God's call for justice

I’ve noticed a strange phenomenon when news breaks of a major abuse of power. When news stories like this hit, there’s this wave of reactions, and various people fall somewhere on the spectrum. The first is disbelief—of course it’s not what it looks like. It’s not as bad as they’re saying, and it’s probably being misinterpreted. Then justification—if he did this, he probably had a very good reason to. The victim is no angel. Lastly, and many never make it to this step, is acceptance, but even that can be a rocky road. Sometimes rather than admit that someone we once regarded highly did something wrong, we write them off as one of the bad ones, who abused power, but not a system that allowed for it and, in many cases, works to protect the perpetrator of the abuse.

I read somewhere that one of the big things that separates humankind from animals is our sense of equality and justice. Rather than see the world as one of pure survival and strength, most of us have a conception of the world as it should be: a place where everyone has an equal chance at a happy life, where everyone is treated fairly regardless of who they are and what characteristics they possess. We have this innate sense of how things should be; where we can struggle is in seeing the gap between this ideal and the world as it exists today.

We react with disbelief and justification when we see injustice because, too often, we believe that the world is innately fair and just. We believe that the systems we have in place to protect us will equally protect everyone, and if something terrible happens, it’s not because of a flaw in the system—it’s one or two bad actors that have done things wrong. There’s significant comfort in this idea; but, as an idea, this is largely a byproduct of our modern American culture rather than Biblical ideals.

Justice—and injustice—are among the biggest themes in the Bible, popping up over and over in both the Old and New testaments. Why would the Psalmist tell us to give justice to the lowly and the orphan if justice already existed for them? Why else would they ask believers to rescue and deliver the lowly and needy from the power of the wicked? Passages like today’s, and countless others in the Bible, are a reminder that systemic injustices have always existed, and will likely always be a problem.

If injustice has never been a problem in your life, that’s great! But we can’t deduce from that that injustice is not a problem. If injustice has never been a problem in your life, justice exists for you. There’s a feeling of security that comes along with that; many people in this world do not experience that feeling. Accepting that others may face troubles you never have, not because of their choices but because of being born who they are—that’s an extremely uncomfortable thing for many of us, because it shatters our notion of a world that is innately fair and just for everyone. But as we see throughout the Bible, injustice, and its integration into human-created systems, is an enduring human problem that was never solved in the history of the writing of the Bible. Scripture is clear that justice, particularly social justice, is one of the highest concerns for followers of God, and that remains just as true today as it was in the Psalmist’s time.