Continued evidence of confusing Christian charity with Social Justice


In the Open Journal of Occupational Therapy this month there is an opinion paper written by Barbara Hemphill entitled Social Justice as a Moral Imperative.  The position presented is that Social Justice belongs in the AOTA Code of Ethics, that it is embedded in the tradition of the OT profession, and that it is not a political matter.

There continues to be confusion and conflation between the concepts of Christian charity and Social Justice.  The author states that Social Justice is not political, but this is refuted by literature review.  The originators of this movement in the OT profession have overtly stated that social justice is political (Wilcock, 1998; Townsend, 1993).  This is an inarguable fact.  

I have already written rather extensively on the topic of whether or not Social Justice was a Core Value of the occupational therapy profession.  I don't have too much to add to that original essay and would point to it as my response to the author's assertions on this topic.

One additional point that requires rebuttal is the statement about the parable of the Good Samaritan.  The author states that this parable is an example of Social Justice.  Here we are able to understand the author's characterization, because the statement is attributed to Jim Wallis, who is a very controversial and left wing Christian activist.  Reverend Wallis is editor of Sojourner's magazine, which has received millions of dollars in funding from George Soros' Open Society Institute.  Reverend Wallis regularly espouses an extremely politically liberal viewpoint.  Referencing a politically partisan individual undermines the author's assertion that Social Justice is apolitical.

The specific reference that is used about the Good Samaritan is Jim Wallis' recently published book, "On God's Side: What religion forgets and politics hasn't learned about serving the common good."  With this kind of reference it is difficult to claim that the definition of social justice has nothing to do with politics.

Aside from that, the author seems to misunderstand both the parable and the implications of social justice.  Social justice requires resource (re)distribution in order to assure equity of outcomes.  However, the Good Samaritan did good deeds by his own charity.  When the man was robbed, the Good Samaritan used his own resources based on his own choices.  He did not run to catch up to the priest or Levite that had already passed the man on the road.  He did not make them hand over their wealth to give to the man who was robbed!  If he did, THAT would have been an expression of social justice.

Instead, he took care of the man himself. That is Christian charity.

Social Justice is political and does not belong in the OT Code of Ethics.  It is important to carefully look at the references used by those who are making claims that it is not political.

References:

embedded links above, and


 Hemphill, B. (2015). Social Justice as a moral imperative, The Open Journal of Occupational Therapy, 3(2).  Available at http://dx.doi.org/10.15453/2168-6408.1150

Townsend, E. (1993).  1993 Muriel Driver Lecture: Occupational therapy's social vision.  Canadian Journal of Occupational Therapy, 60, 174-184.

Wallis, J. (2013).  On God's Side: What religion forgets and politics hasn't learned about serving the common good. Grand Rapid, MI: Brazos Press.

Wilcock, A.A. (1998). An occupational perspective of health.  Thorofare, NJ: Slack, Inc.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

On retained primitive reflexes

Each year I receive several emails from colleagues about 'retained primitive reflexes.'  I am also seeing an increased number of reports from local 'health care' providers who are documenting these alleged problems so I thought I would write a summary of my opinion on this topic.   Predatory 'health care' providers including some OTs, PTs, chiropractors, and behavioral optometrists are creating a new 'market' for treating this alleged 'problem.'  Parents should be very wary of these practitioners and other professionals should challenge these practices whenever they are seen. The following is the kind of information that causes concern and was provided to me by a colleague as a sample from a student's IEP: The student continues to demonstrate the following retained primitive reflexes that at times interfere with his ability to demonstrate appropriate adaptive responses: Fear Paralysis Reflex, Moro Reflex, Palmer Reflex, Tonic Labyri...
Read more

Deconstructing the myth of clothing sensitivity as a 'sensory processing disorder'

Please note first that there is no formally recognized clinical designation of  'sensory processing disorder.'   It is a term constructed by occupational therapists that has not been formally recognized by the larger medical community. In our clinic we receive many referrals from local pediatricians when parents have concerns about children being overly sensitive to their clothing.  Most often the children referred are from four to seven years old and the families are severely disrupted by the children's behaviors and responses to clothing issues.  Commonly, children will have severely constricted tolerance for certain outfits, want to wear the same clothes repeatedly, complain that clothing is itchy/scratch/bumpy/wiggly/ouchie, and this all leads to disruption of daily dressing routines.  There is no doubt that the behavioral concerns are very real. The pediatricians tend to be appropriately conservative and provide families with good behavioral manage...
Read more

Occupational therapy education: How to navigate in a Perfect Storm

Image
Please click on and read all of the links - they include critical information that is required for this analysis.   A little over four years ago I stated that there are too many occupational therapy educational programs in New York State .  At the NYSOTA conference legislative information session in 2023 I stood up and suggested that we should all stop taking jobs at these institutions that were seeking to develop new programs.  I thought that if we did not take those jobs that the problem would be solved.  That was not realistic or correct, even if the intention was good. Well karma tends to strike when you make public pronouncements, so I thought I should expand on my perspectives on this topic. At current count there are still ~22 occupational therapy programs and ~11 occupational therapy assistant programs in NY.  Most of the programs are delivered at the master's level.  There are a very small number of entry level doctoral programs, but some of t...
Read more