Justice

I have just finished reading a passage from the book Reading the Bible Again for the First Time by Marcus Borg, which dealt with the issue of the justice as represented in the books of the prophets. It seemed rather timely considering the events swirling around our nation these day. What follows is a paraphrased rendition of this passage followed by my thoughts.

When I mention the word “justice” to you, what do you imagine? Mr. Borg categorizes the term into three distinct forms: criminal; procedural; and social. One word, three separate, yet distinct, meanings offers us a great opportunity to create confusion and unrest.

Criminal justice is the manner that most of us are most familiar with. Our entire system of laws and the enforcement of those laws is what this form of justice represents. How a person is determined to be guilty of an offense, how that offense is to be compensated back to society, even how the laws are to be created and implemented are a form of this type of justice.

Procedural justice is an extension of criminal justice. It ensures that all laws work equally for all people regardless of race, creed, color, religion, or position of influence.

Social justice is insuring that the systems of any society, the manner in which people are able to function, move, work, play and worship within a community are balanced and fair.

Our nation was established under the mantel that all men (and that is a term I recognize will cause some people groups to protest claiming a gender-neutral term is required) are created equal. This means that justice, in its three forms, is afforded to all, everyone, everybody, not one exception. (If you proceed down the path of the “created” aspect, you will again offend another group, so I’m going to forego that for brevity sake.)

To a great extent, the mood of this nation by certain people groups is sharply focused on what I would call the social justice paradigm. They talk about it socially on every network they belong to or watch. There is a great unrest on the social consciousness of our people because they feel that the system is out of whack. It would appear that everyone has an opinion as to how the system should be made just and fair for all. That is the issue. All, as in liberty and justice for all.

Fear is not liberating. Inciting fear through rhetoric, spoken or written, is a right under the free speech amendment this country was founded under, and there are laws which insure this liberty, just as there are laws to define when this becomes a crime of hatred.

It would seem to me that the vast number of people who have an issue with the actions taken by our government in recent days are looking at the social justice of the matter while missing the other two forms of justice that was in operation. The matter of procedural justice had to be followed because a criminal justice statute was on the books. This matter wasn’t a last-ditch circumventing of procedures to create a new form of crime. The entire matter was already in place, decades ago, before some of the people complaining the loudest were even born.

What I find interesting in this whole matter is that people within the elected body of our nation, representative of our choosing, are either blatantly trying to persuade us they are intelligent regarding this matters or just plain ignorant. I opt for the latter. Their actions telegraph the fact that they haven’t a clue about the very laws they enact and are responsible for overseeing. They seem intent on making sure that the social justice of their actions remains true in turbulent times even if the criminal and procedural justice they created isn’t followed according to their own rules.

As I see it, the great legal mind that I am, the administration acted according to the law as it is written. Could it have been handled differently? It would seem that there are as many ways to handle it as there are protests. Did it cause social injustice? Seriously, there is not a time that it wouldn’t for those trying to enter the country. This is temporary though, and restrictions are a fact of life for immigrants. That is a part of the procedures they are required to follow. If they refuse to, they, according to the law, have committed a crime, and if found guilty, will be criminals. Justice for all, in this country, citizen or not. That is equality.

In case you didn’t notice, I took this entire subject and didn’t once mention a religious position. The reason is simple. This whole matter has never once been about what form of God you believe in. It has always been about where you’re coming from, not Who you come from. Nationality, not identity.

One word, three meanings. Which one do you feel got violated and are upset about?