Sometime before high school, I know not why, I developed two principal personal values—peace and justice.
Maybe I was influenced by these words from the Hebrew prophet Amos, “But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.”
He also said, “Hate evil, and love good, and establish justice in the gate.”
Maybe from reciting the Pledge of Allegiance that we frequently performed as a young student, “With liberty and justice for all.”
I heard this question many years ago about a simple phrase. It resonates now as I ponder those thoughts, “What part don’t you understand?”
How often we see people demanding justice—for themselves—resulting with injustice for another. “I’ve been discriminated against; let us discriminate toward another to make up for it.”
Where is the “for all” in that?
When can we build a discrimination-free society with liberty and justice for all?
Jesus taught us the two fundamental life attitudes that point that direction—we must love God completely and love (serve) our neighbor, who is defined as even the most despicable social group imaginable (for Jesus’s listeners that was Samaritans).
The Spiritual Disciplines help us here. This is not a daily practice. It must become part of our lifestyle.
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