Elections and 'social justice'

With the federal election campaign in full swing it's interesting to monitor what is happening...

With opinion polls falling for Labor - and now favouring the Coalition 52% to 48% - Julia Gillard has taken charge of Labor's campaign, saying she will be presenting the 'real Julia'... which prompted commentators and the Opposition (and us) to ask 'Which Julia have we been seeing in the past few weeks?'

Since the Christian Values Checklist was released last week (read it on our election page), there have been a number of people and commentators complaining that the Checklist doesn't address 'social justice' issues such as the poor, refugees, and so on.
Bill Muehlenberg addresses these issues initally here and again in more detail here.

As the 'Supporting Statements' document says, most of the political parties have similar positions on providing welfare - it is the moral foundations of the nation and the political parties that determine the direction the country will move in.

One Christian commenator, John Dickson, even wrote an opinion piece in the National Times (Age/SMH) criticising such Checklists and promoting the view of caring for the poor.

Naturally, we do want to care for others - but that is an individual responsibility rather than a government responsibility.

This article by Gary DeMar of 'Vision to America' addresses the question of 'social justice' from a Christian and government perspective and looks at what is real justice.
It is well worth reading!
Article: Do we need 'social justice'? by Gary DeMar