The cry for justice

Roots of
INJUSTICE

NEARLYtwo thousand years ago, the Bible
set out a remarkably accurate social profile
of our time. It stated: “In the last days
critical times hard to deal with will be here.For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of
money, . . . unthankful, disloyal, having no
natural affection, not open to any agreement,
. . . without love of goodness, betrayers, headstrong,puffed up with pride, lovers of pleasures
rather than lovers of God.”—2 Timothy
3:1-4.
Few would deny that those negative traits
have become more common in our time.
They become manifest in manyways, including
greed, prejudice, antisocial attitudes, corruption,
and extreme financial inequality.
Consider these individually.
GREED. “Greed is healthy” and “Greed is
good” are catchphraseswe may sometimes
hear. But they are lies. Greed hurts! For example,
greed often underlies accounting fraud,
Ponzi schemes, and reckless lending and borrowing.
The results, such as financialcollapse,
have hurt many people. Granted, some
of the victims are greedy themselves. But
their number also includes hardworking people,
some of whom have lost homes and pensions.
PREJUDICE. Prejudicedpeople judge others
unfairly and even discriminate against them
on the basis of ethnicity, skin color, sex, social
status, or religion. For example, a United
Nations committee found that in oneSouth
American country, a pregnant woman died
in a hospital because she had been discriminated
against in another facility on the basis
of her ethnicity and socio-economic background.
Taken to itsextreme, prejudice has
even led to the gross injustices of ethnic
cleansing and genocide.
ANTISOCIAL ATTITUDES. A synopsis of the
Handbook of Antisocial Behavior stated: “Each
year tens ofthousands of families are torn
apart, hundreds of thousands of lives are ruined,
and millions of dollars’ worth of property
is destroyed as a result of antisocial behavior.
So endemic are violence and...