Archive for the ‘Justice’ Category

Covenantal Justice

Christianity, God, Justice, Religion, Uncategorized | Posted by George
Apr 20 2011

Mankind fell.

Death was on the doorstep.

The great black hole – which was the alter ego (in free will) of the highest destiny of mankind in the most amazing love experiment in eternity – the great black hole of anti-holiness threatened to suck everything into eternal horror, anguish, punishment, and nothingness.

Horrifying, eternal JUSTICE loomed.

Yet LOVE intensely desired. And MERCY would be so very unfulfilled. The great heart of the Father cried out for His sons.

Enter COVENANTAL JUSTICE.

COVENANTAL JUSTICE is an expression of the GOODNESS of God in that His MERCY conspires with His JUSTICE to consummate His LOVE.

You see, God is HOLY. He is so “other-than” everything we know! He is PERFECT. He is PERFECT in all of His ways… His GOODNESS is perfect. His LOVE is perfect. His JUSTICE is perfect. His MERCY is perfect.

So when mankind sinned, it appeared (to an imperfect observer) that one or more elements of Daddy God’s perfection would have to give way to another… that either JUSTICE would win out or MERCY would prevail… that either the GOODNESS of the Father’s heart toward us would be satisfied or His HOLINESS would require judgment… that an irresistible force had come against an immoveable object… one would win and the other lose…

But Daddy said, “Ha!” – because everyone who knows Him knows that He is PERFECT in all of His ways! And Daddy’s perfect GOODNESS and MERCY conspired with His perfect JUSTICE and HOLINESS to create COVENANTAL JUSTICE! And in this way, He consummates both His HOLINESS and His JUSTICE by pouring out His GOODNESS on us! But I preempt myself…

Perhaps you know the mechanism… Daddy sent His Son Jesus to be a sacrifice for sin. Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit and did not contain the fallen nature of mankind. And though He was tempted in every way as a man, Jesus did not fall as did Adam, but instead heard and obeyed Daddy perfectly – even to the extent of paying for Daddy’s planned COVENANTAL JUSTICE with His own blood. The basic plan was that Jesus would be the scapegoat for humankind, triggering the JUSTICE of the Father to require a complete divine exchange: Jesus would take upon Himself all the guilt, curse, and punishment of mankind and give in exchange to mankind His divine SONSHIP, HOLINESS, and RELATIONSHIP with the Father.

Please understand, the exchange was not one-way. It is not the truth of the gospel that Jesus saved us from sins only. He saved us from sins and into an amazing Daddy-child relationship with the Father – into SONSHIP. And if sons, then heirs of Daddy God – that is, we get everything that is His.

Let me say it clearly: our Father’s amazing plan put us into a fantastic position:
Daddy’s plan was to make possible for me to enter into an eternal legal agreement such that it would be a violation of Daddy’s JUSTICE to decide to not give me every good thing due to Jesus! Because of Jesus, Daddy’s MERCY and JUSTICE are totally aligned! So we can access that awesome arrangement that Daddy’s MERCY pleads for me, and equally so, His JUSTICE pleads for me, and His GOODNESS delights in giving me everything that fulfills His LOVE for me!

Please note one other thing: COVENANTAL JUSTICE is based on sacrificial blood, not lawfulness. It is not dependent on your worthiness to even a minute degree. COVENANTAL JUSTICE is totally prepaid, and it is imbecility to think you can add to it by any action of your own. The day of unworthiness is over; plead the completed work!

I will say it again:

In the garden, the HOLINESS of God required Him to separate Himself from the sinful, so… lest His heart full of GOODNESS be violated by His HOLY heart of JUSTICE, His GRACE and MERCY conspired with His RIGHTEOUSNESS to create a way for Him to be… to be all of the above to us! Under the covenant of the blood of Jesus, because of His good plan to express the whole of Who He is to us, the JUSTICE of God legally requires Him to (gladly) pour out His PRESENCE, POWER, GLORY, RIGHTEOUSNESS, MERCY, GOODNESS, GRACE, HOLINESS, and JUSTICE into us, consummating His great LOVE for us by giving to us all of who He is. Now that is the good news!

How do we sign on? How do we access this incomprehensibly excellent agreement? It is really simple, so be careful to not miss the simplicity. We believe in the goodness of our Daddy, and ask Him to show us how to operate as His sons. Then we listen to His instructions, we follow them, and we begin to walk with Him in relationship as His sons doing their Daddy’s business. Sounds too easy, doesn’t it? But that is the whole plan. Remember this: The day of unworthiness is over; plead the completed work of Jesus – access COVENANTAL JUSTICE!

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The Union Onion in Wisconsin

Justice, Politics, USA | Posted by George
Mar 10 2011

Truth is so often difficult to find… sometimes you have to peal back the layers of the onion to find out what is in the core… and then what you find stinks and makes you want to cry.

The stinky issue at stake:  Should taxpayers be forced to support liberal politicians’ re-election campaigns?

You probably didn’t know that this is the real issue in Wisconsin, not that the media wants you to know… but it is really pretty simple:  If you want to be a teacher (or other public employee in numerous roles) in Wisconsin, you are forced by law to be a part of the teacher’s (or other… etc) union.  If you are part of the union, you pay union dues.  So a portion of the teacher’s paycheck never hits the teacher’s bank account because the government sends it directly to the unions.  And a portion of the union’s income goes directly to re-electing the liberals – check out the NEA’s contribution reports.  Hmmm… sounds hardly American!

More generally, the union dues pay for several union functions:

  1. Negotiate for better contracts
  2. Keep your job
  3. Keep the liberals in power

The first one seems benign, so let’s deal with that one last.

The second and third points are the real reasons why there is such an uproar in Wisconsin.  The union bosses and the liberal democrats don’t want to lose this cushy taxpayer-funded gravy train, so they incite fear via lies and get the rank and file out in force.

Governor Walker, in his recent article in the WSJ, pointed out that Indiana public employees are doing better after the end of collective bargaining for public unions in that state.  Could it be that point one above really does not work out as everyone assumes it would? Do extra added layers of socialism actually multiply the inherent inefficiencies in socialism? Perhaps that last question is a bit of a jump, so let’s review…

Reality being what it is, socialism does not work out well.  Those that work hard discover that it doesn’t help them out.  Those that don’t work hard find out they do just as well as the others.  Everybody loses incentive.  Everybody loses work ethic.  Everybody loses.  As many examples as there are… that is how many times socialism has produced poorer product at higher cost.

So let’s put government in charge and socialize our education!  And we do… more expense, poorer product.  And then let’s add another layer of socialism – government-corrupting unions!  And we do… more expense, poorer product.  Is it any wonder we get a decreasing quality of education in the US for an ever-increasing cost?

So do extra added layers of socialism actually multiply the inherent inefficiencies in socialism? Of course they do!  Socialism squared is worse than just plain socialism.

So when the union layer gets pealed off, when there becomes a modicum of accountability, when good teachers can be retained and inferior teachers can be let go, when millions of taxpayer dollars are not being siphoned off to pay the union bosses and re-elect the liberals… you can save your state money and there is still a bigger pie to share among the people who are actually productive!

Once you get the unions out of the way, once there is some level of competition in education, once we have pealed back one layer of socialism, MAYBE we can peal back another layer and actually introduce competition into education, and then maybe the real excellence in our teachers can make itself felt and America can retake the lead in education, and then retake the lead in innovation and creativity.

But you gotta start by pealing the onion.

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Your Life in My Driveway, etc.

Culture, Freedom, Justice | Posted by George
Mar 04 2011

Your Life in My Driveway

If, for some reason, somebody bound and gagged you and then laid you across my driveway, would ownership of my own property give me the right to run you over?

A foolish question indeed. Your right to be unbattered supersedes the normal exercise of my rights of ownership. But I could just untie you and then I can be on my way…

What if with some amazing feat of technology, someone made it so you would explode if you were removed from my driveway before a year had expired… how long would I have to put up with the infringement of my rights of ownership? Would I have to allow for further intrusion based on your need for food and care?

More foolish questions! Your right to live would definitely supersede the normal exercise of my rights of ownership. So just make a second driveway to access the garage.

What if instead of being vitally connected to my driveway, you were vitally connected to my body – in 9 months you can be separated, but until then, you will die if you move away or disconnect from my body…. Should my right to move freely and freely associate be more important than your right to live?

This is all silly. The answers are all obvious. It is not your fault you are connected to my driveway or to me. And I should not turn my back on your life because of my various less important rights. Sure, I should let you live, but must I let you be vitally connected to my body?

Then suppose instead that I personally took the steps to make you utterly dependent for your survival upon me and my body. I chose to get you into that position… then am I morally obligated to see it through to the end… and let you survive? What if I made you dependent on me with the help of someone else? Is my right to my body enough to let you die in that circumstance?

The implications to the question of abortion are obvious and immediate.

Fetal Humanity vs. Fetal Personhood

A fetus is every bit as human as you are. In fact, as soon as fertilization is complete, the genetic signature of that embryonic creature declares its humanity. The DNA also clearly demonstrates that the fetus is a different human individual than either of his or her parents – an embryo is a unique human being. (Neither a zygote nor a sloughed off human cell can be said to be a unique human, although each has the potential of becoming – through fertilization or through cloning.)

A fetus is every bit as alive as you are, and killing a fetus is killing a unique human being.

A fetus is every bit as much a person as you are, unless someone decides that it is more convenient to define this particular set of humans as less than a person. Certainly there are numerous examples of this in history, although most who define a fetus as less than a person would prefer not to be associated with Nazis (like Hitler) who dehumanized Jews or other racists (like Margaret Sanger) who selectively targeted humans with darker colored skin as less desirable members of the human race. People are killed for many different reasons, and some of them may even be just and appropriate reasons, but if we dehumanize the target human so that the reason for destruction can be as significant or as insignificant as an individual chooses, and so that a single individual renders verdict on a human’s life or death without hope of appeal, we surely cannot conclude that we are just.

Does a fetus need to have thoughts or emotions to be worthy of human protection? Ask someone who’s been in a coma for 9 months and lived to tell about it. Is someone in a coma a “potential human”?

Does a fetus need to be independently able to survive to deserve human protection? Ask anyone with a medical condition that made him dependent on someone else for 9 months. Is a paraplegic a “potential human”?

If I were temporarily implanted into an obese man’s excess, would I cease being human and become a “potential human”? An obnoxious mental picture, but one that makes the question of location a silly one.

Does the existence of the necessity of triage under certain circumstances dehumanize every person in every situation? Of course not, so neither should the rare necessity of triage requiring the life of the fetus instead of his mother.

The strong, the influential, the rich, and the powerful all have ways to protect themselves. True justice should defend the weakest humans against the strong. The truest injustice is for the powerful judge to protect the right of the influential and strong human to kill the defenseless one.

But What About Choice?

But what about the choice of a woman? Certainly, the scenarios above have their clear judgment. But a woman does have a choice! She can decide whether or not to engage in sex.

By the time a woman is pregnant, she has made her choice.

You see, choices do have consequences. Do we have the right to choose both a choice and the negation of the consequences of that choice?

I know that this concept is lost on many of our day, but choices do and even justly should have consequences.

One of the consequences of engaging in sex is that you might get pregnant. If you don’t want that consequence, then don’t engage in sex. This is simple, but apparently too complicated for the liberals among us. Certainly, many of us make choices that have undesirable consequences, but we all need to begin to take responsibility for our choices and their consequences, intended or otherwise. This includes justly taking responsibility for the decision to be sexually active and its consequences.

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Justice, the Rule of Law, and President Obama’s DOMA Stance

Justice, News, Politics, USA | Posted by George
Feb 25 2011

It is essential in the pursuit of justice that the government play by its own rules.  The reason a country has a constitution is to establish those rules, and to establish how those rules will be created, judged, and enforced.  When a government turns its back on its own rules, it willfully creates injustice by its own definitions.

This brings us immediately to the situation regarding our current president’s position on DOMA.  Apparently, he has been reticent to defend or enforce this law since coming into office and has recently announced publicly that he will no longer defend it.  The media, which is apparently party to this act, portrays this as President Obama denying the constitutionality of the law itself. But President Obama does not have the position to make that claim, as anyone even barely educated in the US form of government clearly knows.

The constitution states that, “The executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America.”

What is executive power?  Black’s Law Dictionary provides this definition of “executive” for us: “As distinguished from the legislative and judicial departments of government the executive department is that which is charged with the detail of carrying the laws into effect and securing their due observance.”

The US Constitution creates a President for the purpose of vesting executive power in him – i.e. power to secure the due observance of the law.  He is not in a place to pass judgment on the law, but simply to carry the law into effect and secure its due observance.  If President Obama were an American patriot, he would uphold his duty or remove himself from the position of responsibility he currently occupies.

When he decides to undermine the law, he violates both the letter and the spirit of the constitution he swore to uphold.  ”I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”

When the president comes out of the closet against a law, he demonstrates his arrogant disregard for America and exposes himself as a law-breaker.  He breaks the law of the constitution and, in so doing , he undermines the American system of justice.  This president has perverted justice and undermined the integrity of our nation.  It is a sad day for those true to America.

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Is Welfare Just?

Culture, Freedom, Justice, Politics | Posted by George
Feb 23 2011

Taking care of the needy:  it is a command of God to every compassionate man’s heart.  God requires His people to give to the needy widow, orphan, and foreigner.  Anyone with a modicum of humanity recognizes the mandate to take care of the needy people in his own sphere.  Do you?  I do.

But now let us look to the role of the welfare system.

It does not take a genius to recognize that there is an American caste of welfare dependency.  If it were simply that people chose dehumanizing beggarhood over self-sufficiency and preferred unceasing adolescence over adult personal responsibility, one might simply sadly allow this to proceed – it is a free country.  But this cultural prison of ignorance and depression is encouraged (dare I say imposed?) by those who benefit politically by the codependency of this welfare system.  Liberal government is driven by politicians who want the government to be the big daddy provider for the needy, and big daddy liberal government pimps the needy for their votes, abusing their humanity, enticing and/or forcing them to remain unfulfilled and beholden by their difficult-to-escape welfare policies, pretending to care while providing the solution of an abortion center in every neighborhood.

Did you know that minimum wage laws reduce the numbers of low-end jobs?  (Take microeconomics 101 and you can easily prove it.)  Minimum-wage laws say unequivocally that we would rather dehumanize you by taking away your job than allow you to work your way up, that we would rather give you free money (which would be less than minimum wage) than let you work for less than minimum wage.  “We want to dehumanize you.”  This is not justice, but it does promote a welfare codependency culture between the government and the poor.

Did you know that our laws make it difficult for people who want to better their condition to do so legally?  Make too much money and your benefits are cut off.  Better not try a job you might be able to do, because if you do, you will lose your disability status forever.  Wouldn’t it be better to structure things that would motivate someone to try to move ahead?  How could it possibly make good sense for a government to cut off benefits for someone trying to work his way out of dependency?  Only if that is where your political power comes from.  This is not justice.

Did you know that putting together a nuclear family – a stable, ordered home in which to raise the children – puts the needy at risk of losing benefits?  So our government financially encourages people to live together without commitment, to lie about their situation, and to teach their children to do the same.  This, in spite of the clear and mounting evidence that demonstrates that children have less success emotionally, educationally, socially, and economically when raised in single-parent homes.  I see: let’s invest in generations of downtrodden to maintain our liberal power through the decades!  This is not justice.

Did you know that the government fights against the entrepreneurs among the needy?  Yes, I am referring to the pimps and drug dealers.  What other opportunities can the downtrodden access?  First, the opportunity has to be under the table so that benefits are not at risk.  Second, the males that cannot get additional free money by having additional dependents need to be able to profit.  Third, the opportunity must be associated with a product that the “haves” would be willing to purchase from the “have nots” which can’t be stocks or high-end products or food or any other good thing.  So we provide them with lucrative illegal business opportunity and then put them in jail for it whenever we get a chance.  By providing the monetary incentives, we can surely destroy the moral fiber of the needy and perpetuate our liberal codependency through the generations.  This is not justice.

Please don’t give me your snide liberal “you conservatives look down at them” crap.  I serve these people.  I care for these people.  I could help these people more than they will let me right now.  But you liberals want to keep them on the dole and therefore down-and-out.

I believe that individuals have a responsibility to reach out to the less fortunate.  So I do that.  Conservatives generally do much more of this than liberals.  Liberals want to reach out to the less fortunate with other peoples’ money and leverage that money to maintain liberal influence.  The government is not the ideal entity to provide for the needs of the needy; according to the Mosaic law, it should be the people and the church.  Currently, neither the church nor the people are in a position to do it, and the governmental codependence is in the way.

Realistically, the government should not just cut off these programs.  But neither should we simply perpetuate this evil system – there are obvious better ways and ways we could make dramatic positive impact within months.  I will write on that later.  But the big daddy liberals don’t want to lose the votes when someone moves out of dependency into the satisfaction of personal responsibility and self-sustenance.  The system serves to perpetuate the system at the expense of the downtrodden.  This welfare system is not justice – social welfare as it currently operates in the US is oppression and injustice.

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Justice – Foundation of Freedom

Freedom, Justice, USA | Posted by George
Feb 18 2011

Legal, moral justice is necessary if one is to exercise his moral freedom without needing to have the personal strength to enforce it.  (Put another way, if I can exert political, financial, or military power to insist on the unhindered exercise of my freedom, that is no more than “might makes right.”  If we expect true freedom as a hallmark of our society, the proof (and even the only necessary element) is in providing unhindered exercise of freedom to those without political, financial, or military means.) To the degree the weak or those lacking influence cannot obtain justice, this is the degree to which our “freedom” is a fiction.

Legal, financial justice is necessary if one is to exercise his financial freedom.  Note that financial freedom is not wealth per se, but the freedom to free succeed or fail in the financial realm.

Freedom without justice is simply an exercise of one’s power, and it is freedom of the few, not the freedom of a people.  Justice that can be impacted by one’s power is encroachment on American freedom.

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Justice vs. Fairness

Christianity, God, Justice, Religion | Posted by George
Feb 18 2011

Fairness is a figment.  There – I said it.

Fairness is not real, largely because it really does not have a stable, reliable foundation.  Everyone’s conception of fairness is based on himself — his unique set of values and judgments.  Given differing perspectives and world-views, fairness is an argument that cannot be lost, but neither can it be won in any fundamental sense.

I was reading an op-ed the other day by a relatively well-known editorialist in which he noted that he and those who held opposing views were miles apart in their basic values and systems of judgment, but then proceeded to judge his antagonists’ values on the basis of his own.  What a foolish exercise in meaninglessness!  Two children whose favorite colors are red and blue may disagree about the better color, but neither is generally so inane as to argue that since “your red’s blueness does not compare to my blue’s blueness it is obvious that my favorite color is clearly superior to yours.”  But that is the boilerplate of our foolish political arguments, each intended only to foist my favored set of rules on you.

Sure, if I can get you to agree to my rulebook, I will win whatever game we seem to be playing.  Everybody knows that the one who makes the rules wins the game.  But if there is any integrity at all, the pursuit should not be controlling through “fairness” but achieving true justice.

Justice is not nearly so baseless as fairness.  Justice is an element of the nature of God.  The Almighty Himself is the arbiter, guarantor, and even the definition of justice.  A real difficulty arises in knowing and operating in that justice — no doubt about it!  But a significant milestone would be reached if we would be willing to dispense with manipulative definitions of fairness and strive to achieve some approximation to the justice of the Eternal One.

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Welcome

Christianity, Culture, Freedom, God, Justice, News, Politics, Religion, USA | Posted by George
Feb 18 2011

Welcome to Just Reality, a blog on both simple reality with God and pursuit of justice in a free society.  Thanks for coming by!

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