The Concept of Justice
A couple of days ago, a great friend of mine, Ming, asked a great question. If we believe that we are to do more in life, we need to have some serious dialogging regarding social justice.
Hmm, after some thought, I think I need to either reread the chapter or spend more time thinking…heh. Anyhow, I still feel that the concept of “justice” was kinda glazed over. I do think that Loving God/Loving Others is a form of justice…and in a sense, that’s like a higher calling for justice…but, on a more practical down to earth level…how does justice apply to our lives in what we can do? Bringing someone to God, having God heal them and all that, I don’t necessarily feel “justice” has been done.
On some level, I would rather talk about social justice…as Christians, and the “Christian/[Protestant” role of enacting justice in our society. Maybe we did talk about this…but I was left hungry after this Sunday. The Christian “right” and even liberal/liberation (black) both kinda give me a bad taste in my mouth these days. Justice in flung around like another…buzz word, or rather, social justice…
My understanding of social justice comes from a very progressive left view…from those that sued and won gaining reparations for interned Japanese Americans (Korematsu II); those that wrote on the concept of hate speech and suggesting (as a theory for a paper) that hate speech should be regulated (becoming THE most quoted law review article in US history); those that worked on supplementary briefs for the Padilla case; and now the push for putting their kids in public schools as an act of social justice…to fight against segregation through private/public school and school districts.
I’m not sure if the “modern western Christian” church really understands this concept. As some might have stated, it’s only recently that Tony Campolo/Brian McLauren are learning these terms…and this concept of “post-modern emergent” church thing is the white Christian’s response to this concept…and is still somewhat new and awkward with understanding it (James Matichuk’s thoughts). Not quite white guilt, but just some new understanding of a greater struggle…which somehow translates to white/black (and only with a bit of yellow thrown in that’s to Korematsu or Vincent Chin or whatever his name was). Meanwhile, there are other liberal churches who have immersed themselves in “social justice”….but again, I feel at odds with this since I’m not really all that liberal (politically speaking)… Anyhow, an example would be Pine United Methodist in San Fran. This is a church where the pastor worked closely with the Japanese American community and later reached out to the Muslim/Arab community after 911 (they are primarily a Japanese church I think). But to my understanding or at least through the perspective of the person talking to me about the church, they have gone so far left that God…where’s God? I don’t know.
Anyhow, still digesting and still hungering for more discussion.
Any thoughts?
~Ellis
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This topic can be very complicated. I think that many social problems are caused by people not empathizing with those who are “different” and not part of our “circle”, which for me might be immigrants from South Pacific, gay whites, etc. As a parent, I try to teach my children to not be selfish, to be compassionate to those who are poor, and so on. Letting God’s spirit control our lives is a key factor in being a loving follower of Christ.
I have become sooo averse to performance-based religion recently. It causes religious people to look down on others who are “on the outside” rather than reaching out in love.
Seems like the modern conservative Christian movement is only alienating themselves from the people they should be reaching out to… only pointing out others’ sins and … Read Moretrying to “clean up” our society.
Jesus attracted the so-called “scum of the earth”. We seem to be doing the exact opposite. I don’t think the main point is getting them to change their behavior and get them out of their “destructive lifestyle”. It’s a good thing, but….
I would definitely like to talk about this more and hear more of your views. My mind is going in so many different directions now, and I feel like I need to explain myself further because some of my comments will probably be taken the wrong way, but I really hate posting publicly. I’ll post more privately.