Lesson 7: Justice in the Beloved Community

As Dr. Martin Luther King maintained, you cannot deal with systemic racism without also addressing the economic and military problems smoldering in our society. All three exploded under the conditions of the present pandemic.

Poor African and Hispanic neighborhoods were afflicted much harder than others by the COVID-19 virus. The George Floyd murder forced us to confront how the tremendous militarization of the police in our gun culture has exacerbated discrimination toward people of color. In response, the Black Lives Matter movement calls for fundamental societal changes. And, many Christians ask what we can do to promote biblical justice as we try to move closer to the Beloved Community.

Sadly, many politicians try to divert discussions about reasonable change with name calling, accusing their opponents of being socialists or fascists, communists or tyrants, leftists or right-wing bigots. None of these labels really describe accurately our present policies or programs.

Better, we begin by acknowledging Biblical justice includes but goes beyond the fairness we associate with law. Impartiality in resolving conflicts when some people’s pursuit of happiness collides with other’s is an important element, but it is difficult to achieve and maintain. We all naturally manipulate things in our own favor. That is evident when we currently pass laws that benefit the powerful, arguing their welfare benefits the weak.

The Bible, on the other hand, understands that justice and law are primarily necessary to protect the weak from the strong. John Dominic Crossan describes this as distributive justice. He offers a concise but thorough definition in his book, The Greatest Prayer: “To be just means to distribute everything fairly. The primary meaning of ‘justice’ is equitable distribution of whatever you have in mind … God’s world must be distributed fairly and equitably among all God’s people. … When the biblical tradition proclaims that revolutionary vision of distributive justice, it is imagining neither liberal democratic principles nor universal human rights. Instead, its vision derives from the common experience of a well-run home, household, or family farm. … Are the children and dependents well fed, clothed, and sheltered? Are the sick given special care? Are the responsibilities and returns apportioned fairly? Do all have enough? Especially that: Do all have enough? Or, to the contrary, do some have far too little while others have far too much? … Do all God’s children have enough? If not – and the biblical answer is ‘not’ – how must things change here below so that all God’s people have a fair, equitable, and just proportion of God’s world? (p. 2-3)”

The Bible is so realistic that it actually offers a form of redistributive justice. The Sabbath and Jubilee years recognize human nature will eventually contaminate any fair distribution and so we must be regularly correcting matters. In other words, change like that currently being called for, is constantly needed to maintain fairness.

We are obviously far from the Beloved Community, but we should always be working to draw closer. Gunter Sachs claims that now involves asking ourselves, “How much is enough?” Willie Jennings urges us to imagine what a shared economy would be like. Both help us lay a foundation for creative change.

Tags: A Shared Economy, and Militarization, Biblical Distributive and redistributive Justice, Biblical Economic Justice, Biblical Justice, Christianity and Black Lives Matter, Christianity and the American Gun Culture, Christianity in the Pandemic, How Much Is Enough?, John Dominic Crossan The Greatest Prayer, Justice and Law Protects the Weak, the Economy, The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America’s “A Draft Social Message on Government and Civic Engagement: Discipleship in a Democracy”, The Realtionship between Racism, What Christians Have Learned from the Pandemic