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blogging, faith, insanitybytes22, justice, mercy, opinion, vice and virtue
“Extremism in defense of liberty is no vice. Moderation in pursuit of justice is no virtue.”-Barry Goldwater
Kind of interesting, the issue of vice, virtue, and justice came up a few times yesterday, so I have been giving these things some thought. First of all, language is hard, so what is “extremism?” It’s thought to be, “any ideology (particularly in politics or religion), considered to be far outside the acceptable standards of the society….”
Well shoot, I live in a very secular area, very left leaning, and frequently find myself on the wrong side of “acceptable standards for society. ” One of my favorite mind-benders is the disgust a few people have expressed towards the “oppressiveness of heteronormalcy.” How can I even come within the bounds of acceptable society with standards like that?
So extremism it is. Extreme love, extreme faith, extreme forgiveness, extreme patience, these kinds of things are not bad. “Extreme” actually means, “utmost, very great, greatest, greatest possible, maximum, maximal, highest, supreme, great, acute, enormous, high, exceptional, extraordinary.”
Works for me. I’ll even go so far as to claim an extreme love for liberty and freedom.
“Moderation in pursuit of justice is no virtue.” I think that’s really true. Someone mentioned justice as being a “noble compromise,” which really pushed my buttons, because while I love the civilized, law-abiding approach to justice, one that blends consequences with mercy, right is still right and wrong is still wrong. It is not “just” to compromise with evil. If someone robs my house am I now supposed to go to mediation so we can resolve our differences and come up with a noble solution that appeases all parties?
Yuck.
In faith I suppose we are all the thief on the cross, and so some would claim we must approach our thieving brothers with the same grace and mercy Jesus Christ showed us. But hold up here! That guy was actually being crucified, so executed for his thievery. While he may well have found redemption and salvation, it is not as if Christ cut him down from the cross and sent him to mediation so he could pursues a noble compromise with his victims, one that “benefits all parties and provides justice for all.”
Mercy is awesome, but mercy and forgiveness are extremist acts, radical even. They are not “moderate.” Moderation in the face of evil is not justice at all, it is irresponsibility that fails to protect and attempts to make vice and virtue equal partners.
As I said before however, language is hard, and Barry Goldwater’s quote is a good example of that. We people can get our vice and virtue all confused, so add in a bit of false humility, and stir in some super spirituality, and suddenly the things we perceive as “virtuous” become anything but, and the things we would label “vice,” are actually our greatest strengths.
See, there's this thing called biology... 
I live in a very left leaning, secular part of the country too. I’m surrounded by the party of ‘the freedom of peeing in any toilet I like” movement. “Extremism in defense of liberty is no vice. Moderation in pursuit of justice is no virtue.”-Barry Goldwater. I think that we live in an age where this quote might be changed to “Extremism in defense of ideology is no virtue”. Just my two cents. 🙂
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Sometimes it’s a bit like being trapped in Wonderland, isn’t it? The “extremists” are sitting home discussing virtue and vice, while the sane and rational people are out smashing car windows. Go figure.
I too dislike ideology, regardless of what ideology it is. Ideology is always a system of ideas and ideals that leaves out the human element and tends to treat people like stereotypes and not individuals. Ideologies always demand too much conformity for me.
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I think another problem with the language is that God’s justice is restorative, whereas, society’s justice is retributive. Restorative justice brings transformation; retributive justice can only punish the offender. And this is necessary because the world doesn’t operate under the auspice of the Kingdom of God and has no ability to transform the heart. Using your example, while the thief received mercy from Jesus (restorative justice), he was crucified by the Roman government (retributive justice). While we’re all “thieves,” we receive grace and forgiveness from God, and are changed, but we still go to jail in this world. 🙂
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Oh, awesome point! God’s justice really is restorative. I think perhaps as some of us move farther away from God, we begin to look towards society for restorative justice, which in my opinion is always going to be a disaster. God has what we need, society, even if it were perfect, does not.
I do believe restorative justice is a good thing, or our rather flawed and imperfect imitations of it anyway, especially in our interpersonal relationships. Things tend to go awry when we try to make it law based, policy based, as if society owes us restorative justice, as if it is a right.
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Amen. I totally agree with that. We should practice restorative justice in our relationships but also understand the necessity of rule of law to keep us from descending into chaos in society.
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Reblogged this on disue.
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Thank you for the reblog, much appreciated 🙂
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For those who have no belief in an eternity beyond this crazy here and now, nor a belief in a God whose holiness and very essence -both just and merciful, sacrificially-loving and righteous- makes liberty, virtue and justice on God’s terms seem utterly foolish, if not unreasonable. It seems reasonable that the remedy for what ails us would be a cultural, economic or social renovation. If something as miraculous as this did happen but our heart and human nature remain unchanged, is not what is needed first is the individual regeneration and then society has a hope of being renewed- “Make the tree good and the fruit will be good” kind of thinking?
Justice from God’s perspective is thankfully saturated in His mercy and love. That’ll mess with anyone. as it has me! God is a just and merciful God. As for “Moderation in the face of evil”, I don’t see anything “moderate” about how God has dealt with the lot of us. Thank goodness our sin did not interrupt God’s love from forgiving us!
Thanks IB, your way with words, especially on topics such as this one, much appreciated.
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“If something as miraculous as this did happen but our heart and human nature remain unchanged, is not what is needed first is the individual regeneration and then society has a hope of being renewed- “Make the tree good and the fruit will be good” kind of thinking?”
Oh amen to that! Yes, precisely. Somebody smart once said, “everybody wants to change the world, but nobody ever wants to change themselves.” I think of this sometimes when people are praying for revival, revival generally meaning reviving everybody else. It’s somewhat comical, but being “revived” is not always such a pleasant thing. We tend to throw cold water on people or give them something terrible to smell, or poke them with a pin. A couple of times I’ve had to ask myself, wait, what exactly are you praying for here? So today I just pray for God to revive me and than make me as contagious as the flu 🙂
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