Quotes about Justice

There can no longer be anyone too poor to vote.

Emancipation was a proclamation, but not a fact.

The prophet Habakkuk lived in a time that was much like ours. He, too, asked Hashem, 'Why do you tolerate the treacherous? Why are you silent while the wicked swallow up those more righteous than themselves?' And you know Hashem's reply as well as I do: 'The righteous shall live by his faith.

I don't know all the details entangled in this issue. But You know all. Therefore, You, God, are the only One who can handle all. There are a lot of things my flesh is tempted to seek—fairness, my right to be right, proof of her wrongdoing, to make her see things from my vantage point—but at this point, the only thing healthy for me to seek is You. You alone. I'm going to be obedient to You and let You handle everything else.

Though we may get our hearts broken from the effects of sin in this in-between time, God's goodness will eventually set the world right.

Forgiveness releases to the Lord your need for them to be punished or corrected, giving it to the only One who can do this with right measures of justice and mercy.

seeking what's fair never cracked the world open to reveal the beautiful reality of a Jesus-loving woman.

For the LORD is a God of justice. Blessed are all who wait for him! (30:15—18)

Jesus' disciples are not people lacking resources, but they are poor because they belong to this people under the oppressive and demoralizing dominion of a foreign power (e.g., Lk 6:20). They are indeed thus poor in spirit (Mt 5:3). Jesus does not focus on a concern for the poor in the sense of people who lacked resources.

The society in which the people of God will seek to implement this justice is one that remains sinful. It is in fact fortunate that, as Jesus puts it, the Torah is written for people who have stubborn wills. The Torah seeks to pull people toward God's creation intent, but it makes realistic allowance for their stubbornness (e.g., Mt 19:1-12). The empire and every other society remains a mixed entity, which makes the First Testament distinctively useful in this connection.

The First Testament is under no illusion about whether implementing the Torah has the potential to achieve God's purpose for Israel's life. There is no direct link between seeking to restrain injustice in society and the implementing of God's reign. Implementing God's reign is fortunately God's business.

To those peoples in the huts and villages of half the globe struggling to break the bonds of mass misery, we pledge our best efforts to help them help themselves, for whatever period is required - not because the Communists may be doing it, not because we seek their votes, but because it is right. If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich.