Why Do We Care About Justice?
On February 23, 2020, a twenty-five-year-old black man, Ahmaud Arbery, began jogging through his normal route in a Brunswick, Georgia, neighborhood as he had done many times before. Many of the people in the neighborhood knew Ahmaud by name because he ran frequently. However, there were two individuals, a father and son (both white), who did not know Ahmaud. They said they had heard of a black man involved with breaking into houses, and Arbery fit the description in their eyes.
These men saw Ahmaud running, grabbed their guns and jumped into their pick-up truck to follow him and catch up to him. Upon catching up to Ahmaud, one of the men gets out of the truck with his gun to cut Ahmaud off. Naturally, Ahmaud tries to get around them. When they prevent him, he tries even harder because he is fearful for his life. He sees the gun and knows this cannot end well. Unfortunately, Ahmaud was murdered that day in broad daylight by two men with hatred in their heart. No amount of press coverage or prayers and wishes can bring him back. My heart goes out to his family and friends.
However, the story continues. One would think there would be immediate arrests and charges against the men who killed Ahmaud—especially since the entire murder was caught on video by motorist who happened to be driving by at that time. But there were no arrests until May 7, 2020—three months later! How does the “justice” system not arrest two murderers for three months when the evidence is stacked so heavily against them? Why does the life of a young, black man not matter to the state of Georgia?
As the evidence of this murder came out in late April/early May 2020, social media overwhelmed the “justice” system with cries for justice for Ahmaud’s death. Petitions were signed, calls were made to district attorneys, the Georgia state governor, and city officials in Brunswick. The people, it turned out, had a better eye for injustice than the state, forcing the arrests to be made and charges to be pressed.
You would be hard pressed to many people who would admit that the two men who murdered Ahmaud Arbery should not be punished for what they did. After all, they killed another human being and were caught doing it on video. But what if I asked you to answer a series of questions:
How do you know that murder is wrong?
What basis do you have to say that all races of people are equally valuable?
What is human value based on?
Why should people be punished for harming another human?
Why do black lives matter?
Why do white lives matter?
If your answers to these questions are because society has laws which say murder is wrong or all races of humans are valuable because we are humans or violating human rights is horrific, you have not answered the question at all. In fact, you have just stated an opinion—everyone has an opinion. Who is to say that your opinion should be heard over someone else with racism in their hearts and an itch to become a serial killer? They might want murder to be legal. At this point, you might remind me that most people believe that murder is wrong, therefore it is. However, history tells us a well-known truth: the majority does not always know what is right. If you would like an example, take Nazi Germany during the years before and during World War II. The majority of Germany was sold on the idea that murdering Jews was perfectly fine. If the majority decides what is right, then why were people so upset about Hitler’s bent on the extermination of the Jewish race? You see, society and culture do not establish morality for us.
Furthermore, morality is not a personal code of ethics each person decides for themselves. I hope the flaw with this teaching is obvious. One person could believe it is perfectly fine to abuse children whereas another person could believe it is one of the most heinous things humanity has ever seen. If morality is personal, it only extends to you and no one else. There are no grounds to seek justice for anyone or anything if you believe morality is a personal code of ethics we each decide over the course of our lives.
We know in our hearts that Ahmaud Arbery was wrongfully murdered, and his murderers should be punished for what they did. But if we are going to call this “wrong”, then there must be a better, truer standard of “right” to which we are referring (to echo the words of C.S. Lewis in Mere Christianity). Moreover, if we are going to advocate for this better, truer standard of “right”, it must come from an unchanging source. If the standard of “right” changes from day-to-day or time-to-time, the same action could be considered wrong one day and right the next. For something like murder or racial prejudice to really be considered wrong, we need more than just an opinion and a trending social media hashtag; there needs to be an unchanging source that transcends our existence declaring the truth we know in our hearts.
Everything we see in this world changes. Fashion, music, jobs, technology, political leaders, viruses, etc. all change. Even societies change over the years, evolving for better or for worse. Nothing ever stays the same in this world. Additionally, we do not transcend ourselves; we are ourselves. We have only existed since our lives began several years ago, and we will cease to exist in this life at some point in the future. Our standard of morality cannot begin with ourselves because we have not always existed to enforce morality. However, there is one being who never changes and has always existed: God. From Him is where we get our moral code because He is the standard of right and wrong. His nature has not changed over the years. When judging from God’s nature, murder and racism have always been wrong.
When we argue for justice and equality based on our opinions, we will never really get anywhere. We will scream out until we are blue in the face, but there is no substance giving credibility to our argument. But if we argue for justice and equality based on the reality that we have value, innate to us—not because of our performance but because we are made in the image of God—and He is not pleased when human beings resembling His likeness are mistreated and murdered for the color of their skin, then we have real ground to stand on. We are not uttering opinions; rather, we are declaring the prophetic voice of the Spirit of the Almighty God—the Eternal One.
One of the saddest realities of the current education system is the moral implications of the teachings of Big Bang cosmology and biological evolution without accounting for a Creator behind it all. I am not arguing for or against the science behind the Big Bang or biological evolution. I am arguing the absurdity of removing God from the education of future generations, and not remaining consistent when stories like Ahmaud Arbery’s rise to the surface. We cannot advocate for justice without accounting for the One who is just. If God does not exist, Ahmaud Arbery’s murder does not matter. If God does not exist, Arbery’s murderers were just “dancing to their DNA” as the famous biologist, Richard Dawkins, puts it. If God does not exist, there is no right or wrong in this case; it just happened, and we should move on.
I know you do not feel this way about Ahmaud Arbery’s death. His death mattered because his life mattered. If you know this is true, you are faced with a bigger reality: God exists. This is the only way to make logical sense of the feelings of injustice we all feel about this and any tragedy.
