reading together: the longing for justice

Following from my previous post titled ‘reading together’ my communal journey through Simply Christian continues. In the first chapter Tom Wright begins to explore the first of the ‘echoes’... ‘the longing for justice.’ Early in the chapter he makes it clear that ‘a sense of justice comes with the kit of being human.’ Yet all too often justice proves too elusive, bullies get away with violence, innocent people are convicted, the list goes on.

He goes on to cite historical examples to counter that when it comes to justice although we often, in the misquoted words of T.S. Elliot, have the meaning but not the experience. Justice sometimes is done. ‘Apartheid was dismantled.’ Wilberforce and Woolman helped end slavery. Martin Luther King’s tireless campaign challenged the racial prejudice of the United States.

Perhaps one of the most perceptive parts of this chapter is: “The line between justice and injustice, between things being right and things not being right, can’t be drawn between ‘us’ and ‘them’. It runs down through the middle of each of us.”

I think that Wright get’s it very right at this point. Each human being lives with a double nature that on the one hand expresses the best of who we are yet within a heartbeat also expresses the worst of who we are. Our longing for justice is as much internal as it is external.

Wright argues that the last fifty years has seen an increase in ‘moral sensitivity’ (contra popular opinion). He argues that people care very passionately about moral issues. While I’m inclined to agree with his basic premise it would seem to me that the last fifty years have seen a shift away from some traditional moralities (e.g. sexuality, personhood) while at the same time seeing and increase in ‘pet moralities’ (e.g. environmental stewardship). At this point I agree with Wright who claims that: “The gentle art of being gentle - of kindness and forgiveness, sensitivity and thoughtfulness, generosity and humility and good old fashioned love - has gone out of fashion.” He contends that the shrill demanding of ‘rights’ too often destroys the longing and hope of justice or (in my thought) the Hebrew concept of ‘shalom’.

The narcissistic tendencies notable in our societies often give rise to the displacement of the ‘rights’ of others, or stated differently their hope of justice. A mother’s ‘right’ to terminate her pregnancy displaces the child’s ‘right’ to life. The ‘right’ of same-sex couples to adopt a child displaces that child’s ‘right’ to either a father or mother. (No, I’m not being cliché, Evangelically PC, fundamentalist nor judgemental. In a society where either of these examples are options there is a lack of ‘shalom’ and therefore injustice.)

Many people (myself included) dream of a world without prejudice, where the bullies do not go unpunished. As we dream these dreams ‘hope is kindled’ and deep within the human psyche (and collective consciousness) the passion for justice listens carefully for the ‘echo’ of a voice that claims someone does care, there is purpose to all of this which includes justice, we and the things around us will indeed be ‘put to right’. Perhaps most exciting thing of all is that the dream is becoming reality.