No Peace Without Justice, No Justice Without Forgiveness

In ‘Jon Stewart on Liberal Hypocrisy, Donald Trump and Dog Whistles,’ Talya Zax reports in ‘Forward’ (28 January 2021) a conversation between Charlie Rose and Jon Stewart:

               “Here’s what I would honestly say,” Stewart began.

               “I don’t believe we are a fundamentally different country today than we were two weeks ago.

               The same country, with all its grace and flaws and volatility and insecurity and strength and resilience, exists today as it existed two weeks ago.“

Profound! Permit me to rush you to an ongoing conversation, excerpted below. PLAY EPISODE Bishop Michael Curry & Dr. Russell Moore

Krista Tippett, host: We’re in a tender spiritual moment as a country — widely feeling our need to re-ground and heal both alone and together. But calls for social repair and unity are also meeting an understandable wariness. The last years have been bruising all around.

How might convictions about God and the universe, about love and a question like, who is my neighbor?

Dr. Russell Moore: I think that we have put more weight upon these political identities. Some of these questions have become ultimate in ways that aren’t just about ‘let’s talk about what we disagree about and how do we go from here.’ But ‘who’s stupid and evil and who’s not.’

The Most Rev. Michael Curry: The Good Samaritan, we might want to retranslate the parable into the parable of the Good Democrat, and it’s a Republican on the side of the road or the parable of the Good Republican, and it’s a Democrat. Do you see what I’m getting at? Who is neighbor? Do you see what I mean? Who is neighbor to the one who is hurt and wounded?

Rev. Curry: What does the Lord require of you but to do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God (Micah 6: 8)? What matters to God is how we treat each other because that reflects what we think about God.

Dr. Moore: Sometimes, we find that we have more agreement than we thought, sometimes we find that we have more disagreement than we thought.

In ‘Combining Justice with Forgiveness to Restore Order (1 January 2002),’ Saint Pope John Paul II proposes:

               “In these troubled times, may the whole human family find real and lasting peace, born of the confluence of justice and mercy! 

               The pillars of true peace are justice and that form of love, which is forgiveness  (Isaiah 32:17).   

               Forgiveness is the opposite of resentment and revenge, not of justice.

               Forgiveness is in no way opposed to justice as if to forgive meant to overlook the need to right the wrong done.

               Instead, forgiveness is the fullness of justice, leading to that tranquillity of order, which is much more than a fragile and temporary cessation of hostilities, involving as it does the most profound healing of the wounds that fester in human hearts.”

Justice and forgiveness are both essential to such recovery. 

               No peace without justice, no justice without forgiveness: this is what I wish to say to those responsible for the future of the human community, entreating them to be guided in their weighty and difficult decisions by the light of man’s true good, always with a view to the common good. 

I follow Jon Stewart’s point: “The same country … exists today as it existed two weeks ago.” Can and will the United States of America change for the better? Not if the Democrats manage to divide the country further. Mr. Trump now wears his two impeachments as a badge of honor, in appreciation of draining the swamp. Will the Democrats now empower him to upstage this honor with an acquittal in the Senate? Should they unleash retribution and revenge, which according to John Paul II, is the opposite of forgiveness, not of justice? Aren’t there more pressing priorities?

Read more: ‘Combining Justice with Forgiveness to Restore Order (1 January 2002).’

Read/Listen full transcript: ‘Bishop Michael Curry & Dr. Russell Moore Krista Tippett.‘

Read more: ‘Jon Stewart on Liberal Hypocrisy, Donald Trump and Dog Whistles.’

With Every Good Wish to You, I am,

Sincerely,

Building the Bridge Foundation, The Hague

Abraham A. van Kempen

Senior Editor

* ‘Christian Zionism … Enraptured Around a Golden Cal” (2nd Edition)

www.surrenderIsraeltoGod.com

www.buildingthebridge.eu

e-book version  $  3.33 (2nd Edition Available on Amazon)

Paperback            33.30 (2nd Edition is Temporary out of print)

A Theo-geopolitical eye-opener expounded with conviction, common sense, and compassion. With 500+ references, ‘Christian Zionism … Enraptured Around a Golden Calf’ pits the Holy Trinity of Zionism – One Tribe, One Land, One God – against the Holy Trinity of Christianity – ALL people, ALL nations, indeed, glorifying the one ‘I Am’ with many names.

Be sure you order the 2nd Edition, published in 2019.