cloaked injustice

How much injustice has been justified under the cloak of freedom?

The language of liberty, equality, and fraternity was born out of Enlightenment, the same Enlightenment that declared the death of God, the same enlightenment that did away with the validity of the miraculous.  Humanity began to feel entitled, entitled to the wealth, political power, and land of the king, and she rebelled.  Out of the Enlightenment sprang the principle of rights.  The right to believe what we will, to say what we will, to act how we will.

To be certain, innumerable good has come of the revolutions of the long nineteenth century.  Women gained a voice in the public sphere, a change for which I am so thankful.  Slavery was abolished in the name of liberty and equality, and eventually the Civil Rights Movement used the language of liberty, equality, and fraternity to claim for all people regardless of skin color the same rights.

And yet, I am becoming increasingly convinced that indescribable evil is also cloaked in the language of the Revolution.  Blindness, greed, hypocrisy, and power masquerade as liberty, consigning the helpless to hell.

Power and liberty have always walked hand in hand.  The American South used the language of liberty and "states' rights" to defend the ownership of human beings that did not quality for fraternity.  Others, such as Native Americans, were deemed inferior were conquered in order to rescue them from themselves.  And these examples only apply to the United States.

The United States is said to have been founded as a "Christian Nation."  A Christian nation which owned slaves, subjugated native populations, committing unspeakable injustice in the name of freedom.

We ended slavery.  The Civil Rights movement took a step toward finishing what the Civil War began.  Much progress has been made.  To speak of progress, though, is to assume humanity to be moving forward toward eventual perfection.

And much of the time, it is perfectly clear to me that America is moving no where toward perfection.  Injustice takes new forms every day.

I am particularly concerned by the politicization of American Christianity, and the religicization (yeah, I just made that word up) of twenty-first century Republicanism.

I hesitate to hold this opinion, because one of my biggest heroes is Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who died for his political protest during Nazi Germany.  I hold this opinion nonetheless, and here is why:

A concept of "religious freedom" has come to replace justice as the goal of American Christianity.  American Christians feel entitled to rights, to wealth, to political power.  American Christians feel as if this "Christian nation" is slipping away, and that it is our "right" to hold onto it.

To be certain, I full-heartedly support a firm stand against injustice.  I will stand against the injustice and horrible collective sin of abortion as long as I live, and I will never stand for the institutionalization of such injustice.

What I will NOT stand for, however, is those who blindly hold onto their religious rights in the face of injustice.  Life is not about me living a happy, peaceful life with my white picket fence, cookie-cutter husband, and two kids.  Life is not about me happily living out my religion unmolested by the powers that be.  In actuality, the government and its laws have nothing to do with my freedom to believe what I will.  I, as a human being, am inherently free, and nothing can hinder that freedom.  I am always free to fight for what is right.  To defend the poor, the fatherless, the widowed.  To stand against murder, against prejudice, and against hate.

My prayer is that my stand against injustice will be bold without being fearful.  Strong without being hateful.  Certain without being prideful.  I want to stand for those who have no voice, not because I have "rights," but because Christ makes me free.  My freedom and my rights are found in Him alone.

Injustice is so often cloaked in the language of rights.  Those rights are never for the downtrodden and neglected though.  Those rights are always for the powerful.

Shame on us.