Justice

“What does the Lord require of you but to do justice…?” – Micah 6:8

“But let justice roll down like waters.” – Amos 5:24

About two months ago, I was asked to join a social justice and health equity committee at Stanford. This committee was formed as the result of medical students pushing for concepts of anti-racism and social justice to be integrated into the medical school curriculum. At one of the first meetings, students directly confronted professors about racist and stereotyping content contained in lectures and tests. It was shocking to me to see students being so vulnerable, bold, and feeling empowered enough to engage Deans in the medical school that were 30-40 years older, and had the power potentially to impact their career trajectories.

I reflected on this afterwards and remarked to Esther that we would have never even imagined 15-20 years ago during our training calling out professors for their actions and demanding curriculum reform. But somehow, we are in a moment of history, when calls for social justice are louder than ever. It has been inspiring to hear student members of our committee—those with disabilities, who identify as queer, and those from cultures that been discriminated against—call out those with power and privilege from a place of complacency and comfortability to confront these problems within the curriculum that are traumatizing our students. 

But, I also find myself somewhat uncomfortable with the current predominant justice narrative that all power structures should be overturned so that society subverts the power of dominant groups in favor of those that are oppressed. In this postmodern framework, justice is primarily about those who have been historically without power seeking the authority and allyship to overturn inequitable institutions and assuming power.

As Tim Keller puts it “...power must be mapped through the means of ‘intersectionality.’ The categories are race, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity (and sometimes others). If you are white, male, straight, cisgender then you have the highest amount of power. If you are none of these at all, you are the most marginalized and oppressed–and there are numerous categories in the middle. Most importantly, each category toward the powerless end of the spectrum has a greater moral authority and a greater ability to see the way truly things are. Only powerlessness and oppression brings moral high ground and true knowledge. Therefore those with more privilege must not enter into any debate—they have no right or ability to advise the oppressed, blinded as they are by their social location. They simply must give up their power.”

Tim Keller points out that there are several issues with this postmodern framework of social justice, including its logical incoherence, the undermining of our common humanity, and its denial of our common sinfulness. But the two ways I feel that the postmodern framework misses the mark in offering a pathway to biblical justice is 1) it offers a highly self-righteous performative identity and 2) it makes true forgiveness, peace, and reconciliation between groups impossible. 

Keller then goes on to speak about biblical justice and other types of social justice frameworks which you can read about here. But I would like to highlight a quote from Keller that discusses what true justice looks like. It is found in the life and character of Jesus. “When God came to earth in Jesus Christ he came as a poor man, to a family at the bottom of the social order. He experienced torture and death at the hands of religious and government elites using their power unjustly to oppress. So in Jesus we see God laying aside his privilege and power—his ‘glory’—in order to identify with the weak and helpless (Philippians 2:5-8). And yet, through the endurance of violence and human injustice he paid the rightful penalty of humanity’s sin to divine justice (Isaiah 53:5). Then he was raised to even greater honor and also authority to rule (Philippians 2:5:9-11). Jesus takes authority, but only after losing it in service to the weak and helpless.”

The means for achieving justice from a postmodern framework has primarily been through asserting force, protesting for political change, and guilt assignment. All of these have their places for achieving our goal of having an equitable society. But these methods do not ultimately create heart change and inner transformation. Jesus models the way for biblical justice: a humble man who has all power and authority coming to dwell among the poor and uneducated - transforming lives, governments, and culture by modeling humility, compassion, and healing the sick. This is compelling biblical justice that changes not only our behaviors, but our hearts, and makes true forgiveness, peace, and reconciliation between groups possible.

Geography and Immigration

Since I can remember, I've always enjoyed looking at maps. Watching my father pore over a AAA map on the kitchen table is a strong memory I still have of him when he was still in his 30s. And I like to think it's a trait he has passed down to me.

I like geography, but I like journeys even more. When Esther and I were still getting to know each other, one way I described myself to her is that when I get started on a path or a road, I want to follow it all the way to end. There's no turning back before the road ends, because then I might miss some remarkable view or nature spotting.

Having accumulated a perpetually long list of to-dos, I am not quite as adamant about finishing everything I start nowadays. But as we start this Bible reading journey, I hope this character trait compels me to finish what I started.

Today, in the reading of scripture, I was struck by all the geographical references. And the amount of movement, sojourning - let's use more germane vocabulary - immigration - that Abraham and Jesus experienced.

Abraham was born in Ur, but then at some point in his life, his father, Terah decided to move the family (Abraham, Lot and Sarah) to Canaan. But somehow along the way, the traveling caravan stopped in Haran and "they settled there."

I was struck how this one verse describes the state of many aspects of my own life and the lives of those around us. We are all from somewhere, on our way somewhere, but some how or at some point "settled" en route. The settling could mean a job, a level of marriage flourishing, a certain amount of energy dedicated to the kids' spiritual enrichment, or a certain lukewarm spiritual state.

But interestingly, even though Terah settled there (and died there), God didn't. He spoke into Abraham's life and eventually, Abraham and his family (after a detour to Egypt) did move to Canaan. But they ended up living out the rest of their lives as immigrants in Canaan.

I see some parallels in Jesus's life. Born in Bethlehem, Jesus's family moved when he was still an infant to Egypt where he lived for probably a decade or more. For some reason, this struck me as really interesting. In his formative years of childhood, Jesus lived in Egypt. He likely was exposed to many aspects of Egyptian culture. So much of who I am now was a result of culture seeping into me during the first 10-12 years of life.

How was Jesus affected by being raised in Egypt? Did it affect the ways he viewed culture, about being an outsider or an immigrant? Is the US sort of the modern-day equivalent of Egypt? A place of prosperity, safe harbor, and cultural influence that people come to - both the wealthy and ambitious, as well as those fleeing persecution?

But then Jesus' family settles in Nazareth, Galilee after being away from the region for essentially his whole life, where he lives for presumably the duration of his teens and twenties. And then his ministry starts with a mention of him moving to and living in Capernaum.

Jesus was an immigrant many times over. First, to the world. And then everywhere else he moved during his ministry. Jesus seemed to be willing to move when God spoke and live his whole life as an immigrant - both respecting the culture he was in, but not succumbing to it.

One loose definition of culture is the unconscious (and conscious) norms, attitudes, and values we have. How does Jesus's willingness to live as an immigrant his whole life affect how we live as Jesus followers here? It does make me wonder if I get too acclimated and even loyal to, or trained to think like, the culture around me.

That's one of the values of the immigrant! Immigrants can see the culture for what it is - a set of norms established by a group of people - and compare it to other cultures they have experienced. Hopefully, as believers, we can view this world and compare it to the heavenly culture. One that has not yet been fully experienced, but can be learned, in part, through reading of scripture.