Justice: Value and Law

How is it that the world can seem so passionate about preaching equality and freedom from harm, and at the same time promote so many things that harm the body and the soul?

One reason is that the world doesn’t understand that we are all made in the image of God, a concept that we’ve already studied.

Imago Dei

You see, for many today, your value actually comes from the group you’re a part of. Let’s say, for example, that you’re a woman. You have value because you belong to the woman category. But remember, you need the experts to define what a woman actually is. For example, you may need “feminist epistemology”.

Perhaps if a man thinks he’s a woman, he is. But maybe if you’re against killing unborn babies, you’re not really enough of a “woman” to be a part of the group, no matter what your biology is. You may be considered a traitor to the feminist cause.

And so your value goes up and down depending on your group, and how acceptable your beliefs are to the group.

The Bible, on the other hand, explains that everyone has value. Individual value. And groups have value as well. Women are incredible. Men are amazing. And everyone has basic rights under the law, given by God.

We’ve already talked a lot about the image of God, the imago dei, so we’ll leave it at that for now and move on to the next topic.

Law (part 1)

Who is the lawgiver? Well, Moses is called the lawgiver, but we don’t simply take the laws for Israel, with all their sacrifices and dietary restrictions, and drop them down into our country. In its specific form, the Law of Moses was for ancient Israel.

But we learn about God’s law from the law of Moses, and the whole Bible, and we do apply it to our lives and our society today.

For example, why is it wrong to steal? Because the Bible says, “You shall not steal” (Exodus 20:15). Because the Bible says,

Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need.

Ephesians 4:28

In our study of The Authorities, we talked about the various authorities given by God, and their spheres of authority. No one has unlimited power. And all are under God’s law.

When there is injustice, according to God’s rules, God’s laws, we should correct it. For example, the civil authority should approve what is good and punish what is evil (Romans 13:3-4).

God’s law gives us a stable foundation from which we can fight injustice and oppression. But the world doesn’t have this solid foundation – remember the house we talked about?

Today, the world is very much occupied with trying to figure out who is oppressed, and who is the oppressor. Very binary. In the end, it seems like it’s not possible that someone may do some good things and some bad things. And the only way, supposedly, that you can help the oppressed, is by getting rid of the oppressor.

And that brings us to a term that has recently gained a lot of airtime – critical theory.

In the 1930s, a group of academics at the Frankfurt School in Germany was developing the ideas of critical theory, based in part on the ideas of Karl Marx. And since then, these ideas have continued to develop.

Critical theory is a worldview that means to criticize – that is, find systems of oppression within structures and organizations in society. It is a revolutionary theory, as opposed to a reforming theory. That is, critical theory seeks to tear everything down in order to rebuild a new utopia, a world of equality.

And this may help explain some of the things we see in the world today.

For example, in the United States especially you’ve heard the call to defund and dismantle the police. Wait – why not reform the police? Because critical theory would claim that the system itself is the problem. Revolution, not reformation.

When I was doing this series in Mexico, Canadian media was abuzz with news of church burnings and vandalism. 60-70 churches had been targeted at the time.

Harsha Walia, the then executive director of the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association, sent out a tweet in response to the news, with just four words. “Burn it all down.”

Burn it all down? The director of a civil liberties association? Why?

Because in her mind, the “Christian system” is one of the problems. The church, schools, our government – burn it all down. This is revolution.

And in this way, critical theory divides everything and everyone – to tear it all down.

Who is a sinner? The Bible says, everyone. We have all broken God’s law. The Bible says that we all have personal sin. The problem is found in the human heart.

But the world doesn’t want to talk about personal sin – or should I say, none of us want to talk about our personal sin. Instead, many people claim that the “sinners” are those people that the experts would put in the category of “oppressors” – a group. A system. Not the heart. This would be the history of your group, your race, your country – not your heart.

For example, let’s say that the United States is the oppressor. Some would argue that the USA has stolen land from Canada, and from Mexico. In fact, when many in what is now the USA rebelled against Great Britain, those who were loyal suffered. We don’t have to agree on the details for this illustration, but just go with me here. (Actually, one of my ancestors suffered from this “oppression”, losing everything because they were loyal to the king. And in Mexico, we remember the “child heroes” who committed suicide rather than surrender to the US army.)

What should we do about this injustice (if you consider it injustice)? I have a great idea. Let’s give half of the USA to Canada, half to Mexico, and we’ll have one less border to cross when we travel. Perfect!

But what about Kevin? Kevin was born in the USA. His family was very poor, but he worked all his life to take care of his family. And now – we’re going to take away his property to “erase” this injustice? How is that “just” for him? We may have to think a little deeper here.

In Mexico, we have a complicated relationship with revolution. We all want what the revolution asked for – land and liberty. We want the freedom to work for our families. None of us want to see all the power in the hands of tyrants. But we need to seek God’s way of dealing with oppression. According to His law.

So we’ll talk more about what the Bible has to say in response to these questions next time.