelty,” and “abuse.” One of the Bible words for it is “oppressed.” This includes physical harm, sexual harm (which is also physical, but arguably carries a far greater effect, and is very often not visually observable the way other types of physical harm are), and what we might call spiritual/mental/emotional harm, in a situation such as a cult or an oppressive government like North Korea.
Minimizing or universalizing victimization
I get the impression that because some writers, like me, focus a good bit on victimization of the oppressed, other writers try to either minimize or universalize victimization. John MacArthur actually does both of these in his sermons. (Here’s another example, a blog post that says we are all victims in one way or another.)
But I’ve never claimed to be a victim of anyone at any time, and it remains clear in my mind who the victims are—the ones who are taken advantage of to be harmed by those in a more powerful position than they are. It seems straightforward to me.
What does the word “victim” mean?
John MacArthur didn’t define the word when he mocked it, but here’s a brief history of how the word victim has expanded, from the Oxford English dictionary:
- Earliest meaning: “a living creature killed and offered as a sacrifice to a deity or supernatural power,” from the late 1400s.
- Then expanded to “a person who is killed or tortured by another; one who suffers severely through cruel or oppressive treatment” beginning in the mid 1600s.
- Then expanded to “a person who is reduced or destined to suffer under some oppressive or destructive agency” in the early 1700s. This expansion on the definition was made to encompass passive abuse. For example, if a woman is dying because her husband is denying her food or medical treatment, she is a victim of his passive cruelty.
- Then expanded to “a person who suffers injury, hardship, or loss, is badly treated, or taken advantage of” in the late 1700s.
If many people and groups of people begin to use the word “victim” for themselves in a way that doesn’t truly match the definition, does that illegitimatize the term altogether?
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Thank you for this. I understand the excesses of the SJW movement that Jordan Peterson also rejects for good reasons but its a dangerous thing to swing to a position like this that fails to deal compassionately and personally with those who have been and are suffering the long term effects of physical or emotional abuse or neglect.
Yes. I do too. Ideas like critical race theory that teach that the oppressed need to become the oppressor are not the gospel. But I completely agree that applying a balm to wounds is healing. Good grief, aren’t we all weary of these mean people?
MacArthur’s teachings and actions are those of a Pharisee. If he were put into the parable of the Good Samaritan, his recent words here show that he would surpass the Levite’s and priest’s self-justification for ignoring the half-dead victim on the road. He wouldn’t merely ignore and walk on by the victim, but would stick around to pontificate to them of their many faults and sins (no doubt with some exegesis from the Greek and Hebrew). The horrible treatment “Mary” received by church-goers is quite common in churches following teachings like MacArthur’s.
MacArthur’s breathtaking hardheartedness, arrogance, apathy, and legalism need to be keep being exposed due to his widespread influence. His disturbing attitude of “spiritual matters” –such as Jane Doe’s rape while a student at his college- being separate from and not subject to “secular law” is even more alarming. Thank you for the excellent post!
In the records we have of Jesus’ dealings with prostitutes and swindlers we don’t hear Him reminding them of what sinners they were–though they were. He told them their sins were forgiven.
He really got mad at religious hypocrites who used lip service to His Father to hide their oppression of the underdogs.
I haven’t read MacArthur’s pieces yet. Rape is a microaggression? What on earth?
I thought “microaggressions” were trivial offenses–there is a lot of nonsense in some circles calling itself “social justice” though it’s neither. Like when a man opens a door for a woman. Even weirdos making that case do not call rape a microaggression.
I don’t think he was calling rape a microaggression. He was saying that people in the #metoo movement were coming forward with “microaggressions.” He didn’t elaborate, but I assume he was referring to things such as the groping that had recently happened to the singer at Aretha Franklin’s funeral. But since he didn’t say, I’m only guessing.
Thank you for writing this blog post. If only people like MacArthur were willing to see that the lies they teach cause only harm to so many people who have already been profoundly hurt and broken in life. For him to read the Bible and come away with the thoughts he has on social justice, victims, and such, dumbfounds me. Its hard to believe that any true Christian would believe and promote the kind of lies MacArthur did.
May the likes of John MacArthur, humble themselves, be willing to study the Bible through an open heart and mind, have a real relationship with Jesus (if they don’t already), and change to be living examples of Jesus love and compassion toward the broken and downtrodden.
The timing of MacArthur pushing this topic is interesting in of itself. With the revelations on the Catholic Church, JWs and LDS coming out in regards to abuse.
As ‘Mary’ said:
“These statements by John MacArthur, this twisting and distortion of the gospel, were the kinds of lies I had been taught all my life. This concept that I was 100% responsible for my life condition was pounded into my head over and over by my abusers as they victimized me. If I just did better, if I wasn’t so dumb, if. . . I could go on with all the reasons they gave for why my life was the way it was, why they were abusing me.”
Either those who preach and teach abuser-apology frameworks have skeletons in their closets (as in, they are abusers themselves with their hides to cover) or they are ignorant of what abuse does to a target/victim — or both. At any rate, they need to be quiet. What I see most often are privileged, entitled men being dismissive, abusive tyrants and then having the audacity to further their trivialization, silencing, and minimizing with claiming it has anything to do with the Bible.
No wonder why ‘Mary’ questioned God’s existence. Being made into but prey — an object, meaningless prey — is so harmful. Pretty much anytime I hear of yet another man mocking what survivors have endured and how such negatively impacted them, I wonder if it is malice — and they are fellow abusers — or profound ignorance?
Until I had experienced firsthand the deleterious effects of abuse, trauma, rape, etc. I really had no idea. I surely didn’t want such to ever happen to me, but it rips you to your core, it shames you to no end, it embarasses and humiliates you to death and it scars your brain — neuroscience backs this assertion up — bullying scars the brains of the targets — it causes brain damage…..
Again, not to be outrageous in advocating for violence… just as a suggestion — perhaps those who preach and appoint themselves to write books and hand out prescribed ‘solutions’ ought to experience it firsthand. How many pastors would want ‘revenge porn’ type humiliation images of them being obtained and distributed to millions? How many pastors have been beaten unconscious? More than once?
Cops, I think, have to be sprayed with pepper spray and tasered at least once in their training exercises so they know what it feels like to have been pepper sprayed or tasered or possibly shot with a rubber bullet (or is it bean bags?). When these guys start talking about abuse, they need to first have been abused and suffered a good deal.Otherwise, they’ll never know or get it.
Same with microaggressions. When men have been dressed up and sent out with cameras, to walk the streets as women and they’ve ‘passed’ as women and the inevitable street harassment takes place, then they see what it’s like to live as a woman. Same with the sexist remarks, the misogyny in ‘jokes’, the onslaught of media images designed to objectify them and find them lacking, etc. Men haven’t a clue. They dismiss microaggressions because they are blissfully ignorant or brutishly insensitive and therefore unfit to lead (because women do make up half of the world and we women deserve a leader fit to lead and if the brute cannot see half the audience as true human beings, then another candidate is needed). Microaggressions add up and just as a continual flowing of water may not seem to be much, canyons are carved from just that.
Excellent comment. Thank you.
Beloved, let us love one another, for LOVE IS FROM GOD AND WHOEVER LOVES HAS BEEN BORN OF GOD AND KNOWS GOD.
1John4:7
Anyone who DOES NOT LOVE DOES NOT KNOW GOD, BECAUSE GOD IS LOVE.
1John4:8
By this everyone everyone will know you are MY DISCIPLES, IF YOU LOVE ONE ANOTHER.
John13:35
The second is this:” love your neighbor as yourself” There is no commandment greater than this.
Mark 1231
When Jesus landed and saw the large crowd, he had compassion on them,they were distressed and dispirited, because they were like sheep without a shepherd.
MAtt 9:36
And Jesus called his disciples to him, and said,” i feel compassion for the people because they have remained with me now for 3 days and have nothing to eat. And I do not want to send them away hungry, for they might faint on their way”
Matt 15:32
For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat.i was thirsty and you gave me something to drink. I was a stranger and you invited me in. I neded clothes and you clothed me, i was sick and you looked after me., i was in prison and you came to visit me.
And the righteous said when did we do this?
The king will reply:
Truly I tell you whatever you did for the least of these you did to me.
Does this sound like John MacArthur?
He knows religion. He doesn’t know Christ. Period.
Lots of things associated with the idea of ‘social gospel’ isn’t really gospel anymore, but originally the concept was strongly rooted in the Scriptures. It has been argued that one of the main reasons for the peaceful improvement of life conditions in Britain in the 19th century was the Christian labor movement.
Unlike in the European continent, where the cause of social justice was connected with marxism and atheist ideology, in the UK it was Christians (of many denominations) who saw the practical needs and reached out to help unwed mothers, orphaned children, unemployed etc… there was a long tradition of Christians caring for the forgotten ones. (Salvation army was just one example)..
That is why there was never any violent revolution or riots, – unlike in my country for example, where the church (sadly) was associated with the wealthy, well-to-do upper segments of the society, and they tended to look down on the common folks…
Excellent observations from history and culture. Thank you!
Amen to ‘Mary’
A pastor once said to me many people go to the bible to look for truth (which is not wrong) but they stop there and end up worshiping the Bible. He said go to the Bible through prayer and the power of the Holy Spirit to search for Christ.
If I were to respond to John MacArthur’s thoughts in this way using only old covenant texts like he has I would go straight to the same book Ezekiel but instead ch 34. v2-6(NIV) ‘……prophesy against the shepherds.., prophesy and say to them….. You have not strengthened the weak or healed the sick or bound up the injured. You have not brought back the strays or searched for the lost. You have ruled them harshly and brutally…….they were scattered they became food for all the wild animals. They were scattered over the whole earth, and no one searched or looked for them. v11-16 Instead.….the Sovereign Lord says: I myself will search for my sheep and look after them…… I will rescue them from all the places where they were scattered on a day of clouds and darkness…….. I myself will tend my sheep….. I will search for the lost and bring back the strays. I will bind up the injured and strengthen the weak, but the sleek and the strong I will destroy. I will shepherd the flock with justice.’
The whole chapter is really beautiful.
I would then go to Isaiah 61. The same text Jesus used to announce his mission on earth.
‘The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners……to comfort all who mourn and provide for those who grieve in Zion- to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes the oil of joy instead of mourning.
Again the whole chapter is so beautiful.
I would then go right back to the beginning of time in Genesis 2:10-12. ‘A river watering the garden flowed from Eden; from there it was separated into four headwaters. The name of the first is the Pishon; it winds through the entire land of Havilah, where there is gold. (The gold of that land is good; aromatic resin and onyx are also there.)’ Pishon in Hebrew means Freely flowing or Great Diffusion or perhaps Mouth of the region. Havilah means suffering. Small particles of gold in water produce a blood red colour. Put all this together and you have the river that watered Eden flowing straight out of the perfect garden and now flowing through and surrounding a land crying out in suffering. The water that brings life is mixed with blood. I am sure there is more beautiul imagery here with the precious stones but I am no scholar. (The gold in this land is very good and the onyx stone was a stone on the shoulders of the high priest inscribed with the 12 tribes of Israel).
But for us the promised One has arrived. Through Jesus Christ we are restored, forgiven, healed, made whole. He searches for us, brings light into our dark places (and the darkness surrounding us), He carries us to safety, brings the dead (and all the dead parts of us) back to life, He protects and defends us, He shields us, provides spiritual weapons for us. He clears the air around us, breathes new life deeply into our lungs, gives us a new heart, replaces our blood loss from our haemorrhaging wounds with the very life blood of His own. He walks with us through our sorrows, He speaks words of life to us and corrects the lies of our enemies. He warms us with the fires of His love, gives us the comfort of the Holy Spirit. He came that we might have life John 10:10. He has promised to one day restore all things beginning now! but until that time He has promised to never leave us or forsake us.
There are so many texts for these there is no room here, in fact its pretty much found through the entire New Testament.
Are there true victims? yes, sin put us into a land of great suffering (our sins always affect others) and I think God has always been on a rescue mission this is good news for victims. Those in power and control get the same offer but seem to find accepting it more difficult.
Is the gospel social?? Not without the power of Christ, for I believe He is the gospel, the really, really good news.
If you were a preacher why would you not want to proclaim this at every opportunity given to you?
Thank you so much, Meri. This is beautiful.
I can’t speak for MacArthur myself, but I can for what I’ve heard him state numerous times, as well as what their church and affiliated ministries do on a regular basis. Their ministry focuses on helping others in numerous ways. I think he is stating:
– The social gospel becomes the gospel instead of the gospel being the first thing.
– The social gospel is the ONLY gospel for many folks
– Many in the social gospel movement do not preach a very biblical Jesus to begin with.
– The social gospel is the way of salvation which it is not.
– The social gospel folks point to government money instead of putting their money up.
I’d recommend looking at their webpages to see what they’re involved in all over the world.
https://www.gracechurch.org/local/groups
Thank you, Lew. I agree with you in the sense wthat when the “social gospel” as you define it here is what’s taught, that’s a problem. I agree that social justice is not the gospel. However, as we’ve seen throughout history in some stunning examples, when true Christianity–that is, following the real Lord Jesus Christ–takes precedence, some major “social justice” changes have resulted.