Title: of
1Principles
of
Justice
2Principles of Justice
Justice is living right and making life right
with others it is life-giving Injustice is like
cancer. If it is not contained it spreads. If
it is not treated it kills the human spirit
3Justice
Declares
4Justice Declares
Injustice is inhumane justice is a human right
the right of every person created in the image of
God. __________________ Overcoming poverty is
not a gesture of charity. It is an act of
justice. It is the protection of a fundamental
human right, the right to dignity and a decent
life Nelson Mandela
5Justice Declares
Life for too many people on planet earth ought
not to be the way it is. ____________________ The
contemporary age is not short of terrible and
nasty happenings, but the persistence of
extensive hunger in a world of unprecedented
prosperity is surely one of the worst. What
makes this widespread hunger even more of a
tragedy is the way we have come to accept and
tolerate it as an integral part of the modern
world, as if it is a tragedy that is essentially
unpreventable. Amartya Sen (Nobel Prize in
Economics)
6Justice Declares
Gods justice mandate commands global citizenship
where people with more champion people with
less. _____________________ Although the
majority of the world is improving economically,
income disparities are still enormous 2 of the
worlds richest people own more than 50 of the
worlds wealth, while the poorest 50 own 1.
And the income of the 225 richest people in the
world is equal to that of the poorest 2.7
billion, 40 of the world. 2007 State of the
Future, The Millennium Project World
Federation of UN Associations
7Justice Declares
God pursues justice. We serve God by advocating
with others particularly the poor and
vulnerable. __________________ But the one thing
we can all agree, all faiths and ideologies, is
that God is with the vulnerable and poor. God is
in the slums, in the cardboard boxes where the
poor play house, God is in the silence of a
mother who has infected her child with a virus
that will end both their lives, God is in the
cries heard under the rubble of war, God is in
the debris of wasted opportunity and lives, and
God is with us if we are with them.
Bono of U2
8Justice
Asserts
9Justice Asserts
Injustice has both individual and social
dimensions. Every social issue has a human face.
Personal injustice is often the consequence of
structural injustice. _________________ True
compassion is more than flinging a coin to a
beggar. It comes to see that a system that
produces beggars needs to be repaved. We are
called to be the Good Samaritan, but after you
lift so many people out of the ditch, you start
to ask, maybe the whole road to Jericho
needs to be repaved. Dr. Martin Luther King
Jr. Jr.
10Justice Asserts
Whatever the political ideology ruling in a
society, the pursuit of justice protects and
empowers the vulnerable. _______________________ T
he principles of justice are not owned by any
race or creed. Neither is the practice of
pursuing justice the exclusive right of any
nation or culture. The virtue of justice
transcends all political ideologies. It is when
people in positions of power are empowering the
poor and vulnerable that they are fulfilling
their mandate to govern.
11Justice Asserts
Some justice is better than no justice more
justice is better than less justice true
justice is marked by sustainable
justice. _____________________ Gods good earth
is scarred. Too many people die preventable
deaths. Too few people share in the abundance of
creation. There is too much
vulnerability. There is too little
opportunity. There is too much in the hands of
too few. There is too little in the stomachs of
too many. There is too much injustice.
There is too little justicefor
all. International Social Justice Commission
Seeking Justice Together
12Justice Asserts
As a moral framework for decision making, justice
is like light in darkness where the practice of
justice conquers injustice. ______________________
The pursuit of justice is a guidance system a
GPS -- for exploring what is right and what is
wrong.
13Justice
Requires
14Justice Requires
Discerning what is wrong and caring enough to do
something about it. ____________________ In the
beginning the earth is formless a dark empty
mass. God hovers over the darkness before acting
to bring light and life into creation. God still
hovers and hopes that the darkness of injustice
will be overwhelmed with the light of a more just
world. God still longs for people who are strong
and others who are weak to grace their days and
nights with acts of kindness and deeds of mercy
that bring hope and the promise of
life. Commissioner Christine MacMillan,
Director The Salvation Army International
Social Justice Commission
15Justice Requires
Overcoming the injustices of inequity and
exclusion with the justice of equal access and
fairness for all. ____________________ Injustice
gains the upper hand when the HIV/AIDS pandemic
is blamed solely on sexual practices. For
newborn babies who do not receive medical
intervention, when death can be postponed with
drugs and it is not, when young girls and wives
are coerced by aggressive male behaviour, when
political leaders put money in their own pockets
instead of caring for orphans -- HIV/AIDS is a
justice issue.
16Justice Requires
Surrendering privileges for the greater benefit
of the common good. _____________________ The
aspiration of the common good seeks to distribute
the benefits of public life for the well being of
the total society. Progress toward the common
good happens when taxes are proportionately
collected from the rich and poor and
disproportionately shared with those who have
greater needs. Practicing the golden rule to do
to others as you would have them to do you can
lead to the common good. The global challenge is
for rich nations to express generous measures of
common good for the sake of achieving greater
global good. James E. Read
17Justice Requires
Advocating together to fashion a more just world.
Effective ADVOCACY Addresses issues of
injustice Designs strategies to alter systems
Values vulnerable people as agents of change
Offers expertise to implement objectives
Convinces power structures to alter policies
Accesses like-minded people to join the
cause Changes policies, practices and
perceptions Yearns for justice that leads to
sustainability Don Posterski
18Justice Requires
.
Means and methods that are just protocols and
practices that are principled ____________________
_ As for our methods, we seek to sensitize,
rather than to stigmatize to exhort, rather than
to exasperate to counsel, rather than to
coerce to pastor, rather than to patronize to
collaborate, rather than to confront to engage,
rather than to embarrass and to affirm, rather
than to affront. General Shaw Clifton The
Salvation Army
19Justice Requires
.
Imagining a global world that doesnt yet
exist. Imaginative visions for justice can come
true I have a dream that my four little
children will one day live in a nation where they
will not be judged by the color of their skin but
by the content of their character. (Martin
Luther King Jr.) I have a dream that every
person on earth will have access to safe water
that the right of primary education will be
available to all that fair trade will lead to
fair wages that sexual exploitation of children
will not be tolerated anywhere in the world.
I have a dream that I have a dream that
20Principles of Justice
When justice prevails Children learn and
play, Mothers and fathers work, lead and
love, Families build houses and live in
them, People sing and dance, Creation and
nations thrive, And -- God smiles
21Principles
of
Justice