I’m writing to highly recommend Thaddeus Williams’ outstanding book, “Confronting Injustice without Compromising Truth: 12 Questions Christians Should Ask About Social Justice” which I just finished reading. This book gives a careful, thorough, Biblical and balanced analysis of social justice, analyzing both the modern social justice movement (which he calls “Social Justice B”) and the Biblical idea of social justice which led to the abolition of slavery, played a role in the civil rights movement, etc. This book came highly recommended by my friend James Hong, as well as by Tim Challies and Samuel Sey, but it far surpassed my expectations. I wish every modern-day Christian could take the time to read it or listen to it. I read the audiobook version which is read (extremely well) by the author and highly recommend that format as well.

What was so great about this book? It’s hard to pick just one single thing, because there’s so much here with great Biblical truth, careful analysis, and help in understanding and interfacing with modern culture, so I’ll instead just highlight a couple aspects I felt were especially memorable.

One particularly important point was that Williams asks the question, “What was the worst idea of the 20th century?” and concludes that the answer is “tribalism”, or the process wherein one group blames other “tribes” or groups for all of society’s problems. We saw this with Hitler and the Nazis blaming the Jews, with Mao in China, with Stalin, with Pol Pot in Cambodia, with the Hutus and Tutsis in Rwanda, and many other times in the 20th century. Leaders got their people united in blaming a common enemy or tribe, then exterminated vast numbers of that enemy – when the real problems were far deeper and not caused by that enemy at all. That is, instead of focusing on specific wrongs committed by specific individuals regardless of their tribe, these groups blamed perceived wrongs or injustices on an entire people group, resulting in the slaughter of tremendous numbers of innocent people. Williams points out that in present day social justice efforts, we see this exact same process being repeated again. We hear a great deal about “whiteness” being inherently racist and the cause of systemic injustice. While our society certain may involve a great deal of injustice, and some of it may be systemic, we’re guilty of tribalism if we identify a particular people group and blame injustices on that group as a whole. I’ve written about this idea before when I pointed out how losing sight of sin divides our society, but Williams says this much better than I do.

Additionally, Williams highlights how Christians ought to care deeply about injustice – but injustice of all types, flavors, and political parties. He highlights specific gaps or blind spots that are particularly common to each political party, which I think is especially valuable. All of us have certain injustices we notice right away, and others we tend to overlook (or are guilty of ourselves) because they don’t fit with our preferred political ideology or worldview. It’s important to recognize this and confront the injustice in our own hearts, not just in the world around us.

Williams also takes a look at disparities in outcomes, and notes how such disparities are often taken as proof of systematic injustice – whereas they are not necessarily the sort and rather result, and must result, from differences in personal choice and personal priorities. Key writers in the social justice and critical race theory movement argue that disparate outcomes necessarily demonstrate systemic injustice (Williams quotes and gives sources), but this can’t be true, or we would believe that the shortage of white players in the NBA is a result of racism, or the shortage of male nurses results from anti-male discrimination. Likewise, racism can’t simply be the result of power structures – or anti-Semitic Nazis would have ceased being “racist” as soon as the Nazis lost power. Certain views and actions are wrong and unjust regardless of which groups they are directed towards or who is in power.

Another aspect he analyzes is how preconceptions or prejudices impact our experience of reality. For example, imagine a young girl on a playground who is bullied and insulted by a boy. Imagine the boy treats all the kids on the playground this way, because of his own sinful tendencies and inclinations. However, the girl’s experience of this bullying may be very different depending on what she’s learned from her family. If her mother has spent a great deal of time telling her how oppressive and patriarchal our society is, and how men are likely to mistreat her and discriminate against her because she’s a woman, she will experience this bullying as discrimination, even though the boy treats everyone on the playground equally. What she’s taught becomes a lens through which she sees and experiences the world, even when it gives her an inaccurate view of reality.

It’s worth noting that Williams is careful to point out the problems on all sides of the political spectrum, providing plenty of opportunity for soul searching and self-examination. I was challenged far more on a personal level than I expected to be. Along these lines, the book comes with a helpful series of questions oriented towards personal application. For example, he asks:

Think of specific people groups who have been made scapegoats in our society today. How can you be countercultural by loving people in those groups this week?

He also highlights how critical truth is in the search for justice, pointing out how often misguided attempts to help actually cause harm when they are not based in truth. He asks, in application, “In many spheres of our culture – in much of our media, entertainment, and higher education – you aren’t allowed to question whether discrimination is the best explanation of most disparities without facing serious consequences. Why is it important for the church to be different – a place where we can graciously ask hard questions – as we pursue justice together?”

The book comes with a powerful forward by civil rights figure John Perkins, who says that this is the book the church needs. Before that endorsement, Perkins writes:

“I was born on a Mississippi cotton plantation in 1930. My mother died of nutrition deficiency when I was just seven months old. My big brother, a WW2 veteran, was gunned down by a town marshal when I was 17 years old. As a civil rights activist, I was jailed and beaten nearly to death by police. They tortured me without mercy, stuck a fork up my nose and down my throat, then made me mop up my own blood. I have known injustice.”

One other noteworthy feature of the book is that every chapter ends with a story or testimony from someone who has been affected by the social justice movement in a different way. These are interesting, helpful, encouraging, and diverse – running the gamut from former white supremacists to former left wing extremists and many more. In the audiobook, most of these portions are read by their individual authors.

Overall, I found this book did a remarkable job identifying, Biblically analyzing, and clearly explaining the key social justice issues of our time and how to understand these Biblically and from a gospel viewpoint. It helped draw out my own thoughts, and put them into words far better than I could. If you’re interested in this area, or in understanding our times, please read or listen to this book.