By Abdul Masih —
The Bible commands social justice, so there’s nothing wrong with that. But how do you define social justice?
A growing number of Christians are defining social justice as dictated by woke culture, acceptance of every behavior and every faith under the sun. Everything, that is, except old-style conventional Christians who affirm the sin nature of man.
“In the mind of the progressive Christian, they actually feel more unity with an affinity for affection for people of other religions and even atheists than they did conservative Christians,” says Alisa Childers, the daughter of Christian music pioneer Chuck Girard. “They see all these other groups as being unified, on the same mission, together. But conservative Christians are actually like the enemy.”
Alisa went down the rabbit hole of progressive Christianity after being invited to a “Bible study” that taught deconstructionism, the field of study that strips away the “superstition” (miracles) from the Bible down to the “essence” (moral teaching only, casting doubt upon the historicity of the Bible). Her faith was shaken and she took a deep dive into matters to affirm her original standing with the Bible.
Progressive Christians affirm LGBTQ; they say it is NOT sin. They take up pretty much all of the causes of the Woke Left, the victimhood of oppressed people, systemic oppression, decolonization, etc.
“Progressive Christians begin with their politics and then their ethics and their theology kind of flows downstream from their politics,” Childer says. “Conservative Christians start with their theology and then their political views and activism or whatever they might do flows downstream from the theology.”
Both groups believe in compassion; progressive see compassion as accepting people in their identity, whereas conservatives see compassion as warning people who are going down a wrong path to turn around and avoid disaster.
Progressive empathy, Childers says, is “misplaced love, misdefined love.”
In 2025, a youth pastor of Restoration Church in San Diego celebrated on TikTok the assassination of Charlie Kirk, posting “You reap what you sow.” It did not take long for her church to fire her, but they continue to have progressive values.
The Bible warns consistently to protect and not harm the fourfold group of vulnerable people: the poor, the widow, the orphan and the foreigner:
- Micah 6:8 — “He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”
- Isaiah 1:17 — “Learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s cause.”
- Psalm 82:3–4 — “Give justice to the weak and the fatherless; maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute. Rescue the weak and the needy.”
- Deuteronomy 10:18–19 — “He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the sojourner… Love the sojourner, therefore, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt.”
- Jeremiah 22:3 — “Do justice and righteousness, and deliver from the hand of the oppressor him who has been robbed. And do no wrong… to the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow.”
- Zechariah 7:9–10 — “Render true judgments, show kindness and mercy… do not oppress the widow, the fatherless, the sojourner, or the poor.”
- Malachi 3:5 — Judgment comes against those “who oppress the hired worker… the widow and the fatherless, against those who thrust aside the sojourner.”
- Leviticus 19:9–10 — “When you reap… you shall not reap your field right up to its edge… you shall leave them for the poor and for the sojourner.”
- Deuteronomy 24:19–21 — Leave leftover harvest “for the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow.”
- Exodus 23:6, 11 — “You shall not pervert the justice due to your poor… but the seventh year you shall let [the land] rest… that the poor of your people may eat.”
- Proverbs 22:22–23 — “Do not rob the poor, because he is poor… for the Lord will plead their cause.”
- Exodus 22:21–24 — “You shall not wrong a sojourner or oppress him… You shall not mistreat any widow or fatherless child… my wrath will burn.”
- Isaiah 10:1–2 — “Woe to those who decree iniquitous decrees… to turn aside the needy from justice… that widows may be their spoil.”
- Ezekiel 22:7, 29 — Condemns a society where “the fatherless and the widow are wronged… the people… oppress the poor and needy.”
- Psalm 68:5 — “Father of the fatherless and protector of widows is God in his holy habitation.”
- Deuteronomy 24:17 — “You shall not pervert the justice due to the sojourner or to the fatherless.”
- Psalm 146:7–9 — “The Lord executes justice for the oppressed… watches over the sojourners; he upholds the widow and the fatherless.”
- James 1:27 — “Religion that is pure… is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.”
- Matthew 25:35–40 — “I was hungry and you gave me food… I was a stranger and you welcomed me… as you did it to one of the least of these… you did it to me.”
- Luke 4:18 (Jesus quoting Isaiah) — “He has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor… liberty to the captives.”
- Acts 6:1 — The early church organizes to ensure “widows” are not neglected in daily distribution.
- Leviticus 19:33–34 — “When a stranger sojourns with you… you shall love him as yourself.”
- Exodus 12:49 — “There shall be one law for the native and for the stranger.”
- Deuteronomy 27:19 — “Cursed be anyone who perverts the justice due to the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow.”
While the fourfold vulnerable group is not exhaustive (there are other vulnerable people whom we must protect and help), it should not invalidate the Biblical injunction against sin. To add a certain group of sinners to protected groups is therefore to abandon scripture.
To be more specific and exact, Christians should protect LGBTQs from violence and hate while still calling them to repentance (EVERYONE needs repentance, EVERYONE is a sinner). We shouldn’t do what the Muslims do (throw them off buildings) or what mobs do (beat them up). We should step in to defend LGBTQ from violence or bullying.
Sources: Provoke & Inspire, others.
