Christianity and social justice?

In terms of attracting voter support, the universal, mutual-support view of welfare has always been much more effective than the charitable safety-net view. It treats people as members of the mainstream with shared entitlements and appeals to their enlightened self-interest.

The charitable approach, on the other hand, though providing a sense of self-worth to donors, remains demeaning to the recipient.

Christian doctrine can support either model. However, the churches, historically, have been particularly associated with administering charity. It is no accident that the role of church institutions in state welfare is increasing as the charitable model returns to favour with governments.

In such a climate, those on the left need to be careful about defending state welfare on the basis of Christian compassion for the weak and the vulnerable. Certainly, many Christian socialists have been inspired by Christ’s concern for the poor and the weak and have seen state-based policies of social justice as a way of institutionalising this concern on behalf of the community as whole. But Christian compassion for the vulnerable can easily slide into patronising assumptions of social and moral distance between those who give and those who receive.

The charitable approach may be more suited to forms of compassionate conservatism based on noblesse oblige (or, as in Hayek’s case, bourgeoisie oblige) than to social democracy. It casts the ordinary punter in a subservient role and fuels the charge that the progressive left are a condescending elite who set themselves above the rest.