Dad, are equality and equity the same thing?
God calls Christians to do justice (Micah 6:8), but justice is distorted when equality is replaced with equity.
Rather than appealing to our equal dignity as humans created in the image of God (Genesis 1:28), equity highlights our differences, reinforcing the divisions that separate us and distracting us from the underlying source of injustice: sin. Jesus’ death and resurrection teach us that we are all equally sinful and separated from God and all equally in need of God’s love and salvation. It also empowers us to leverage our diverse gifts, talents, and opportunities in the pursuit of true justice.
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The Cultural Challenge
Equality: as image bearers, we have equal value.
Equity: belief that outcomes should be equal.
Our children are growing up in a culture which values equity over equality and sees inequity as evidence of racism.
The Underlying Theological Issue
In a fallen world, injustice, inequity, racism, and other types of partiality are prevalent.
Historical racism did cause historical inequity in many ways (GI Bill, Redlining, Jim Crow, etc)
However, modern disparate outcomes amongst different races often have nothing to do with racism.
Still, racism continues to exist.
But justice pursued unjustly is injustice.
Sin may even distort our fight for justice.
Automatically attributing all disparities to racism reinforces racism by reducing people and communities to race and stoking animosity between them.
It will also likely perpetuate disparity by distracting from other factors.
The primary factor contributing to injustice is sin.
“Look deep enough underneath any horizontal human-against-human injustice, and you will always find a vertical human-against-God injustice, a refusal to give the Creator the worship he deserves.” (Thaddeus Williams)
Within the body of Christ, we are equally sons and daughters of God: equally depraved and equally in need of a Savior.
The Biblical Solution
The Bible establishes in its first chapter the equality of all humans as image bearers (Gen 1:26-27).
Christ’s redeeming work applies equally to all who believe (Gal 3:28-29).
Our just God calls his followers to seek justice (Micah 6:8).
God opposes inequity (Ps 82:2-4; Amos 8:4-14; Luke 4:18-19).
God opposes racism (Num 12; Gal 2:11-14; Rev 7:9-10). (See question 3 below.)
God opposes partiality (Deut 16:19; Ps 82:2; Prov 28:21; Jas 2:1-9).
Application
Though the fundamental problem is spiritual, justice requires physical intervention, too.
We must oppose injustice in this world even as we set our hearts on the next.
Still, we should carry out our pursuit of justice with righteousness not self-righteousness.
“What is our quest for justice doing to our hearts? Is it making us more distrustful, easily offended, and quicker to slander? Is it stripping our souls of the Spirit’s fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control?” (Thaddeus Williams)
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Is this illustration demonstrating the distinction between equality and equity helpful?
Interaction Institute for Change
Credit: Interaction Institute for Social Change | Artist: Angus Maguire
This effectively illustrates one valid way to think of the difference between equality and equity, so, from that perspective, it’s helpful.
The Bible consistently encourages those who have been blessed to help those who have been disadvantaged (e.g., Deut 15:7-11; Matt 25:31-46; Act 2:45).
However, like most illustrations, it’s oversimplistic, which makes it dangerous. At least three important features are left out:
First, the tall person is not disadvantaged by the pursuit of equity; he gives up his box but can see just as well. In reality, equity is often costly.
Second, how do the boxes get moved from the first picture to the second? Does the taller person voluntarily offer his box or is it taken from him? Though the Bible directs believers to give to the disadvantaged, it does not advocate taking from the rich to give to the poor. This would be an unjust pursuit of justice.
Third, the image suggests that equality doesn’t really help those who are disadvantaged. However, a fundamental belief in human equality, grounded in Scripture, inspires our pursuit of equity.
Isn’t systemic (or structural) racism to blame for the inequity in our society?
Systemic racism is “policies and practices that exist throughout a whole society or organization, and that result in and support a continued unfair advantage to some people and unfair or harmful treatment of others based on race” (Cambridge Dictionary).
Systemic racism is to blame for some of the inequity in our society. For example:
Redlining excluded African Americans from homeownership.
Harsher penalties for certain illegal drugs leads to disproportionate incarceration of African Americans.
Disproportionately lower investment in public schools in majority African American neighborhoods perpetuates educational and resulting income inequality.
However, attributing all inequity to systemic racism leads us to see racism in places where it isn’t and not see other contributing factors.
This includes the breakdown of the family, which affects children of all races (see Wilcox article below).
Is there a difference between social justice and biblical justice?
Both versions of justice care about the oppressed, which is a biblical priority.
The famous love passage in 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 says that love is not easily offended, but social justice emphasizes offense.
If we’re doing justice God’s way we will bear spiritual fruit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Gal 5:22-23).
But social justice reverses those traits. It encourages a mindset that is the opposite of Galatians 5 and 1 Corinthians 13: impatient, unkind, envious, rude, insisting on its own way, irritable, and resentful.
If your approach to justice is fostering the fruit of the spirit in you, it’s likely biblical, but if it’s causing the opposite to fester within your heart, it’s likely not.
Social justice groups people into competing identity groups rather than the shared identity groups the Bible emphasizes for all humanity: fallen in Adam but potentially redeemed in Christ.
The Christian gospel is built on humans’ shared sinfulness and need of a savior rather than the perception of grievance.
Is Critical Race Theory unbiblical?
Critical Race Theory (CRT) rightly argues that race is a construct, a human invention that distorts the way we relate to others.
Though race does not appear as a concept in the Bible, the Bible agrees that it is wrong to treat people differently based on superficial features such as ethnicity, so we can infer that it opposes racism, as well.
However, CRT breaks humanity down into groups based on superficial traits such as skin color, gender, or class.
Those groups are set against each other as oppressors and oppressed.
It prejudges people based on those superficial traits, which is prejudice.
Though CRT highlights important injustices in the world, it is too blunt an instrument to right those injustices justly.
The complex reasons for inequity in our society require multiple scalpels not one sledgehammer.
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You know that I love you and your siblings the same, right? I love you equally because you are my children and it would be impossible for me to love each of you any more than I do.
But, as much as I love you, God loves you even more. He lovingly created you. And your siblings. And every human on this earth. He loves them all. And, because he loves them so much, so should we. I mean, you should love your sister because she’s your sister, but, if you love me, you should also love her because I love her. You wouldn’t be loving me very well if you didn’t love someone I love so much. And that works the other way around too, so she should love you. Since God created every human and loves each of them, if we love God, we should also love the humans he created, too. After all, they are all created in his image (Genesis 1:28).
What should that love look like? The Bible says that Christians should “do justice” (Micah 6:8). That means not taking advantage of people (Amos 5:11-15). It means showing special concern for the poor, the orphan, and the widow (Psalm 82:3; James 1:27). Jesus sums it up well: “love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:39).
Just about everyone agrees with this. Where things get a bit more complicated is when people start talking about “equity.” This is actually a biblical idea. You see it in that love God calls us to show the poor, the orphan, and the widow. But our culture has taken this idea too far and distorted it into something different, as they have with many biblical ideas. Our culture defines equity as everyone having the same outcomes—ending up in the same place. If people end up with different things—different jobs that pay less money or different levels of education—then it’s common for people to blame that on racism or sexism. Now, both of those are bad things that we want to oppose. The Bible opposes them too. Since God loves everyone equally, the Bible says, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” (Gal 3:28).
However, just because everyone is equal doesn’t mean everyone will end up the same. I love you and your sister equally, but you each have different skills and interests. For all kinds of reasons, you’ll have different opportunities too. As a result, you’re going to end up in different places. I’m going to work hard to get as many obstacles to your success out of the way of both of you. And we should do the same for everyone around us. But it would be wrong for you to think that I can guarantee that you’ll have everything your sister has in the end. It would be even more damaging to both of you if I took things from her to give to you to even things out. I hope, though, that if you have more than her in some way or another, that you’ll be generous, and that, because we love each other, that we’ll all look for ways to help each other out. I hope we’ll do the same for others too. As 1 John 4:11 says, “if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.”
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Tim Keller’s whitepaper on Justice and Critical Theory
Thaddeus Williams answers Gen Z’s questions about social justice and politics on the TGC Q&A podcast
An article by Thaddeus Williams, Beneath Our Social-Justice Strife
Bradford Wilcox on the breakdown of the family and its detrimental effects on children of all races
Kevin Deyoung tackles the concept of reparations in an excellent book review
