Senior 39: Justice
My friend, Christy, and I have been encouraging one another to write more. My blog ought to furnish an ideal setting for doing just that. (But there's so much drafting and revising involved.) Anyhow, here's something more of what I've been thinking about:
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So I have been wrestling with the concept of justice lately. In my theology classes we have been evaluating just war theory and contemporary models of just peace-making. I recently attended All-Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena, a strongly activist faith-community. And I regularly interact with many students who are very passionate about social justice.
I do not tend toward activism, myself. I often find myself unable to support or condone certain movements and organizations because of their dubious stand on (peripheral) moral or ethical issues that I believe to be important, even if I support the main thrust of their position. But this leaves me in the awkward position of not actively participating in the fight against known and recognized injustices.
The two horns of my dilemma may be generalized and expressed as follows: Shall I tend toward conservatism, refuse to act until I have evaluated all aspects of the question-at-issue, think carefully, critically, and thoroughly before acting, and thereby risk allowing known injustices to continue while I try to sort out these complicated questions? Or shall I move toward progressivism, act where I see a need, step out into the fray, combat evil where it manifests itself, and thereby risk moving in a slightly skewed trajectory and excess in order to confront a recognized injustice?
--
This weekend, I saw the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie with some friends. As the film opens, the turtle brothers are divided. Leonardo has just returned from a year-long stint of training in the jungles of Central America. In his absence, Raphael has secretly gone vigilante--fighting crime on his own against the instructions of Master Splinter who insists that if they will not fight as a brotherhood, then the four are not to fight at all. Raph is unwilling to sit by and allow criminals to rule the city. Criminals don't take vacations, he reasons. If the team will not serve its purpose, then he will take matters into his own hands. Eventually he recognizes the error of his way and the team becomes fully united and able to defeat the threat to their city (actually, the world).
The film moves toward articulating a very important truth. That doing good and right is about more than just beating the bad guys. If the brothers are not a cohesive team, that does not just detract from their effectiveness as crime-fighters; it also evinces a more fundamental and deep-seated injustice. "Justice," in this context should be understood as the ancient Greeks might have understood it, as referring to well-being, wholeness, and balance. True justice and goodness and rightness are not just about an external state of affairs, but about character. And here we arrive at one of those simple truths that are so easily forgotten or overlooked--it's a lot harder to be good than to be bad. Being bad is a cinch. Being truly good takes time and effort and energy, and it will not always manifest itself in the ways we have come to expect.
--
A more this-world example may be helpful here. I remember in my Worldviews Senior Seminar class a student who expressed frustration with the Christian response to the problems of homelessness and poverty in the American inner-city. (Loosely paraphrasing) "I would almost rather work for a non-Christian organization," she said, "where all their time and resources are actually spent helping the poor. It seems that so much time is wasted in Christian organizations with prayer meetings and Bible studies and not enough is spent actually helping the poor."
I can sympathize with that sentiment and feel the frustration there expressed, but I think that it is mistaken. The basic assumption underlying this complaint is that the primary purpose of Christian organizations is to aid, economically or in other tangible ways, the impoverished and needy. Certainly that is an aim, but the Christian is concerned primarily with something far deeper and more fundamental. Wholeness and wellness are not tied to physical or other external circumstances, to governmental policies, popular opinion, mass media, the economy, any of these things. True justice comes only with the internal transformation of the human spirit into Christ-likeness.
Biblical scholars will point out that even Jesus was not primarily a social reformer. He did not speak out against Roman oppression, the place of women and slaves in society, the wickedness of corrupt tax-collectors. In fact his three-year-long active ministry touched only a very small region in the Middle East, but the impact of what He started has since been felt the world-over. He did not focus on tearing down repressive systems. Instead, he met individuals in the place of their deepest need and brought healing and nourishment. In doing so, he brought justice (balance, wholeness, wellness) to people's lives.
--
At the beginning of this piece, I described my 'awkward' position. The awkwardness seems to arise from my changing view of justice, along the lines that I've described thus far. Now I do believe that human beings are capable of understanding justice; this is part of our having been created in the image of God and the general revelation. But I worry that even Christians who pursue justice with noble intentions have missed the point and are chasing after an idol. C.S. Lewis describes something similar about misplaced love in the eleventh chapter of The Great Divorce. In that book, Lewis is transported to the afterlife where he sees visions of the deceased as they are offered admittance to heaven, many of them refusing it.
He sees one mother who, in her past life, was consumed by selfish love for her son who died at a young age. If she will only relinquish her selfish love and acknowledge how misguided she was in life to be so consumed by bitterness, she could see him. But she refuses. As Lewis and his teacher/guide, George MacDonald, leave the scene, Lewis asks, "Is there any hope for her, Sir?"
"Aye, there's some. What she calls her love for her son has turned into a poor, prickly, astringent sort of thing. But there's still a wee spark of something that's not just herself in it. That might be blown into a flame [of true love].'
'Then some natural feelings are really better than others--I mean, are a better starting-point for the real thing?'
'Better and worse. There's something in natural affection which will lead it on to eternal love more easily than natural appetite could be led on. But there's also something in it which makes it easier to stop at the natural level and mistake it for the heavenly. Brass is mistaken for gold more easily than clay is. And if it finally refuses conversion its corruption will be worse than the corruption of what ye call the lower passions. It is a stronger angel, and therefore, when it falls, a fiercer devil.
'...Someone must say in general what's been unsaid among you this many a year: that love, as mortals understand the word, isn't enough. Every natural love will rise again and live forever in this country [i.e. Heaven]; but none will rise again until it has been buried.
'There is but one good; that is God. Everything else is good when it looks to Him and bad when it turns from Him. And the higher and mightier it is in the natural order, the more demoniac it will be if it rebels. ... The false religion of lust is baser than the false religion of mother-love or patriotism or art: but lust is less likely to be made into a religion.'
--
My worry is that many Christians are pursuing a kind of justice--let me reiterate, it IS a kind of justice--but in their zeal and fervor have lost sight of true justice which comes only through Jesus Christ. Even as I write these hard words, I feel Lewis' protest within me: "I don't know that I dare repeat this on Earth, Sir. They'd say I was inhuman: they'd say I believed in total depravity: they'd say I was attacking the best and the holiest things."
Am I content with injustice?--some may ask. Will I turn a blind eye to evil and suffering? Certainly not, and let me emphasize that what I have said is not to be taken as license to do nothing. We must all, alike, pursue justice. But justice is not an abstract moral concept or a descriptor for a certain state of human affairs. It is an integrated part of the character of Jesus Christ. Only the truly transformed individual can align himself with the real and present justice that exists in God's nature and from that nature, alone, derives.
It will not surprise me if the world looks at this sort of Christianity and judges it ineffectual. The way of Jesus is not the way of the world. It requires faith--that GOD will accomplish His work (not that I will accomplish His work, but that HE will accomplish His work) if I follow Him faithfully.
--
One final point: I have focused (as I usually do) on the internal nature of this transformation. "But," one may ask, "doesn't this transformation also become manifest externally." Absolutely. This piece should not be read as an indictment against any particular activist. In identifying the crux of the issue with the internal character and disposition of the individual, I have effectively moved it into a realm on which I cannot comment (without some special revelation that I do not have at this time). Each individual must examine her own heart and evaluate her own priorities and objectives. Better yet, the Lord must reveal to her her true inner nature. All I have attempted to do is point us toward true justice and clarify some of the important distinctions.
*Oh, and if I'm right, then there really are no "peripheral" moral and ethical issues.
-----
This week is Easter Break. So I'm enjoying a slightly more relaxed pace.
Within the next week or two I will make an official post about what graduate school I'll be attending. Unfortunately, I was not accepted to either Notre Dame or Rutgers. Most likely I will be moving just an hour east of my current location to UC Riverside. (Still close to family and friends--yay!) I'll let you all know officially when the time comes.
Blessings all,
-----
So I have been wrestling with the concept of justice lately. In my theology classes we have been evaluating just war theory and contemporary models of just peace-making. I recently attended All-Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena, a strongly activist faith-community. And I regularly interact with many students who are very passionate about social justice.
I do not tend toward activism, myself. I often find myself unable to support or condone certain movements and organizations because of their dubious stand on (peripheral) moral or ethical issues that I believe to be important, even if I support the main thrust of their position. But this leaves me in the awkward position of not actively participating in the fight against known and recognized injustices.
The two horns of my dilemma may be generalized and expressed as follows: Shall I tend toward conservatism, refuse to act until I have evaluated all aspects of the question-at-issue, think carefully, critically, and thoroughly before acting, and thereby risk allowing known injustices to continue while I try to sort out these complicated questions? Or shall I move toward progressivism, act where I see a need, step out into the fray, combat evil where it manifests itself, and thereby risk moving in a slightly skewed trajectory and excess in order to confront a recognized injustice?
--
This weekend, I saw the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie with some friends. As the film opens, the turtle brothers are divided. Leonardo has just returned from a year-long stint of training in the jungles of Central America. In his absence, Raphael has secretly gone vigilante--fighting crime on his own against the instructions of Master Splinter who insists that if they will not fight as a brotherhood, then the four are not to fight at all. Raph is unwilling to sit by and allow criminals to rule the city. Criminals don't take vacations, he reasons. If the team will not serve its purpose, then he will take matters into his own hands. Eventually he recognizes the error of his way and the team becomes fully united and able to defeat the threat to their city (actually, the world).
The film moves toward articulating a very important truth. That doing good and right is about more than just beating the bad guys. If the brothers are not a cohesive team, that does not just detract from their effectiveness as crime-fighters; it also evinces a more fundamental and deep-seated injustice. "Justice," in this context should be understood as the ancient Greeks might have understood it, as referring to well-being, wholeness, and balance. True justice and goodness and rightness are not just about an external state of affairs, but about character. And here we arrive at one of those simple truths that are so easily forgotten or overlooked--it's a lot harder to be good than to be bad. Being bad is a cinch. Being truly good takes time and effort and energy, and it will not always manifest itself in the ways we have come to expect.
--
A more this-world example may be helpful here. I remember in my Worldviews Senior Seminar class a student who expressed frustration with the Christian response to the problems of homelessness and poverty in the American inner-city. (Loosely paraphrasing) "I would almost rather work for a non-Christian organization," she said, "where all their time and resources are actually spent helping the poor. It seems that so much time is wasted in Christian organizations with prayer meetings and Bible studies and not enough is spent actually helping the poor."
I can sympathize with that sentiment and feel the frustration there expressed, but I think that it is mistaken. The basic assumption underlying this complaint is that the primary purpose of Christian organizations is to aid, economically or in other tangible ways, the impoverished and needy. Certainly that is an aim, but the Christian is concerned primarily with something far deeper and more fundamental. Wholeness and wellness are not tied to physical or other external circumstances, to governmental policies, popular opinion, mass media, the economy, any of these things. True justice comes only with the internal transformation of the human spirit into Christ-likeness.
Biblical scholars will point out that even Jesus was not primarily a social reformer. He did not speak out against Roman oppression, the place of women and slaves in society, the wickedness of corrupt tax-collectors. In fact his three-year-long active ministry touched only a very small region in the Middle East, but the impact of what He started has since been felt the world-over. He did not focus on tearing down repressive systems. Instead, he met individuals in the place of their deepest need and brought healing and nourishment. In doing so, he brought justice (balance, wholeness, wellness) to people's lives.
--
At the beginning of this piece, I described my 'awkward' position. The awkwardness seems to arise from my changing view of justice, along the lines that I've described thus far. Now I do believe that human beings are capable of understanding justice; this is part of our having been created in the image of God and the general revelation. But I worry that even Christians who pursue justice with noble intentions have missed the point and are chasing after an idol. C.S. Lewis describes something similar about misplaced love in the eleventh chapter of The Great Divorce. In that book, Lewis is transported to the afterlife where he sees visions of the deceased as they are offered admittance to heaven, many of them refusing it.
He sees one mother who, in her past life, was consumed by selfish love for her son who died at a young age. If she will only relinquish her selfish love and acknowledge how misguided she was in life to be so consumed by bitterness, she could see him. But she refuses. As Lewis and his teacher/guide, George MacDonald, leave the scene, Lewis asks, "Is there any hope for her, Sir?"
"Aye, there's some. What she calls her love for her son has turned into a poor, prickly, astringent sort of thing. But there's still a wee spark of something that's not just herself in it. That might be blown into a flame [of true love].'
'Then some natural feelings are really better than others--I mean, are a better starting-point for the real thing?'
'Better and worse. There's something in natural affection which will lead it on to eternal love more easily than natural appetite could be led on. But there's also something in it which makes it easier to stop at the natural level and mistake it for the heavenly. Brass is mistaken for gold more easily than clay is. And if it finally refuses conversion its corruption will be worse than the corruption of what ye call the lower passions. It is a stronger angel, and therefore, when it falls, a fiercer devil.
'...Someone must say in general what's been unsaid among you this many a year: that love, as mortals understand the word, isn't enough. Every natural love will rise again and live forever in this country [i.e. Heaven]; but none will rise again until it has been buried.
'There is but one good; that is God. Everything else is good when it looks to Him and bad when it turns from Him. And the higher and mightier it is in the natural order, the more demoniac it will be if it rebels. ... The false religion of lust is baser than the false religion of mother-love or patriotism or art: but lust is less likely to be made into a religion.'
--
My worry is that many Christians are pursuing a kind of justice--let me reiterate, it IS a kind of justice--but in their zeal and fervor have lost sight of true justice which comes only through Jesus Christ. Even as I write these hard words, I feel Lewis' protest within me: "I don't know that I dare repeat this on Earth, Sir. They'd say I was inhuman: they'd say I believed in total depravity: they'd say I was attacking the best and the holiest things."
Am I content with injustice?--some may ask. Will I turn a blind eye to evil and suffering? Certainly not, and let me emphasize that what I have said is not to be taken as license to do nothing. We must all, alike, pursue justice. But justice is not an abstract moral concept or a descriptor for a certain state of human affairs. It is an integrated part of the character of Jesus Christ. Only the truly transformed individual can align himself with the real and present justice that exists in God's nature and from that nature, alone, derives.
It will not surprise me if the world looks at this sort of Christianity and judges it ineffectual. The way of Jesus is not the way of the world. It requires faith--that GOD will accomplish His work (not that I will accomplish His work, but that HE will accomplish His work) if I follow Him faithfully.
--
One final point: I have focused (as I usually do) on the internal nature of this transformation. "But," one may ask, "doesn't this transformation also become manifest externally." Absolutely. This piece should not be read as an indictment against any particular activist. In identifying the crux of the issue with the internal character and disposition of the individual, I have effectively moved it into a realm on which I cannot comment (without some special revelation that I do not have at this time). Each individual must examine her own heart and evaluate her own priorities and objectives. Better yet, the Lord must reveal to her her true inner nature. All I have attempted to do is point us toward true justice and clarify some of the important distinctions.
*Oh, and if I'm right, then there really are no "peripheral" moral and ethical issues.
-----
This week is Easter Break. So I'm enjoying a slightly more relaxed pace.
Within the next week or two I will make an official post about what graduate school I'll be attending. Unfortunately, I was not accepted to either Notre Dame or Rutgers. Most likely I will be moving just an hour east of my current location to UC Riverside. (Still close to family and friends--yay!) I'll let you all know officially when the time comes.
Blessings all,
posted by Metaphysician_delta | 6:04 PM
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