A Collision Course with Justice

I feel that I've been on a collision course with justice for a while now. Coming out of the evangelical tradition, the "continuing" Reformed tradition in the twentieth century, and (in some sense) the southern Presbyterian tradition, the biblical teaching on the ethics of justice is not a strong suit for me - this despite the fact that my own family history is heavily implicated in the racial issues that define the white southern experience. In short, I knew the Bible talked about justice but I didn't know much about what it said and what it meant for me, my life and vocation.

All that began to change last spring when I read two books which broke through my relative indifference: Mountains Beyond Mountains and Until Justice and Peace Embrace. The former, by Tracy Kidder, tells the story of Dr. Paul Farmer, founder of Partners in Health and advocate for health care among the poor (especially in Haiti). Until Justice is the theory, the theology, that undergirds Farmer's vision; it's a translation of the justice tradition into Reformed theological and philosophical categories by one of the best thinkers around, Nicholas Wolterstorff.

The next stage of the collision just happened; I bought Gary Haugen's Good News About Injustice last Friday and had finished it by Saturday night. This time the theology of justice and the story of its incarnation are woven together as Haugen tells about his U. N. mission to Rwanda to investigate the genocide and how it led him to found International Justice Mission in 1994.

Finally, I read the introduction and first essay in Charles Marsh's The Beloved Community about MLK in Montgomery. I was struck by his youth (25 years old!), his spiritual transformation, and, of course, his moral courage. A couple of beautiful stories: after his house was bombed, with his wife and baby inside, King showed up and single-handedly calmed and dispersed the angry crowd, exhorting them to "love their enemies." And, after their boycott victory, King and his followers instructed the blacks of Montgomery on how to board the buses with dignity, respect, and a hand towards reconciliation with their white oppressors.

The biblical theology of justice presented by Haugen and Wolterstorff, together with the stories of its application told by Haugen, Kidder, and Marsh, offer a compelling vision for the pursuit of justice in today's world. Perhaps these books will serve to awaken other "sleepy Christians" to God's call to "seek justice, correct oppression, bring justice to the fatherless, and plead the widow's cause" (Is. 1.17).