This coming Thursday, Jim Wallis and Al Mohler will be debating the question of social justice and the mission of the church (HT: Justin Taylor). Click here for more. The question before the house will be this: "Is Social Justice an Essential Part of the Mission of the Church?" Wallis will be arguing the affirmative and Mohler the negative.

If you listen to the debate, be sure to keep track of two distinct questions. One is what constitutes the essence of the church's mission, and whether social justice as biblically defined, is part of that essential mission. But a completely separate question is whether Jim Wallis has any idea of biblical social justice is, and whether what he is proposing under the heading of social justice is actually, when defined by the Bible, social injustice.

So whatever we decide on the former question, surely all Christians should be able to agree that the spreading of social injustice is not part of the church's mission. That should be easy, right? But the policies advocated by Wallis are precisely that -- the spreading of injustice and, when they conk out because of a lack of funding, to subsidize them so that the injustice goes even further.

From this distance, I would not dream of judging Wallis' motives. I couldn't possibly know if his heart hates poor people. But the part of his brain that proposes policies sure hates them. So, call me old-fashioned if you like -- I don't believe that hating poor people is an essential part of the church's mission.

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