You are currently browsing the tag archive for the ‘Justice’ tag.
Was reading my friend Richard’s blog yesterday and came accross this great insightful post.
Here is a short excerpt:
There seems to be an interesting image in this verse about the relationship between the creation and injustice. One can’t help but imagine the earth’s revulsion as it ‘opens its mouth to receive Cain’s brother’s blood from his hand’
I encourage you to read it here:
The Australian Red Cross is a neutral, independent, non-political, humanitarian movement that works closely with asylum seekers, people who are trafficked, immigration detainees and people who have lost contact with their family overseas because of war or a natural disaster. They do much more than collect blood and respond to disasters.
They have just released their policy on migration – which is a big deal considering the current political climate and the role Red Cross plays within the sector. So much so that I have decided to reproduce it here for you to read. Enjoy
“Australian Red Cross assists people who are made vulnerable through the process of migration and whose survival, dignity, physical or mental health is under threat, irrespective of their legal status. While recognising the rights of different categories of migrants under international law, Red Cross works with vulnerable people including, but not limited to, migrants, asylum seekers, refugees, immigration detainees, stateless persons, people who are trafficked and irregular migrants, according to their needs.
Australian Red Cross works to prevent and reduce the vulnerability of migrants and to protect them against abuses, exploitation and denial of their rights. Australian Red Cross supports and assists vulnerable people who have been impacted by migration, to gain opportunities and to access sustainable solutions for themselves and their families.
1: Restoration of family links
2: Humanitarian support while immigration status is being resolved
Australian Red Cross believes that people who are made vulnerable through the process of migration, whose survival, dignity, physical or mental health is under threat, should receive the humanitarian supports they need while their immigration status is being resolved. Assistance should be based on need regardless of their mode of arrival or their stage in visa determination processes. In no circumstances should vulnerable people be left destitute. Australian Red Cross believes that the provision of appropriate humanitarian support at the earliest possible point and throughout the process assists in resolving the immigration status of vulnerable people.
(AAP: Mick Tsikas)
While governments may determine that immigration detention is necessary for initial health and security checks, Australian Red Cross believes that it should otherwise only be used as a last resort and always for the shortest practicable time. All people in immigration detention are entitled to the maintenance of good health and wellbeing and to be treated with dignity and respect, regardless of the reason for their detention. All efforts must be made to avoid and mitigate the negative impacts of immigration detention.
4. Upholding Red Cross Principles
While Red Cross may provide humanitarian support for people in immigration detention (including community detention) and other vulnerable migrants in the community, it will not take responsibility for security monitoring, surveillance or other immigration compliance related activities in order to fully preserve its Principles and capacity to monitor the treatment of people in detention.
5: Protection Visa Processing and Independent Legal Advice
Australian Red Cross recognises the right of people seeking asylum in Australia to access independent legal advice and have their claims for protection properly processed, regardless of the means by which they arrive in Australia.
6: Support and capacity building for migrants
Despite the many hardships and barriers they have experienced Australian Red Cross believes that individuals and communities made vulnerable through the process of migration generally retain the strength, skills and capacity they need to re-establish their lives so long as they are provided with support and are given access to the services and programs they need. Australian Red Cross works to support individuals and communities to shape their own futures.
7: Advocating for people made vulnerable through the process of migration
Australian Red Cross believes that advocacy is required in order to persuade and remind decision makers and opinion leaders of the need to ensure and maintain a humanitarian approach to people made vulnerable by the process of migration, to protect them from abuses, exploitation and denial of rights, to reduce discrimination against them, and to increase awareness, sensitivity and understanding of their situation and backgrounds with the general population.”
Sunday week I am preaching on the parabe of the Good Samaritan.
Found this on the net and thought I would share it.
I posted up a quote yesterday from Robert Murray M’Cheyne. I was reminded by Sheryl of this other quote by M’Cheyne. Again this was said to his congregation while preaching on the Sheep and the Goats in Matthew 25.
“I fear that there are some Christians among you to whom Christ can not say “come thou blessed… inherit the kingdom”.
You heave a sigh, perhaps, at a distance
Your haughty dwellings rise in the midst of thousands who have scarce a fire to warm themselves at, and have but little clothing to keep out the biting frost; and yet you never darkened their door.You heave a sigh, perhaps, at a distance; but you do not visit them. Ah! My dear friends! I am concerned for the poor but more for you. I know not what Christ will say to you in that great day…I fear that there are many hearing me who may now know well that they are not Christians because they do not love to give. To give largely and liberally, not grudgingly, desires a new heart. An old heart would rather part with its lifeblood than with its money. Oh my friends! Enjoy you money; make the most of it; give none away; enjoy it now, for I can tell you, you will be beggars throughout eternity”
-Robert Murray M’Cheyne
If we are followers of Jesus then we must be people who seek to do justice and restore shalom in people’s lives. Justice is not an optional extra for christians, it is an integral part of our christian life that we cannot do without. If we relegate justice to being an ‘optional extra’ in our life then there is certainly much to fear when Christ returns.
Robert Murray M'Cheyne
This is a quote that I read a few weeks ago by a guy called Robert Murray M’Cheyne. He is a Scottish Presbyterian from about 200 odd years ago. He is the guy who designed the ‘read the bible in a year’ program that is so popular today. He was a preacher who was well known for his commitment to daily bible reading, evangelism and holiness. Anyway he wrote this about giving to the poor as an expression of the outworking of the grace we have been given in Christ.
“Now dear Christians, some of you pray night and day to be branches of the true vine, you pray to be made all over in the image of Christ, if so you must be like him in giving, though he was rich yet for our sakes he became poor.
Objection: my money is my own. Answer: well Christ might have said my blood is my own and my life is my own, then where should you have been. Objection: the poor are undeserving. Answer: well Christ might have said, ‘these are wicked rebels, shall I lay down my life for these? Or shall I give to the good angels, the deserving poor?’ But no, he left the 99 and came after the lost; he gave his blood for the undeserving. Objection: well if I give my charity the poor may abuse it. Answer: Christ might have said the same thing, yea with far greater truth, Christ knew that thousands would trample his blood under their feet, that most would despise it, that many would make it an excuse for sinning more and yet he gave his own blood. My dear Christians if you would be like Christ, give much, give often, give freely to the vile and the poor, the thankless and the undeserving. Christ is glorious and happy and so will you be. It is not your money I want but your happiness, remember his own word: it is more happy, more blessed, to give than to receive.”
- Robert Murray M’Cheyne
I have been re reading the story of the Good Samaritan recently and have been refreshed in my thinking about the scope of justice! It’s mandate, magnitude, motivation and method. I found this quote the other day by Martin Luther King Jr. and instantly loved it. Transforming the Jericho road is both the essence of Christian justice and the end point of Christian justice.
“A true revolution of values will soon cause us to question the fairness and justice of many of our past and present policies. On the one hand, we are called to play the Good Samaritan on life’s roadside, but that will be only an initial act. One day we must come to see that the whole Jericho Road must be transformed so that men and women will not be constantly beaten and robbed as they make their journey on life’s highway. True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar. It comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring.”
-Martin Luther King Jr.
On a very casual side note, it reminds me of a joke about social workers:
Two social workers are walking through a dodgy side of town when they see a man lieing on the ground, wounds all over covered in his own blood. The first social worker says: “that man has been mugged!” The second social worker replies: “yes, someone needs to find the people who did this and help them”
To do what is right and just is more acceptable to the LORD than sacrifice.
If a man shuts his ears to the cry of the poor, he too will cry out and not be answered.
(proverbs 21:3,13)
“Justice is conscience, not a personal conscience but the conscience of the whole of humanity. Those who clearly recognize the voice of their own conscience usually recognize also the voice of justice.”
- Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Moral excellence comes about as a result of habit. We become just by doing just acts, temperate by doing temperate acts, brave by doing brave acts.
-Aristotle
“Justice in the life and conduct of the State is possible only as first it resides in the hearts and souls of the citizens”
-Plato
Part of the reason I picked this quote is because my good mate Tim Smartt is heading over to the States to present and defend a paper at a conference at a little out-of-the-way place called PRINCETON, and then hang around to be a visiting student for 7 weeks. Tim is a philosopher in life and practice and loves Plato.
So Tim, this one is for you! I hope you get a chance to meditate on this quote as you jump through the immigration hoops of the Department of Homeland Security!
