Spotify removed the ‘Christian’ category off their genres index. I would not have noticed unless Noa pointed it out. She emailed Spotify to ask them why, so while we wait for their reply, I thought I’d attempt to answer the simple question: “what is justice”, because that’s the first question that came to mind when I was trying to convince myself that Christianity being forced out of the public square doesn’t matter, when I remembered that for the sake of justice, it really does matter.
In a way it’s comedic, funny because some people are happy to point the finger at that other religion who have their women cover up because they see it as restricting personal freedoms, and yet they champion similar restrictions against christianity. Some might even call that hypocritical.
Last year one of my children sat in a particular class at her atheist high-school, where a certain teacher told the class that all Christians were ‘uneducated’ and ‘homophobic’, which she then wrote on the classroom whiteboard and Noa took a photo of, after which one of Noa’s peers stood up and asked the entire class to raise their hands if they supported same sex marriage. Noa being the only one not to raise her hand was then immediately called out by this student and aggressively asked to give her answer why. The teacher, not expecting this sudden outburst, managed to call the class to order. It marked one of Noa’s worst days at school, and because I am her father, it was one of my worst days too.
Of course I was compelled to write a letter to the principal of the school, challenging the notion that Christians were ‘uneducated’ by extending an invitation to that teacher to attend our local church, where she could for herself count the great number of PhDs in various fields, sitting in the pews each and every week. I then challenged her second assertion, assuring her that in all my years as a Christian, I’ve never met one who was a homophobe, even though I heard they were out there, somewhere, and that while we as Christians hate the sin, we love the sinner, and are always willing to engage in intelligent conversation.
Finally I asked the question whether certain teachers were perhaps radicalising students in the classroom with the same bigotry that they themselves wrongly accuse Christians of? I suspect it was that last sentence that got me an apology that very night from the principal, and a phone call the very next day with an apology from the head of the department, assuring me that these things are taken seriously and the student who incited the question and marginalised Noa has been sent to school counselling. What about the inciter? Mmm.
There was a time my cynical self would have doubted the authenticity of such an apology because of the context, the times we live in, because an apology fifty years in the past looks different to an apology fifty years in the future, dependent on the ruling phenomenon, the laws of the land which in turn determine the capitulating games we play with one another. But now I more often sink into despair, no longer getting glee from vindication or faith validation, but instead descend into a type of sadness, that a teacher and a student do not know what great love their Maker has for them. How can they know this? Is there not an app, an instant download somewhere? It is what I desire for them, more than I can express here, it is the desire of my heart.
Since that incident Noa has a better relationship with that particular student. He seems cautious of her after she told him if he’s ready to talk serious, she’ll answer his questions best she can. “They now look and talk to me as if I’m some exotic creature dad.” I told Noa at the time that kids just regurgitate what they hear at home, one particular phrase, “all Christians must die”, unfortunately coming from that boy’s father, but in the same breath I told Noa that others might say the same thing about her, that she repeats what she hears at home, which makes it essential for her to claim Him as her own – to read, listen, pray, test and plumb the depths to know the breadth, width and depth of the love of Jesus Christ.
In light of this love, it remains somewhat of a mystery why there’s so much antagonism towards Christianity. What is it that makes people so afraid? Is the whole world just regurgitating what they hear at home? It depends where home is. I met a man who attended church last week for the first time in nearly twenty years, after he lost all his money in trading. Five minutes into our conversation I asked the man why he’s at church when things are going wrong in his life, but not when things are going good? He smiled and shrugged and fortunately attended again this week for some more punishing questions from his adopted brother. Do the world hate us because we dare ask the difficult questions?
C.S. Lewis once wrote that Christianity was like going down into your dark basement and turning on the light, only to catch a glimpse of the rats and cockroaches scurrying back into their dark corners. A very confronting illustration which seems inappropriate to share in this day and age, so I won’t, but it does posit the question; why so many are so afraid of the light, for God Himself IS light, and what makes them so threatened by the pursuit of truth? I say ‘somewhat of a mystery’ because there is also hate. Baseless, groundless, no reason, hate, which in the end makes it futile to reason with the sulphurous abyss that it is.
So what is justice?
For the answer I am going to turn to me old pal Plato and top-line his thesis from his remarkable book; ‘The Republic’, wherein three different men give their summation on what justice is.
The first is Polemarchus who tells us that justice is dealing humanely with your fellow man, and that justice, or right conduct, is to bring out the ‘arete’, the gift or excellence in another. Although it’s a secular view there is a reluctance to argue with it because it’s what makes the world around us egalitarianly livable.
Second the cynical Thrysymachus who insists that ‘might is right’, that justice should be what’s of interest to the strongest group, provided that group keeps to a maxim of ‘doing no harm’, and should be held to the same hippocratical standards as a physician would. Of course the harm referred to is physical only and therefore also secular in nature, especially in the case for personal freedoms, but who decides whether the strongest group’s interests are correct, especially for the long game? “It is possible to love people into hell”, my mother used to say.
Third we have Glaucon, Plato’s brother, who appears to be under no illusions that mankind has a deep-rooted bedrock of selfishness, and describes how man would easily abuse any form of power by way of the Gyges myth. Glaucon explains that justice originates from the need for the weak to be protected from the strong and concludes that justice therefore, is a law of protection.
Four hundred years before the Saviour, Glaucon is remarkably the closest we have to the message of Christ, to treat those least in the Kingdom of God with the dignity and respect which behoves a child of God, something I have failed on many occasions to do, for which I am eternally sorry. However, it does not mean we stop asking the difficult questions, it doesn’t mean we don’t seek what is good and what is truthful, it doesn’t mean we capitulate to cultural norms that appear as elixirs today and cancers tomorrow, and it certainly does not mean we stop showing the love of Christ in our interactions with our enemies, for they won’t be enemies tomorrow.
While atheists take the American government to court to have ‘In God we trust’ removed from their currency, and while secularism seeks to erase large portions of western history, only for their children to wake up one day to find themselves without a country, because no one told them that it is God, and God alone who is the world’s pre-eminent nation builder, Spotify customer support have come back to Noa.
“Unfortunately, in some countries the “Christian” is missing in the browse section. Don’t worry, you can still search for it by copying this and pasting it on the search bar, Spotify:genre:inspirational.”
Oh these capitulating games.
thankyoubackbone.com 