Do I Dare get Political?

battle-blur-board-game-59197
Uncategorized

Do I Dare get Political?

Do I dare get political?  Well, the Bible is so I guess I will follow.  Here is our Verse of the Day:

 

Proverbs 29:4

4 By justice a king gives a country stability,

but those who are greedy for bribes tear it down.

(NIV)

 

 

I’m not saying President Trump is acting like a king…

I realize we don’t have a king and I am not trying to say that President Trump is acting like a king or even President Obama acted like a king.  The king in this Scripture, for us, represents our government. How can our government bring stability? It is through justice. I believe right now we are seeing more instability in our nation than ever before.  We are divided by beliefs, socioeconomic status, race, gender, sexuality, politics, and probably 100 more things that I can’t think of right now. All of this division creates instability, animosity in our society.  The answer is justice. But what is justice?


Breaking Free From Your Past


 

Justice comes down to us from the Lord (Isaiah 30:18).  He is a God of justice. If the origin of justice is God, then we have to analyze God’s definition of justice and His manner of dispensing justice.  

When people call for justice, they are calling for something to happen that will right the wrong.  They want something done because of what was done to them. Ok, I think we can all agree on this so far.  But is the reparation applied considered just if it is unfair or excessive to others? Let’s look at how the Lord dispenses justice:

 

Romans 2:5-11

5 But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God’s wrath , when his righteous judgment will be revealed. 6 God “will repay each person according to what they have done.” 7 To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, he will give eternal life. 8 But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger. 9 There will be trouble and distress for every human being who does evil: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile; 10 but glory, honor and peace for everyone who does good: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. 11 For God does not show favoritism.

(NIV)

 

 

The Lord does not play identity politics

The Lord does not divide us up the way we do.  He doesn’t look down and see all the different groups of people as we do.  He just sees people.  He loves us all-no favoritism.  He sees all of humanity and treats no one differently based on any group they may be part of.  He dispenses justice on a personal level. He does not punish groups of people because of harm done to limited individuals from other groups.  Social justice is in the news a lot these days.  But is social justice really justice?  To punish an entire group of people because certain individuals within that group did something bad is unfair and unjust to the rest of that group.  They did not do anything. 

For example, there has been an attempt to force Christian business owners to participate in events they don’t agree with.  The most prominent was the bakery that did not want to participate in a gay wedding. Social justice pushed the narrative that the Christian owners should have to participate in something they do not agree with.  We have to ask ourselves why the social justice movement is pushing for this. The reason is simple. The LGBTQ community has been poorly treated. This is true, but the Lord doesn’t look at us in groups. Instead, His justice would be to allow His anger and wrath to come down on specific individuals who mistreat specific LGBTQ individuals.  There are many people in our country who have acted horribly, sinfully toward this group and the Lord will unleash His anger on them based on what each individual person did.  At the same time, it would be equally unfair and unjust for Christian business owners to resist any gay person who came into their business.  It is not just to treat someone poorly because someone else who may look like them did something bad.  Social justice tends to group people together, then either reward or punish those groups as a whole.  This is not just.

Imagine if there was a caterer who vehemently opposed gun ownership.  Imagine he was very against gun shows where guns are bought more easily  And then, let’s suppose the organizer of one of these gun shows wants to contract with this caterer. Shouldn’t the caterer have the right to say they don’t want to participate?  By not participating in something we disagree with, we are not hating, discriminating, or anything else. The caterer did not try to stop the gun show. And if they were nice in declining the business, we can’t even say they were hateful.  Social justice, many times goes too far because it attempts to get justice based on group dynamics. Justice is not about groups. It is about individuals. And if justice is dispensed in a way that excessively injures someone who did not personally do anything, it is no longer justice.  A system of that kind of justice will only lead to more instability.  When the King rules with justice, the nation is stable.

 

When one group fights another, there is no justice for the individual

We, as a nation, have created a societal model of operation where groups have been set up against groups.  Recently, the city of San Francisco made a statement they would not do business in any state that had abortion laws or LGBTQ laws they disagreed with.  This is their attempt at social justice, but don’t you think there are people in those states who are probably pro-gay and pro-choice, but they may lose income because of the decision the government of San Francisco made.  On the other hand, the city of San Francisco may lose out on the best deals for their government employees when traveling. Is that fair or just to the taxpayers who are funding the government business? No, I don’t think so.  Wouldn’t it be better to try to make sure a politician we disagree are not re-elected than trying to punish an entire state because of laws voted on by a handful of people?  And this goes both ways.  President Trump recently made a decision where all executive branch entities had to cancel their subscriptions to certain newspapers that he obviously didn’t like.  I realize he is trying to right what he believes to be wrong, and for the most part, I agree with him, but what about the cutbacks these newspapers might have to make as a result of his decision? Isn’t it possible that some conservative MAGA-hat-wearing man may lose his job because of President Trump’s decision? I think so.  As much as I am not a fan of Twitter wars, wouldn’t it be better for President Trump to call out those in charge of the messaging of the paper or news articles he disagrees with.  Calling them out directly rather than making a decision that probably hurt some of his followers might have been a better choice?  I don’t know.  Maybe I am wrong.

When justice is carried out by man through group dynamics, it will almost always evolve into vengeance, not justice.  And it will lead to social upheaval, not unity.

Ok, well, I got a little bit political.  I know this is a deep subject so leave me a comment and let me know your thoughts. 

Pastor Lee.net

Leave your thought here

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Select the fields to be shown. Others will be hidden. Drag and drop to rearrange the order.
  • Image
  • SKU
  • Rating
  • Price
  • Stock
  • Availability
  • Add to cart
  • Description
  • Content
  • Weight
  • Dimensions
  • Additional information
Click outside to hide the comparison bar
Compare