47 Years of Injustice

God expects righteousness and justice to be maintained. The authority granted to rulers is given for that very purpose; they are to govern in such a way that victims are defended and perpetrators are punished. History has many “bad actors” who have abused or neglected the authority granted to them, falling woefully short of divine expections, and the people under them have suffered. Such misuse angers God. The prophets often decry exploitation of the poor and vulnerable and calls for justice and righteousness are many. Because injustice concerns God it should concern his people. He wants us to care about it and labor to ameliorate its effects. We might not create heaven on earth but we can represent heaven on earth.

A tragic example of injustice that has persisted in our country for the past 47 years is the unfettered access to abortion granted by the 1973 Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade. The very institution that has been entrusted with deciding what is just when competing interests are jockeying for their perceived due, offered no protection for the unborn baby, the most vulnerable of the pertinent parties in the dispute. The infamous 1857 Dred Scott v. Sandford decision has been described by some historians as the worst the Supreme Court has ever made. As unjust as that ruling was, Roe v. Wade far outstrips it when judged by its consequences. Some 62 million abortions have been performed since that decision and each of them ended the life of a defensless human being. This is injustice worthy of a prophet’s most vehement scorn.

The current call for social justice among evangelicals is not to be ignored, but neither is the plight of the unborn. If our concern for righteousness and justice grows out of our love for God and neighbor, this should certainly include our fellow image bearers in the womb. Each one of us has started our human journey in the same place and there is none who are less human than another simply because of where he or she is on that journey. Let us labor for the kind of society that God declares ought to be. Those who are the victims of unrighteousness deserve the advocacy of those who serve the One who is the “Father of the fatherless and protector of widows” (Psalm 68:5). This must include all those in our society who are unable to advocate for themselves, including the child in the womb.