Ferguson: Justice vs Social Justice
The recent unrest following the fatal shooting of Michael Brown by Officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson, Missouri has revealed how much work remains to be done in race relations in this country. Granted, the more lawless acts have had much more to do with opportunism than anything else. But even with many of the peaceful protests there is more going on than just different views of race. There is a different view of Justice, and this shows the stark difference between Justice and Social Justice.
If we view the Ferguson shooting in terms of Justice, the goal is pretty clear. The investigation needs to be complete and unbiased so as to determine to the best extent possible exactly what happened. The key question is whether or not Officer Wilson was justified in shooting Brown. If the officer was justified, then he should be cleared of any charges. If he was not justified to one degree or another then, he should be disciplined or prosecuted as the evidence indicates. It all depends on what the evidence shows.
Sifting through all the evidence may get messy as there are already conflicting reports, but the goal is to determine what happened and then make the best decision possible in as objective a fashion as possible. That is Justice and thus, at the moment, those wanting Justice must wait for the investigation to finish before they can reach any conclusion.
The protesters did not wait. They are not seeking Justice, but in many cases Social Justice. Unlike Justice, which is concerned only with the actions of the individuals involved, Social Justice is more focused on groups, white/black, rich/poor, powerful/powerless, etc. Thus for Social Justice, it is important that Wilson was not just a police officer but that he was a white police officer, and that Michael Brown was black. By doing this, Social Justice seeks to transform the event into something far beyond just Officer Wilson shooting Brown, something symbolic of a conflict between White America and Black America.
When viewed in this fashion, questions such as was Officer Wilson justified or not become not only irrelevant, but inconvenient. This is because Social Justice not only views people as groups, but it also takes sides. Thus, rather than seeing an incident between two individuals where the exact details are unknown, Social Justice imposes a framework that forces these events to fit a predetermined agenda. As Billy Michael Honor, of New Life Presbyterian Church, College Park, GA writes, “Michael Brown’s death has exposed our transgressions and our iniquities as a country and a culture.”
It takes the events out of the objective realm where determining exactly what happened is both paramount and a matter of evidence, preferably objective evidence. Instead, it moves them into the realm of the subjective where individual details are not as important as the overarching narrative imposed on the events. In fact, when details emerge that conflict with the desired narrative, they will be discounted or even rejected if possible, as the narrative is more important than what actually happened.
When video emerged of Brown stealing cigars from a convenience store, Honor responds, “But we will not know that from him [Brown], and it is hard for some of us to trust any report from those who have taken more than 4 days to give an account. Michael was crushed and bore the punishment for being black in the USA for us all.” On the other hand, others, such as Missouri Governor Jay Nixon criticized the police for releasing it so soon. The real problem was that it was released at all, because it conflicted with the narrative.
To be clear, the video tape from a convenience store does not exonerate the officer. It is not even clear if Officer Wilson knew of the robbery, and thus if it played any role in his actions. On the other hand, Brown did know what he had just done, and that may have influenced his actions. Bottom line, the video is just one of many pieces of evidence that must be considered.
An additional and serious problem with Social Justice is the potential for harm because, unlike justice, it is not connected to reality. It may line up with reality sometimes, but at other times it won’t and when that happens bad things can occur. Thus in this case, when all the facts are in, it could turn out that this was an unjustified shooting; that Brown did have his hands up and was surrendering and yet Officer Wilson shot him anyway. If this happens and Wilson is punished, both those who sought Justice and Social Justice will be satisfied. But if it turns out that the opposite is the case those who put Social Justice ahead of Justice will not be satisfied. That is hardly justice, but again this is the difference between Justice and Social Justice, and why they are so often in conflict.
Hebrews 9:6-12
The class on Hebrews 9:6-12 is posted at https://consider.org/blog/2014/08/hebrews-96-12/
Proportional Response: A Modest Proposal
A key issue among those who are critical of Israel in the current war is a supposed lack of a proportional response as revealed by the difference in the death toll on each side. Frankly such supposed reasoning baffles me. Hamas started this war. Hamas is placing missiles in places like schools to maximize civilian casualties. Hamas refused repeated requests for a cease-fire, broke an earlier cease-fire it did accept, and we will see if the current one holds.
There is no doubt that if Israel really didn’t care about civilian casualties, it could certainly have killed far more civilians. Israel could, for example, have simply bombed their targets from the air without risking their own ground forces. In an effort to minimize civilian deaths, they sent in ground forces instead of just bombing, losing 60 soldiers in the process. And yet somehow it is Israel who is being blamed, because the deaths are not proportional.
So in the spirit of bringing this war to a Swift conclusion, I suggest the following modest proposal. A significant reason for the disproportional number of deaths is Israel’s Iron Dome system. So I suggest that the system be reprogrammed and fed the corresponding death tolls on a daily basis so that it can randomly let missiles through until the desired level of proportionality demanded by Israel’s critics is achieved.
Of course, before this could be done, we would need to know the level of proportionality desired. Do the critics demand a full 100%; an eye for an eye? Will they be satisfied with a lower percentage such as 90% or 80%? Once this detail is cleared up, reprogramming the system should not be that difficult. After all it is amazing that Iron Dome can stop any missiles, so letting a few get by should be a snap.
Some critics will argue that they would want Israel to stop. But is this really reasonable? Let’s say your neighbor was, on a daily basis, shooting at you and your family. He is a bad shot, and so he almost always misses. But many times each day he tries to shoot you and your children.
Which is the key point here: That he is trying to shoot you and your family, or that he is a bad shot? Would the fact that he is a bad shot be sufficient reason to do nothing? Or is the fact that he is shooting at you and your children be enough of a reason to stop him? I do not know of any sane person who would leave their children at risk, just because he normally misses.
So as long as Hamas continues to attack Israel with missiles and through tunnels, Israel has no real choice but to try and make them stop, and since the critics of Israel demand proportionality the Iron Dome system should be reprogrammed to achieve this goal.
Hebrews 8:13-9:5
A verse by verse study of the book of Hebrews.
IV The Great Work of Jesus (5:11-10:39)
A Preliminary Exhortation (5:11 6:20)
B A Better Priesthood (7:1-28)
C A Better Offering (8:1 9:28)
1 Intro: A New High Priest (8:1-2)
2 A shadow of thing to come (8:3-13)
a The OT Priesthood a shadow of thing to come (8:3-6)
b A shadow of a new Covenant to come (8:7-13)
3 The old Covenant (9:1-7)
a The earthly sanctuary (9:1-5)
b The earthly offering (9:6-7)
4 Way not yet disclosed (9:8)
5 Old covenant external (9:9-10)
6 The True offering (9:11-12) **** Center of Letter
7 New Covenant internal (9:13-14)
8 Christ the mediator of the new covenant (9:15)
9 The Old Covenant ratified with Blood (9:16-22)
10 Christ fulfills what was for shadowed (9:23-26)
11 Link (9:27-28)
https://www.consider.org/Classes/Hebrews/OutlineShort.htm
https://www.consider.org/Classes/Hebrews/OutlineLong.htm
httpv://youtu.be/OjhZnaKUQAU
Hebrews 8:11-13
A verse by verse study of the book of Hebrews.
IV The Great Work of Jesus (5:11-10:39)
A Preliminary Exhortation (5:11 6:20)
B A Better Priesthood (7:1-28)
C A Better Offering (8:1 9:28)
1 Intro: A New High Priest (8:1-2)
2 A shadow of thing to come (8:3-13)
a The OT Priesthood a shadow of thing to come (8:3-6)
b A shadow of a new Covenant to come (8:7-13)
3 The old Covenant (9:1-7)
a The earthly sanctuary (9:1-5)
b The earthly offering (9:6-7)
4 Way not yet disclosed (9:8)
5 Old covenant external (9:9-10)
6 The True offering (9:11-12) **** Center of Letter
7 New Covenant internal (9:13-14)
8 Christ the mediator of the new covenant (9:15)
9 The Old Covenant ratified with Blood (9:16-22)
10 Christ fulfills what was for shadowed (9:23-26)
11 Link (9:27-28)
https://www.consider.org/Classes/Hebrews/OutlineShort.htm
https://www.consider.org/Classes/Hebrews/OutlineLong.htm
httpv://youtu.be/VhwG2yG9JiM
