Question: Will you strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the
dignity of every human being?
Response: I will, with God’s help.
True justice as a religious and spiritual ideal in Judeo-Christian scripture is grounded in ensuring that all people benefit from the same rights and privileges as others.
Peace, likewise, is a state of being where security and well-being reigns over all when all are fed, cared for, and able to be at ease, as the Prophet Isaiah described numerous times, including Isaiah 65:17-66:2. Real peace is intertwined with true justice for all people. It is therefore inseparable from true respect for the dignity and worth of every human—as our Baptismal Covenant has been leading us to this conclusion in our promises about how we treat our neighbors and even our enemies.
This means, that in most of the Episcopal Church, we acknowledge where we ourselves have failed historically to maintain this standard, as we seek to acknowledge injustices against African Americans, Native Americans, and other persons of color. It also means as individuals that we are called to thank God for the gift of diversity that makes all life possible. It means that we not only tolerate but welcome and affirm the dignity and worth of all people regardless of race, creed, sexual or gender orientation, national origin, ability or disability, language, culture, wealth, or status.
In our Baptismal Covenant with God, we disavow dehumanizing, stigmatizing, or scapegoating others, and instead affirm everyone’s full equality and belovedness before God and before the Church.
As our former Presiding Bishop Michael B. Curry famously and repeatedly insisted, “If it’s not about love, it’s not about God.” This is the basis of our faith in God as revealed in Jesus. And we uphold it with God’s help, in faithfulness.
Going Deeper:
One of the phrases you may hear especially in the Episcopal Church is “the communion of saints.” Most saints are not and were not perfect people— St. Peter was really impulsive; St. Paul had a tendency to humble brag; St. Nicholas once punched someone he thought was a heretic.
But saints are people who love God and in some way make Jesus visible and who inspire us to ty to embody what President Abraham Lincoln called “the better angels of our nature.”
That’s why in the Episcopal calendar of saints, there are people included who have not been officially designated as saints in the way that requires miracles performed by their intercession. We celebrate people as saints including those who embodied the prophetic voice of speaking truth to power, which is usually not a way to become popular or the life and soul of the party.
One of saints added to the Episcopal Church’s calendar of saints is the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who was a famous advocate for the full citizenship and freedom of all persons, regardless of race, ethnicity, or creed. His use of nonviolent protest was nonetheless often considered to be against the law, and he was arrested multiple times. King was especially gifted at clarifying, as when criticized by so-called “moderate” religious leaders in Alabama, what words like “peace” and justice” really mean.
Too often today, “justice” is taken to be a synonym for “punishment,” as in the phrase “bringing someone to justice,” or the concept of “vigilante justice.” Likewise, “peace” is too often used to describe when people have been cowed into not speaking up for what is right, or for denying not just the right but the obligation to protest when we see injustice, inequality, or other forms of oppression.
In a sermon entitled “When Peace Becomes Obnoxious,” Dr. King described peace that is obnoxious, or hypocritical and empty of meaning, because it prizes order and control over ensuring equality and liberty for all. Instead, Dr. King insisted, true peace is grounded in doing God’s will. True peace is grounded in positive good—as justice is, as well.
Justice is grounded in mercy, compassion, and respect. Even when presented with wrong-doing, justice that rehabilitates is grounded in mercy and reconciliation wherever possible, rather than simply retribution. God’s justice also particularly is a state of society that uplifts the poor, frees the oppressed, and protects the marginalized, as Jesus’ mother Mary sang out in her song of triumph known as the Magnificat in Luke 1:46-55, and as Jesus described in the Beatitudes in Matthew 5:1-12.