Is there a smart piece anywhere that spells out when and how “social justice” became demonized? Asking for a friend. (Really, as in a friend just texted me this question.)

— Kristin Du Mez (@kkdumez) March 26, 2021

Nope, but I’ll toss in a hypothesis from living as a child in the “we, as Christians, want civil rights for everyone” era (#Calvinettes) to the “now you’ve gone to far” vibes when women “pushed themselves” into every room. It felt like Feminism flipped the switch.

— Dawn Wolthuis (@dwolt) March 26, 2021

Not sure we do, though influential modernist Christians like Baptist John Rockefeller advised missionaries retreat from conversionism to focus on social change. Fundamentalists flipped the script and left social change to the modernists to double down on conversionism.

— Phil Vischer (@philvischer) March 26, 2021

I'm thinking more of the recent shift. It seems in the early 2000s "social justice" wasn't always agreed upon, but the term could still be used across the progressive/conservative divide. But in recent years the term itself has been weaponized so that it's a conversation stopper.

— Kristin Du Mez (@kkdumez) March 26, 2021

I feel like it was just beginning when Shane Claiborne’s “The Irresistible Revolution” came out in 2006 and much of the evangelical world seemed to dismiss it as “extreme”.

— TF🧢🐳🌎💙🆓 (@tfhawkfan) March 26, 2021

Maybe the rise in the term SJW aligns with the backlash against social justice? pic.twitter.com/xVWfkblqP5

— Josh Leo (@joshleo) March 26, 2021

I did a search pejorative use of social justice warrior. https://t.co/VFPDobkcKt

— Kelsey Wimmer (@kwimmer) March 26, 2021

Yes, there's some confusion of terms, now, even if the concepts are similar. I was thinking of the very specific term "social justice" in the last couple of decades. Looks like we're pinpointing a change between 2003/4 and 2009/10 or so.

— Kristin Du Mez (@kkdumez) March 26, 2021

Kevin DeYoung & Greg Gilbert book (2011) has a few chapters critiquing the concept of "social justice." Don't know how broadly popular it was, but it got high marks from Ref'd church people who were looking for a book to cite as proof for how the Bible isn't about all that.

— Jess Groen (@annelm19) March 26, 2021

I was going down some google bunny trails about Social Justice and came across this https://t.co/ZrKhC5Fl7q

It shows a TGC panel with Kevin DeYoung from 2011, but there's none of the vitriol or demonization that is now associated with "social justice". Very different tone to now

— LyndenTree63 (@LyndallCave) March 26, 2021

I attended a fundamentalist church pastored by two Texas missionaries here in the UK between 1991 and 1995. I distinctly remember being taught that social justice was a counterfeit gospel. It was a very odd time in my life. (this seemed a very imported idea though).

— Ian O'Reilly (@IanInShropshire) March 26, 2021

My wild guess would be the birth of "liberation theology" in the '60s. Of course, it was immediately demonized as communist and Marxist. A possible source would be https://t.co/Z66DK7yyC2

— Jay D. Johnson (@BecomingAdamCom) March 26, 2021

The question was being asked by Dr. Roger Olson back on 2010. https://t.co/iTl542q6nv

— joelashaffer (@joelashaffer) March 26, 2021

If I recall, the earliest public refutation of the phrase in conservative circles (specifically aimed at religious liberals) that I can remember was Glenn Beck in 2010. https://t.co/IRvhVRLXfl

— Jack Jenkins (@jackmjenkins) March 26, 2021

I could be wrong but maybe around the same time that a Obama started running for president? I remember lots of criticisms of him being a “community organizer” and it’s feels related….

— Tonya Beeler (@popularstranger) March 26, 2021

Just found one written in 2009 from, of course, the Heretics Foundation: https://t.co/LVVKoTMABY….

— Tonya Beeler (@popularstranger) March 26, 2021

Please refer to Tim Keller seriously. The PCA has been a microcosm of broader Christian spectrum for over two decades. TK has been fighting the “social justice” war against many in our denom. It has roots as far bask as Ignatius Loyola and the jesuits …but here we are

— Robin Jester Wootton (@JesterWootton) March 26, 2021

A guess would be 07-08 with the Obama campaign. RedLetterChristians attached to him & conservative Christians allowed themselves to see other Christians as… Democrats… and they were aghast! Claiborne has been mentioned here and I think that Campolo can be added as well.

— Aaron Baker (@ThePoiema) March 26, 2021

That's what I was thinking. Beck told his largely evangelical viewers to leave their church at the mention of social justice. https://t.co/aewu4JZv7l

— Jack Darida (@jackdarida) March 26, 2021

Great q! “Social justice” is a major part of our college’s “brand” + I’ve been so frustrated in recent years at how muddled this message/mission has become now that SJ is a slur to many more than when I started in 2009

I parse all this w my students but it’s a little tiresome!

— Natalia Mehlman Petrzela (@nataliapetrzela) March 26, 2021

It’s weird, bc as a cons Ev, I first picked up the word around 2010/11 from reading David Platt’s Radical and Rich Stearns’ The Hole in our Gospel. By 2015, I left Evangelicalism bc it was no longer lining up with the shifts I had made bc of those books.

— Emily McClements (@emilymcclements) March 26, 2021

I stream a primarily black church in the inner city.
They marched after the death of George F but interestingly enough I've never heard them use the term "social gospel"

— john_fay (@johnfay45702521) March 26, 2021

My first experience of someone with a platform bashing social justice was via podcasts (Joe Rogan, Dave Rubin, Sam Harris) by linking it to cancel culture and identity politics and demeaning overzealous adherents as "social justice warriors."

— Josephus (@JoeFarmartino) March 26, 2021

Friedrich Hayek's essay/chapter on "The Mirage of Social Justice" in 1973 (or thereabouts) was/is fairly influential.

— Justin Latterell (@Justjustin_j) March 26, 2021

Historical: I recall reading books in 1970s on fundamentalist//evangelical theology clashes about social justice VERSUS evangelism // social justice AND evangelism. So some demonization goes that far back.https://t.co/OKrRokoblAhttps://t.co/hsCxeoQi86https://t.co/20a2nHJbT9

— Brad Sargent/futuristguy (@futuristguy) March 26, 2021

As an ELCA Luth. it felt tied to discussions on the church's decision to ordain openly LGBTQ pastors around 2007-09. I remember the term being spoken by some in distain, or cautioned to be careful it doesn't take presidence over the gospel. Felt like fear/loss of power drove that

— susie brekke (@BrekkeSusie) March 26, 2021

It’s going to have roots as far back as 1996.https://t.co/vClwKx981u

— J O E L•t o o l e y (@JoelTooley) March 26, 2021

Well social justice has always been a part of the Black church.

— Wolf Woman (@RetroDish) March 26, 2021

My quick take:

For “establishment” evangelical™ powerbroker types, as early as the 1940s.

Over time, the demonization spread, but unevenly so. Certain denominations were insulated enough to miss it for a while.

Evangelical™ culture eventually becomes totalizing though.

— Isaac Sharp (@Isaacbsharp) March 26, 2021

If that doesn't come up, here's a quick screen shot: pic.twitter.com/C08NDfQJHn

— Charles Mathewes (@CTMathewes) March 26, 2021