INJUSTICE
Injustice is a separation from God because we deny the 2nd
part of Jesus’ great commandment to love God and to love others. Instead of
injustice, we can care on an individual level or collectedly on a social level
for all people. Compassion, understanding and empathy are not just intellectual
terms because Christ demands (from our hearts) that we should give justice.
Dignity is not just a figure of speech but through justice, dignity is a
Christian condition that we all desire and deserve. Christian or non-Christion
deserve it alike.
(INJUSTICE AND FEAR)
Injustice can be another word for fear; because, behind every
unjust act there is a fear of someone or something. No one actually likes
injustice but it exist for dark personal reasons.
I am looking inward (within each human soul), towards the stranger
within us all. It is our self-image in the mirror with an unpleasant side that
desires indifference over love and that desires personal self-interest over the
common good of all. Injustice can use fancy words to its benefit. It calls war
- liberation, it calls abuse of privacy – protecting freedoms, it calls the
rich and the poor – givers and takers, it calls torture – enhanced
interrogation and it calls excessive greed – desirable profits. No one
person or group is completely free of injustice because like an unwanted shadow
it can follow behind us.
What I am talking about is lack of concern beyond our
self-interest. Are we turning into something that is stranger to our Christian
souls? Maybe we need to enlighten ourselves about the example of Jesus. Was he
a successful man trying to protect the political and economic interest of his
day or was he a bleeding heart sacrificial lamb, showing empathy and compassion
to the adulteress, to the outcast, to the sick, to the foreigner, to the poor,
to the disabled and to the homeless (all our scary strangers inside and outside
of us today).
What can reflect the most about our goodness as humans is how we
treat the less fortunate among us – those with less opportunity, those living
in poverty and those with less education. Socially we can so easily neglect
them because of our fears since they are different. We might fear their values,
their behavior, and their opinions of us. Could they harm us because we have
plenty and they have little? Some of them might have different skin color or
come from cultures that we do not fully understand. We might not be accustomed
to them so we avoid them.
(POLITICAL INJUSTICE)
Let us talk about the consequences due to political injustice.
Yes, as a society we can sometimes show political injustice towards others. We
can make it difficult for the poor to vote or to be fairly represented because
we could gerrymandering their districts or creating unnecessary voter
restriction laws to protect ourselves from our fears. This makes them powerless
and voiceless since we can fear them. Fear can be the fuel to feed the flames
of injustice and it can eventually create a hate towards those who are
different than you.
(SOCIAL INJUSTICE)
Let us talk about the consequences due to social injustice. Yes,
as a society we can sometimes show social injustice towards others. As a
result, there can be cycles of violent behavior, poor education, joblessness,
and broken families within poor communities. As resources and help lessen in
these areas, the conditions become worse. The results of our indifference can
help with their fate. This goes beyond reasoning within modern advanced
countries because we can blame the victims or we can blame ourselves. I prefer
us; because, we are the ones with the resources and we have a voice – not them.
(INVESTMENT IN JUSTICE)
Talk is just talk if we do not invest in combating the actual
cause of injustice – the fears within our hearts. We usually prioritize our
social needs by investing more into the interest of the wealthy or upper middle
class but then eventually we will pay a bigger price at some future date when
large sections of our society start destroying themselves (through drugs,
violence, broken families and disillusionment). Large inner city areas are
abandoned by enterprise and eventually this will affect our society as a whole
(if we continue on this path). Today, some inner city neighborhoods appear as
third world countries. D. Crone
(SEEING THE HUMANITY)
We must first look within ourselves and see the fear inside our
hearts towards those who seem different, live different and act different: like
the poor, the disabled, the unfortunate, the misunderstood and the immigrate
(but let us now realize that somehow they are humans like us). Every one of us
is guilty of injustice because we are a part of our collective society. Loving
hearts can change our injustice into generosity. It is a social responsibility
of all people not just Christians (for Christians cannot do it all alone). DC
(A CULTURE OF FEAR)
Is it fear that prevents us from loving our neighbor? We have
become a culture of fear. We fear the stranger within ourselves and we fear the
stranger who lives somewhere else. We fear government, we fear big business, we
fear most of our social institutions, we fear immigrates, we fear too many
laws, we fear Arabs, and some of us want to take our guns with us when we go to
worship God in church. It will take a lot of Holy Spirit inspiration to change
our culture of fear into a culture of caring and experience humanity a little
more.
DC
(OUR
DARKNESS)
Deep within us all, there still exist our darkness (the personal
stranger inside of us all) that wants to have its way at all cost. If only we
could free ourselves of our personal darkness. This is why Christianity has a
redeemer; Islam has five pillars of faith and Judaism has atonement. Even
humane atheists would say that no person’s self-centered acts should supersede
the right of others to live in dignity and be given opportunities for growth. DC
(THE HUMAN DESIRE TO BE LOVED)
Our Christian faith teaches us to respect and give dignity to all
people; even though, suicide bombers do not give their victims any dignity – we
should treat them with human dignity by showing them that we are humane (or we
lose our Christianity - little by little). The fear they wish to encourage
within us should not be a part of our humanity. We should hope someday that we
can be a people of reason through love not fear. We should not fear anyhow (as
scriptures tells us). You see, all people have the same basic emotional needs -
wanting to be appreciated, valued and loved. Generally speaking, all people
want love and not to fear others (but some people find love in the wrong
places; therefore, we turn to fear instead of love). In moments of crisis it is
so easy to turn to fear but love gives us the peace of Christ. D. Crone
(HUMAN DIVISIONS)
Let us recognize the thin line that separates the rich from the
poor, the young from the old, the sick from the healthy, the stranger from a
family member, the foreigner from the nationalized citizen, the sinner from the
saint and those with comfort from those in continuous hardships. Circumstances
within human life (itself) is that line that can change your positive life into
a negative one. Misfortune can be a human condition that requires the help of
others. Hopefully you will live with some self-worth should it happen to you.
For unjust attitudes can change your self-image and your social image (into
something negative); whereas, being loved changes your whole world into the
good - for you are recognized as human by others (that is something positive).
D. Crone
QUESTIONS:
1 Can you be a peaceful person if you fear all the time?
2 Why is justice and peace so connected?
3 When has fear brought up unjust thoughts in you?
4 Do we hurt people on purpose with injustice and will seeing the
hurt help spot the injustice?
5 Does realizing the suffering that injustice produces help to see
the humanity in the situation?
6 Why do we sometimes make the people we fear or dislike less
human or nor human like us?
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