No Justice No Peace

Our friend Justin Campbell pointed out to us that often people with more privilege (most often, White people) experience the protest chant “No Justice, No Peace!” as a threat - but what if it were more of a statement of natural consequence? As in, when justice is denied to a group of people it inherently creates tension, grief, and anger - in other words, the absence of peace. As Martin Luther King, Jr. pointed out, “A riot is the language of the unheard.”

One of the authors and leaders we’ve been quoting often in this series has been Bryan Stevenson. He put it this way, “The opposite of poverty isn't wealth. The opposite of poverty is justice.” Of course, this is a real challenge because those of us with wealth usually like the systems set up in our world (think of things like how neighborhoods form dividing lines between the rich and the poor, etc.) that protect and increase our privileges. As a number of people have pointed out, for those accustomed to privilege, equality seems like oppression.

When we come to the famous prophecy in Isaiah 11 about the Messiah bringing peace, it looks like the end of violence, the end of people taking advantage of others. It’s talking about equality, about justice.

They will neither harm nor destroy
on all my holy mountain,
for the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord
as the waters cover the sea.
-Isaiah 11:9

Spend some time praying for this kind of world to be created these days, and asking God what your role in it might be.