Is social justice the same as socialism?

By Kathy McGourty| Print this pagePrint | Email this pageShare
Article Scripture and Theology Social Justice
Lately there have been accusations that a church with a social justice mission is one that supports socialism.

Conservative TV personality Glenn Beck told Christians, "I beg you, look for the words ‘social justice' or ‘economic justice' on your church website. If you find it, run as fast as you can. Social justice and economic justice, they are code words. . . . If you have a priest that is pushing social justice, go find another parish. Go alert your bishop."

Kathy McGourty is a youth minister in Bloomingdale, Illinois.

 

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Is social justice the same as socialism?

By Kathy McGourty| Print this pagePrint | Email this pageShare
Article Scripture and Theology Social Justice
Lately there have been accusations that a church with a social justice mission is one that supports socialism.

Conservative TV personality Glenn Beck told Christians, "I beg you, look for the words ‘social justice' or ‘economic justice' on your church website. If you find it, run as fast as you can. Social justice and economic justice, they are code words. . . . If you have a priest that is pushing social justice, go find another parish. Go alert your bishop."

Kathy McGourty is a youth minister in Bloomingdale, Illinois.

 

See more posts by Kathy McGourty

Our health care system needs a heart transplant

By Thomas G. Pretlow, M.D.| Print this pagePrint | Email this pageShare
Article Ethic of Life Social Justice
And our politicians need a brain transplant. Universal health care is the most compassionate option we have, argues a Catholic doctor, and it’s the smartest, most economical solution as well.

Thomas G. Pretlow, M.D., is a member of Physicians for a National Health Program and professor at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine.

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The Congo’s killing fields

By Kevin Clarke| Print this pagePrint | Email this pageShare
Article Social Justice War and Peace
Families separated. Millions left for dead. Do we share some of the blame?

Patrick Mwnyamahord knows where his father is buried because a neighbor showed him that small place. What he doesn't know is how his father got there, and there was no one he could safely ask, not then. Twelve years ago he and his family made one of a series of sudden escapes from the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) into nearby Burundi. On this particular exodus his father was too ill to travel and the family had to leave him.

Kevin Clarke is a writer living in New York.

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Inside a Bangladesh garment factory

By David Snyder| Print this pagePrint | Email this pageShare
Article Social Justice
Meet the woman who makes Walmart’s low-priced clothes. She works 10-hour days for $103 per month. And her factory is one of the good ones.
David Snyder is a writer and photographer living in Baltimore, Maryland. He formerly worked with Catholic Relief Services communication in Darfur. See more posts by David Snyder

Power to the public workers

By Meghan J. Clark| Print this pagePrint | Email this pageShare
Article Social Justice
Should a librarian have any less of a right to unionize than an auto worker or a nurse?

In 1981 my grandmother, a librarian, became a union organizer. The director at her library had become increasingly erratic and dictatorial. This wasn’t a traditional case of exploitation or unsafe working conditions in a private factory or store—it was the public library. A welcoming community center had been transformed into a hostile work environment.

Meghan J. Clark is an assistant professor of theology at St. John’s University in New York. She is author of The Vision of Catholic Social Thought: The Virtue of Solidarity and the Praxis of Human Rights (Fortress).

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COMMENTARY: Freedom Summer volunteers inspired by more than just idealism

By Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove| Print this pagePrint | Email this pageShare
Article Culture Social Justice

c. 2014 Religion News Service

(RNS) On June 2, 1964, while hundreds of Freedom Summer volunteers were still finishing their training in Oxford, Ohio, three civil rights workers went missing in Neshoba County, Miss.

Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee field secretary Bob Moses was charged with leading the project that would organize poor, black Mississippians to challenge the power structure of the South and upset the Democratic National Convention.

Strength in numbers: The power of community organizing

By A U.S. Catholic interview| Print this pagePrint | Email this pageShare
Article Politics Social Justice
If a community wants things to change, sometimes they have to be willing to get together and track mud on the carpets of city hall.
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The other African crisis

By Kevin Clarke| Print this pagePrint | Email this pageShare
Article Social Justice
Africa is making headlines, but one of its gravest tragedies remains overlooked.

Kevin Clarke is a writer living in New York.

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The places they'll go: Nuns working on the margins

By Catherine O'Connell-Cahill| Print this pagePrint | Email this pageShare
Article Social Justice Women
The tough and tender mercies of women religious transform the most remote and desolate corners of poverty, misery, and heartache.

It takes nerves of steel to stand in your doorway and tell rebel soldiers waving guns that no, the woman they are seeking is most certainly not in the room behind you, when in fact she is hiding a few feet away, under your bed. But that’s what Sister Rosemary Nyirumbe did.

Catherine O’Connell-Cahill is senior editor of U.S. Catholic.

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