A Big Problem for "Social Justice Folks"

On a typical morning I arrive early at church, hopefully more than an hour before any one will be around. I go through e-mail, hit the blogs which I get my news from, I write my blog and I pray over Scripture before Morning Prayer. I did that today where at StandFirm http://standfirminfaith.com/?/sf/page/28932 there was an article about the mishandling of the Zimmerman case. One of the bones of contention is that the prosecutor neglected to fully inform the judge about the beating which Zimmerman had endured. She apparently did so in order to get the case to trial, with the intent of providing this information to the defense later. The point of the criticism is she has provided only a half truth, which in this case is tantamount to a lie. Immediately after that, I went into church to pray over my Torah text of the day, Exodus 23. The first verse I saw was this: "You shall not bring up a false report." And I was stunned that, yet again, the Word of God was connected so directly with what I had been doing beforehand. There is much change in our world, but some things are forever. Sins are not new or improved.

God's concern with justice is well known by those familiar with the OT text. The (heretical) idea that the God of the NT is love and the God of the OT is law is terribly misleading, erroneous, false, mistaken, wrong and incorrect. Chapter 23 of Exodus is a mother lode of valuable morality. It addresses mobs (v2 You shall not be following many to do bad) and in the Zimmerman case, with the huge media following, the large gatherings of people demanding justice, and the 'famous' civil rights speakers grabbing their microphones and making their speeches, the shooter was declared guilty in the court of public opinion. However, one telling aspect to the case, as I mentioned before, was that the Hispanic Zimmerman was identified as White. I know of no other time when this has happened. Because the victim was Black, it seems, the story was being written as "Will this White guy shoot a Black kid and get away with it, like it has happened so many times before in our racist judicial system?" In other words, the prosecutor is 'following the group to do bad.'

And that is the problem for the social justice types. They see identity groups but individuals do not exist. Being part of a group is your identity. Statistical analysis is the basis for decision making. A yong black man in a hoodie is shot, and the only reason possible is racism. But Exodus has a warning to making decisions based on a person's lower status. Ex 23:3 "You shall NOT favor a weak person in his dispute. [and to reemphaisze Lev 19:15 "You shall not be partial to a weak person, and you shall not favor a big person. You shall judge your fellow with justice."] The idea that God has a preferential option for the poor, which often means God treats them better, is not consistent with the Biblical model. God does care and out of justice He acts. God demands we treat the poor with compassion and justice. But God does not say there is a separate justice for them and the well off. He is always fair and true with everyone.

I think it is hard on social justice types because they often decide how things should look and then manipulate processes to assure the desired outcome. Too often the wrong people get identified as the representative of the race (e.g. OJ Simpson) and too often the corrective to past injustice "against" the race is a new injustice "for" the Race.

Now, another interesting thing in this chapter is the commands in verse 4-5, 9. These commands tell them that if you see someone who hates you in need, you must help them. God expects them to bring an enemy's straying ox or ass back to the enemy. And He says you must not oppress an alien. Doing acts of love to the enemy and outsider. That is at the heart of the Torah and the covenant with God. And doing justice is as well. And Justice is about the truth, not our politcally motivated desires.