Dr. Russell Moore's Clinic on How NOT to do it. (Part 4)

All right, I have a phone call in about 20 minutes, so I thought I'd squeeze a quick video in here. This is gonna be part four of Dr. Russell Moore on gospel and social injustice now. I understand that Russell Moore put out part two of this amazing podcast and so we'll probably have to take a look at that as well.

I know that a lot of you are interested in my take on what dr Russell Moore is pushing and selling in evangelicalism these days. And I understand why because he is one of the main movers and shakers he is one of the main operatives in this movement.

So anyway, let's jump right in. This is right around minute 21. So let's do that.

Social Justice, Justice, and the Poor

Jezebel is given over to idolatry. And what does she do? She uses then the structures and the systems that are at work along with Ahab in order to do those things that are Unjust and God calls them out.

That's why the prophets are able to in the same sometimes the same sentence Isaiah and Amos and Micah to come in and talk about things that you might classify as Social and the things that you might classify as personal.

Yeah, so so here's the thing so.

He's talking about the the vineyard still and all of that kind of stuff and that's that's great. But yeah, obviously God is concerned with social issues and social interactions, but also so and there's some that are that are that are matters of justice and there are some that are matters of Religious piety and things like that.

So like we've talked about last time, you know. If you didn't if you didn't save part of your field for the poor to glean in them There was no civil penalty for it wasn't a matter of justice in that regard.

But God would judge your your you and also your nation for that kind of thing. That's the big confusion here because we do need to obey God and be charitable with our money. But it's not an issue of justice in the in the sense that most people understand justice.

We shouldn't set up law systems to force people to do it. That's that's the difference and there is a very big disconnect in the social justice movement about what is something that we should do According to our law, you know, what laws should we set up and what should we? treat as essentially matters of piety and that's the reality.

So.

Anyway, the things that you might classify as righteousness and the things that you might classify as justice so those there are. There are those of you who scripture says go in father and son and Sexually pray upon the same young woman and Who sell the poor for the price of shoes?

There are those who bow down and worship false gods and those who Grind the face of the poor into the ground. These aren't these aren't separate things, right?

But we have to define all this stuff. So in other words if there are poor people who have less income than other people in your church That's not the same thing as grinding the poor's face into the ground.

Right. I mean we have to we have to make sure that we understand that the existence of poor is not an injustice. The existence of poor is not a sin. That's that we have to understand that now. What how do you grind the poor's face into the ground?

I have a whole video about this what is the cause of the oppressed and it's the same cause as As anybody so in other words if you're stealing from the poor and you're and you're your posture is like this.

Well. You're poor. What are you gonna do drag me to court? I've got better lawyers than you. That's an oppression. That's an injustice, but you see it's no different than an injustice that you would do against a rich person.

So if you stole against if you stole from a rich person. It's still the same crime. Even if the rich person is better able to defend themselves. So if you're less likely to get stolen from I think that's a true statement.

I think if you like for example, my house is relatively safe. It's you know secure I've got I'm armed, you know things like that and I've got good door locks and things like that good protection a Poor person might have less protection.

They might not have a secure houses. They might not have weapons to defend themselves and things like that. And so it's more much more likely that a poorer person would be stolen from in fact. If you look at the crime statistics.

Poor neighborhoods tend to be worse off than richer neighborhoods. It's just how it is. So it's not a different kind of justice. It's not the fact that they're poor. That's the injustice. It's the fact that you know, sometimes poor people get you know.

They get taken advantage of so it's not this mystery magical thing where it's like well You know, you're grinding the poor space in the ground because they're poor. That's the impression we get a lot from the social justice movement that that the inequality in itself is the injustice that's not true.

That's not true. It's just the the same exact justice for the poor and for the rich. There's no two standards. There's no two laws. It's the same exact thing. By the way, rich people can be oppressed as well.

Do you understand what I'm saying? Like which country is it that has like a Like a 90 tax rate or something like that. There's a country. There's a socialist country out there I forget which one it is.

That's oppression. And so rich people at the highest tax brackets are being taxed like 90 or something like that and that's oppression. You know rich people in the United States are oppressed by the government.

Do you understand what I'm saying? Like look like if you look at the tax brackets I mean, I write checks to the government every every quarter. In fact, I have to write one in two two days. That's the amount that I get taxed and I would consider myself rich in the grand scheme of things.

And compared to the world I am wealthy I'm being oppressed by the government. You see what I'm saying? The God defines what oppression is. Not Marxist categories.

Responsibility, Vocation, and Social Authority

And The the question is often Where do you have a point of responsibility? Well, we have that with with personal morality as well as we have it with questions of what we do together socially. If you are discipling a Christian who's a ten-year-old little girl You probably don't confront that ten-year-old with sexual immorality.

Probably no sexual immorality going on. You probably prepare her for the sorts of temptations that she's going to face later on. But in most cases there's there's going to be no need for confrontation there.

This this is someone who's a sinner who has other things need to be confronted, but that's not one of them. The same thing is true. When it comes to things that we might consider to be social or things that we might consider to be so-called justice issues scripture says that sin Romans chapter 1 those things that we do and Those things that we heartily approve of those things that we justify.

So when for in of course defined by scripture, let's see where he's going with this because I am sure I'm gonna give him the benefit of the doubt. But if I had to predict he's gonna go somewhere where he's making no sense at all.

Let's let's hear it. Since Pontius Pilate on the basis of trumped up charges and trumped up with trumped up.

Like that. I like that. See that's the kind of thing. I like. I like what he uses that kind of language trumped up. That's intentional.

Sentences Jesus of Nazareth Innocent to death. Man, you trumped that up. I like that. Is he Responsible. Yes, he cannot say I'm just doing my job. I'm the governor I have to this. This is not a personal issue.

This is a social issue. No, you have a responsibility as somebody who is carrying out a vocation in the social arena. Therefore that is your problem.

He's right. Russell Moore is right. But the problem is Russell Moore doesn't apply this consistently in our last video. We talked about this. Do you remember Kim Davis the the woman who said she wasn't gonna do the same-sex marriages?

Well at the time Russell Moore said she should resign if she can't do the law and and and we'd have to all agree. That's an unjust law according to scripture. I think dr. Russell Moore would have to agree with that.

So, why is it that on all the liberal issues he's for this kind of thing but on the conservative issues. He's like, well, you know, we we got to let the law be the law. This is the problem. This is why I call Gospel coalition.

This is why I call Russell or operatives because there is a political thing. It's not a God. It's not a godly politics thing. There's nothing wrong with being political as a Christian. In fact, I think the message of Jesus Christ is a political message inherently because if Christ is the king of kings.

That's a very political statement, but it's a political partisan type Message and their politics are all wrong. Do you see what I'm saying? Here.

John the Baptist, Public Responsibility, and the Unforgiving Servant

That's why John the Baptist When he's receiving those repentant tax collectors and those repentant soldiers and they say what do we do now? He says you carry out your public Responsibilities without extorting people without defrauding people.

Well, that's not something that you necessarily have to say to somebody who is enslaved At that time who has no power or responsibility over other people at all.

Not true because there's a parable about the Unforgiving servant where someone with very little power very little power gets forgiven from a lot but even in his very small area of influence, he's unforgiving and so that's not true that.

That servants or people with just a little bit of power need to remember to be forgiving or need to be told not to oppress. That's not true. Poor people oppressed people. They're not automatically more godly.

Everyone would agree with that. I know Russell Moore would agree with that. But I think sometimes the rhetoric from this kind of a perspective says well, well God's on the side of the poor. Yeah, only the ones that are his people the ones that aren't his people.

He's not on the side of God's not just on the side of poor people automatically. You don't think that there were some poor people in Egypt when he killed the firstborn. You don't think that some of the some of the poor subjects of Egypt had their firstborns dead.

God's not automatically on the side of the poor. He's on the side of his poor. He's not on the side of the pagan. Unbelieving poor do you understand what I'm saying? I mean they got destroyed in Sodom and Gomorrah just like the rich did.

You see I'm saying so so this kind of an idea. It's it's not usually expressed outright, but this kind of idea is presented often like well, he's just on the side of the poor. Well, they're not really he is.

In a certain sense, but not automatically. In the same way when we are and so to say that the oppressed and the poor don't need to hear it. Yes, they do. We have a parable about it for goodness sake. But I think it just stands for this is the kind of thing that people say well black people can't be racist because they're not In power.

Well, well, but again some of the most racist people that I know are minorities and I'm talking from from my experience. This is just this is just my experience. Obviously. I'm not taking any polls here about who's the most racist.

But from my own experience some of those racist people I know are from my own ethnicity. You know what? I mean, but but but some people would say well. You don't really have to talk about racism amongst them because they can't this is the perspective that's being presented here.

It's not true. It's not true. Even when you have almost no power like the servant in the story almost no power. You still need to know not to abuse that little power that you have ever seen like a little bit of power go to somebody Said I've seen it.

It's happened to me before like a little tiny bit of power that I have that's gone to my head. See sin is sinful man. It's more sinful than dr. Russell Moore's willing to admit here discipling people.

Christian Ethics, Welfare, and the Law of God

One of the things that we're talking about are those things that they have some responsibility over and in a North American context in Which most people are citizens? They have a certain degree of ruling authority over other people and when they're part of a They're part of a community or they're part of a family or they're part of a tribe or village they have a certain amount of Responsibility there as well.

So if you're William Carey.

Therefore you better vote for some of these welfare policies.

And you're in India and you're dealing with the question of whether or not Widows should be burned upon the funeral pyres of their husbands. Then you have a responsibility to say Both to the consciences of the people doing this this is wrong.

This is unjust before God and you should repent of this. You also have a responsibility to disciple Christians to say you cannot applaud this.

You cannot support this. I appreciate him using a very obvious easy example like that. Yeah, you shouldn't kill Widows Just because their husbands have died. Yeah, that's a very easy moral situation. But what's more complicated is at least in this social justice community is example like a welfare law, right?

So we're taking by force money from people and giving it to other people. Is that just do we have a Christian? responsibility regarding that issue and I would argue we Absolutely do and the reason we do is the same reason the same Justification that we would have for saying you shouldn't kill women because their husbands have died.

It's the same justification. It's the law of God. And so I could go to the law of scripture or the law of God and go to the scripture and say here you shouldn't Kill people without just cause so those people in India who were doing that that's against the law Christians.

You must not applaud that and in this with the same exact justification I could then say to Christians here in the United States. You should not support welfare laws. You should not support minimum wage laws.

You should not support these things according to the law of God because the law of God does not support these things the law of God says you shall not steal and So this is the thing. Like I've said a couple times this week.

The social justice movement is good on general principles. Russell Moore is right about this general principle of how we do things what kinds of policies we applaud what kind of policies we oppose. But he's very bad at the specifics very bad at the specifics and Russell Moore is an expert supposedly on Christian ethics.

He leads the ethics and religious whatever Liberties Committee or whatever. It's called. And so I can hold him to account on this stuff. Isn't that we're not. I'm not talking to you know. Just a run-of-the-mill person in the pews kind of thing who's confused about this.

He's either very confused about an area. He's supposedly expert in or he's pushing an agenda.

You cannot say that this doesn't matter even if you Christians have Absolutely, no power to do anything about it in your context. The question is what does your support or silence for this awful?

Activity due to you. Yeah, and the same you could have said the same thing about Kim Davis. But for some reason that was different and I'm wondering what that reason is. Actually, I'm not wondering. I know exactly what that reason is.

I know exactly what that reason is. Why Kim Davis did not have the right to do what she did. She should resign. She should just let. Everyone who wants to get married no matter what the situation is just get married in her jurisdiction, right?

She had power but she needs to put that power aside resign and let just the pagans take its course. Anyway, we're gonna stop there because I have a call to jump on in just a few minutes. We will pick it back up part 5 right around minute 26.

And what does it say? 2560 that's weird. Anyway, hope this was helpful.