Saturday, January 9, 2016

January 10, 2016

“He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” Micah 6:8

If you have young children or if you have had them I am sure you are familiar this phrase, “NO FAIR!”

Fairness is a big issue in 21st century American culture. There is great value and virtue attached to efforts to make things fair.

During the recent Presidential election we heard our President talk about fairness a lot. He promoted raising taxes for the higher income Americans to make sure they pay their “fair share”.

Many on the liberal side, or the left side of the political spectrum have – either intentionally or unintentionally – equated “fairness” with “justice” and refer to their efforts to make society fit into and conform with their notion of fairness – “SOCIAL JUSTICE”.

Let me ask you several questions about fairness:

·         Help me make a list of some things that are fair about life.

·         If you think something is fair but I think it is unfair – who is right?

·         If we both agree something is unfair how do we make it fair?

·         What happens if by making it fair for us we make it unfair for others?

·         Is fairness about opportunity or is it about outcome?

Are you beginning to understand the complexity of the problem?

WHAT ARE THE ISSUES WITH “SOCIAL JUSTICE”

"Social Justice". That phrase sounds good doesn't it? Social refers to people and relationships. Those are good things!  

And who doesn't like justice? God knows we could use a lot more justice! Different forms of the word "justice" appear 200 times throughout the Old Testament! So, obviously it is an important concept.

What is the problem with social justice? Why should you be concerned about it?

Several of the problem areas have to do with the underlying worldview behind the liberals view of "social justice". This worldview is vastly different from the traditional Judeo-Christian viewpoint. Here are several examples:

1) GOD VS. GOVERNMENT

Our Founding Fathers believed that our rights and freedoms were bestowed by the God Who created us and the role of this new government was to protect those freedoms. For nearly 150 years that principle was honored. But with the rise of the Progressives over the past century, that has begun to change. To them rights are granted by government.

Progressives have systematically marginalized God and the Bible and the role of faith in the culture. It appears their goal in diminishing those institutions has been to increase the role and influence of government.

Traditional ideas of justice center around protecting individual rights according to the moral values expressed in the Founding documents.

For many of those in power today, justice is meted according to what best serves government interests.

2) CONSTITUTION VSCHAOS

Another fundamental different in how progressives view "fairness" has to do with the nature of truth.

Traditionally, justice and  notions of fairness have been grounded in the absolute truths of our Constitution which are based on the unchanging truths of the Word of God.

Many of our current leaders do not honor absolute truth. The same is true of a teachers and college professors. Rather, they are guided by situational ethics generally dictated by what best serves their political agenda. When justice is dictated by a whim, you essentially are in a state of chaos.

3) FREEDOM VS. FORCE

There is a distinct difference between believing that freedom is a gift from God and guarded by Constitutional rights and assuming that rights are granted by government to serve the state.

When your freedom depends on government granted rights, that freedom can be taken by the government at their discretion and you live under the threat of force.

4) DIGNITY VS. UTILITY

Traditionally, because individual rights were understood to be granted by God, there was dignity assigned to each person and his freedom was a sacred trust to be protected by government.

But in the worldview of most current leaders, the value on an individual is determined by how useful that person is to the state. Weakness, old age, mental impairment, or serious illness requires extra money and resources from the state and therefore makes you more of a liability than an asset to it.

Jesus told us to be "wise as serpents and harmless as doves".

II Chronicles 12:32 talks about the "men of Issachar, who understood the times and knew what Israel should do".

As people of God and the Church of Jesus Christ, we must know the times in which we live and understand how notions of freedom, rights and justice are changing so we can stand for God's truth and justice.