Christianity & Critical Social Justice

Hold my Drink Podcast Blog, Episode 29

I had always felt life first as a story: and if there is a story there is a story-teller. -G.K. Chesterton

We are seeing disparate institutions in America push back against Critical Social Justice (CSJ) in support of liberalism, free speech and equality. Just last week, the Jewish Institute of Liberal Values introduced a “Jewish Harpers Letter”, mirroring the earlier Harpers Letter, with such prominent signatories as Bari Weiss, Jonathan Haidt, and Stephen Pinker.

In last week’s podcast, we spoke to Izabella Tabarovsky, a Jewish immigrant from the former Soviet Union, who underlines some of the concerns within the Jewish community over collective demonization and CSJ.

We see signs within LBGTQ+ circles of those expressing a need to embrace viewpoint diversity, opposing a lot of CSJ rhetoric including notables like Zander Keig who joined us on an earlier podcast, Buck Angel (forthcoming podcast) and even Caitlyn Jenner who is currently under attack from those within her own community.

This week we hear a voice from the Christian community who questions if CSJ and Christianity are compatible. Neil Shenvi tells us that there are four underlying principles to Critical Social Justice: