Justice vs. fairness, why I can’t get on American Idol, and other existential rants.
Jon Arnold | May 19, 2009
Continuing a thread about what I think we oughta be thinking about (See this post for the intro to this section). This is a direct follow-up to the last post (aren’t they all?). I seem to have painted myself into a bit of a corner on this one. The first item in this list is justice, a huge concept to be sure, and one I have been actively working to understand in the last year. You should know I have written and re-written this post many times, and I’m not sure I even like this final result. That’s why we call it “Raw Thoughts 
”.
I could cheat and go on to kindness – a lot easier to dissect – but justice comes first in the list, so I have to deal with it. Two months of no posting is too much time, so I am going to try to take this in small chunks. Just for fun, I’d like to propose a bunch of questions I’m not sure I know the answer to, then propose a bunch of answers I’m not sure I agree with. Sound like a good time? Here…we…go!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I have been stuck on the question of justice in a global sense. As I become more aware of the social justice movement, both inside and outside of church-folk circles, it has become apparent that “justice” is far more than a buzzword – it is a rallying cry. To be sure there is a lot of evil and therefore a lot of injustice in the world. Think sweat shops, political and religious persecution, caste systems, racism, child and sex trafficking, abortion, ethnic cleansing, and on and on. And it is clear from Scripture that God cares very deeply about justice – I don’t think I need to proof-text that one. We are clearly called to pursue justice and come to the aid of the helpless, powerless, and marginalized.
The thing I am having a hard time figuring out is the line between justice, fairness, and equal results.
Fairness is a bit arbitrary – we all have thoughts as to what is fair and what is not (ask any three year old). Justice is clearly a matter of right and wrong. But is it possible that some people confuse fairness with justice? One diagnostic question for me is “What is the end game?” If we had out way, could snap our fingers and make justice a reality, what would that look like? Some things that might be nice:
- Everyone would have the same amount of wealth (or poverty).
- The Star Trek Utopian Model – no money needed.
- Everyone would have the same opportunities.
- No one would suffer.
- All nations would have equal standing, wealth, and power. There would really be no need for separate nations, since all would be the same.
- There would be no difference between genders, races, colors, etc.
- No masters or slaves (also no labor or management).
I think the world Jesus and His followers tell us to look forward to contains these features and more than we can imagine. But the world God has left us in is very different. And that’s where I am grinding gears trying to get traction on this thing. Here are some questions:
- Does God expect us to act as though that world has already come, or are there different realities in the presence of an evil, fallen, sinful planet?
- Why does God give gifts, abilities, and grace in different amounts? Some have more talent. I am a classically trained vocalist, but I’ never make it to Hollywood Week on American Idol – the limits of my natural ability would stand in the way (plus I’m too old now, and not nearly cute enough . Why are some blessed with greater ability or more money or better opportunities?
- If I achieve a level of success in position, wealth, or authority, have I by definition marginalized someone else (since I now have more than them)?
- If we are to pursue justice, can that pursuit always be perpetrated in the absence of physical force? Is it not sometimes necessary for the strong to protect the weak forcefully?
- Is the existence of suffering inherently unjust? How can anyone who is being violently marginalized and exploited believe in a just God?
- What is God’s definition of equality (thanks to Rex for adding that one to my overfull head).
There. That should be enough to make my head explode (and maybe yours). I don’t propose that I will satisfactorally answer all these questions, but I am going to publicly process some of them. You are welcome to comment as well. I want to listen…
Next post – the things I am mostly almost pretty sure are true about justice. Maybe.
Maria – first, thanks for taking the time to post comments – it means a tremendous amount to me, since the whole point of this thing was to wrestle with these ideas and work them out in community. It is humbling that you would take the time to thoughtfully post, and more than one! Second, Stacey and I and our now three girls are doing quite awesome. The twins are 3 and Maya is aboout 5 months. We are volunteering at Redwood Hills Church – check it out online if you get a chance. I also work full time as a web geek.
Again I find myself agreeing with you here (and you’re so articulate and thoughtful it’s almost impossible not to
). I put a lot of things in this post as “comment bait – things I don’t necessarily think are true, but might be semi widely-held beliefs. Note that before that list I said “If we had our way.” But I botched the next sentence – it should have been “I think the world Jesus and His followers tell us to look forward to contains some of these features and more.” My thought when I first wrote that was to spend some time debunking that list, as I think a lot of it is in error, but I never got around to it. The good news is that you have done so for me!
You have laid out a profound and moving theology of both diversity and blessing in this one little comment, and I hope anyone who reads the main post also reads this. I agree wholeheartedly with your comments, and they more accurately represent what I think I might have wanted to say sometime in the future than what I would have written. Thanks so much for the investment of time and thought – you have enriched the conversation!
As I was reading this, I was reminded of Revelation 7 – “After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb.” What a beautiful picture of our hope – which is not that we all become homogeneous, but that every nation and tribe will be joined in worship, and things will be set right (that section ends with “He will wipe every tear from their eyes”). I also thought of Revelation 22, which says of the tree of life, “the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.” To the very end, God’s purpose is to heal and restore, not destroy.
Thanks again – feel free to keep challenging and c ommenting – it helps me grow. If you have any friends who like rhetoric, tell them to tear into these posts too
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Jon, hi. How’s it going? Nice blog. I realized I didn’t make much of a personal introduction in my last comment. I hope you and Stacey and the girls are doing well. Are you guys still living at the same place? What church are you a part of now?
My comment here is not really about the “meat” of your post, but an ancillary matter that struck me in your list of things that might be nice if we could have justice right now, like no one suffering, etc. Your presentation of justice seemed to equate equality with sameness–all people and nations having the same wealth, no need for separate nations since everything will be the same, no differences between race, gender, etc, and no work? I feel like this is quite different from the bible’s expression of the ideal. (First, about work–before the first sin, God put Adam in the garden to till and keep/tend it (Gen 2.15)…work is part of the ideal, this seems to say. At least agriculture, anyway). My impression is that the Bible has a strong value for particularity. It’s preference for particularity has been so great that it has confounded many a thinker on how it could possibly express universal truths with all this talk of God choosing a particular nation in a particular place at a particular time, etc. I’m not sure how to express myself since this is more an impression of mine than a well-thought out belief. God chose to bless the world through Abraham, and his descendants–Israel. The difference between Israel and the gentile nations is important in the Bible. Also, he made humankind in two different kinds, male and female. He made man a culture-creating animal and allowed him to create many different cultures. God reveals himself through the Hebrew Scriptures which are influenced by the thought of their Ancient Near Eastern setting. He sent his son into one particular culture and time, and his apostles forged their new way of worshiping the God of Israel through the Son in that Second-Temple Israel as well as the Greco-Roman culture. And as many a scholar will tell you, Greco-Roman thought had a profound influence on New Testament thought. All this is not a bad thing, but to me, seems part of the evidence that God affirms culture and difference and all the particularity that goes with the lives of individual people and communities in their own places and times. To cite your Star Trek example, there was no money in Roddenberry’s dream world, but somehow all of the cultures of earth survived into his future, and the ideal was not sameness, but instead was all the cultures being able to live and work together–as envisioned in the colorfully multi-cultural crew under Kirk. On that Day the lion and the lamb will maintain all of their difference but will lie together in peace. On that Day the Gentile nations will stream up Zion to join Israel in worshiping the Lord. That is the vision of the prophets. Jesus’ work didn’t nullify the difference between Israel and gentile nations but opened a new way to God through himself. Galatians 3.28-9 might be referenced in argument, “There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave of free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to the promise…”. My impression of this passage is that Paul is emphasizing that these things make no difference in terms of our standing before the Lord now that we are in Christ, not that all difference should be dissolved.
I’ll admit that my desire to celebrate different cultures, traditions, etc rather than dissolve them is culturally influenced, but I still think that there is a strong affirmation of particularity and difference in Scripture.
As to the issue of some being more blessed than others, it seems a biblical idea that God blessed some to bless others (as I referenced earlier, “through Abraham all nations will be blessed…”). In our time, we are blessed as God’s people and he will work through us to extend his blessing to others. I think that this can translate to blessings of wealth or influence–he has blessed some in order that they will bless others. The earliest church weren’t all blessed with the same amount of wealth but shared so that all would be provided for. Perhaps this concept can extend to blessings of different abilities as well, I am not sure. The very fact that he gave us all different strengths, talents, and weaknesses seems to me to say that God enjoys the diversity and thinks that it is good, as well as pointing to our God-given need for each other, for relationships and community. But that is another topic
I should probably get back to my schoolwork now…