There is so much to say about Justice. I don’t want to philosophy about justice but rather emphasize what we understand as a Gospel of Justice. Interestingly enough the Oxford describe justice as:
jus·tice –noun
1.the quality of being just; righteousness, equitableness, or moral rightness: to uphold the justice of a cause.
2.rightfulness or lawfulness, as of a claim or title; justness of ground or reason: to complain with justice.
3.the moral principle determining just conduct.
4.conformity to this principle, as manifested in conduct; just conduct, dealing, or treatment.
5.the administering of deserved punishment or reward.
Personally I love the real definition of “Justice” – and that is to DO JUSTICE. To ACT or to TREAT JUSTLY or FAIRLY . Someone commented on a posting on my facebook a day ago and I think she hit the nail on the head when she said: “Funny you should mention this – we all love to hear the Gospel of love, but the Gospel of Justice is very much neglected”.
Where I live I see many people die daily. Mostly people die here due to the many tropical diseases that lingers here in the bush. Malaria, diarrhoea, aids related diseases, TB, cholera and some treatable diseases. The fact is we can easily so …. “that’s just how it is” …. there is no good hospital facilities, a bad health system, no access to clean water, it looks like one overworked doctor for every 1 000 patients and so the list goes on.
What made me cry a day ago was when a 7 year old boy was hit by a speeding vehicle. Dwight saw the accident, intervened immediately …. hastily transported the boy to the clinic and hospital after the crowd already assessed the boy as “dead”. The guilty driver seems to bribed his way out of trouble with the authorities and the hospital staff wanted their “bribe” the treat the boy. Without enough money you are not going to be treated immediately. Life and the value of life is just not priority. The sad end was that the boy died in the hospital. Just another fact for many.
How should we act? Should we tackle the authorities? Speak up? Just another death? The answer I think to all of these are: YES …. DO JUSTICE. I am still crying …. because a young boy’s life has been taken … by the system. An unjust system. We have to act. We have to re-commit ourselves again to a Gospel of Justice.
I think Dr. Walter Brueggemann says it so wisely:
An Invitation to Justice from The Justice Conference on Vimeo.