Two Provoking ideas tasked to write about:
1. Compare Koyzis’ view of political idolatry with Sowell’s definition of cosmic justice, evaluating both in light of a Biblical model of government and statesmanship.
2. Connect the concept of “Cosmic Justice and Political Idolatry” to your identified academic and/or professional interest in public policy.
LIBERTY UNIVERSITY
HELMS SCHOOL OF GOVERNMENT
Discussion Board One: Cosmic Justice and Political Idolatry
Submitted to Dr. Scott Daniels,
in partial fulfillment of the requirements and the completion of
PLCY 802 - B02
Competing Visions of Statesmanship
by
Tracy Nix
January 12, 2021
Cosmic Justice and Political Idolatry
Cosmic Justice, according to Thomas Sowell, is a nebulous term that, when explained, gives a clearer understanding of what some in academia have meant by toying with the word justice. The idea of regular justice or “formal” justice”, where all may play by the same rules to ensure equal opportunity is substituted for equity or so called, “fair” justice. “Everyone playing by the same rules or being judged by the same standards is merely “formal” equality, in Professor Rawls’ view, while truly “fair” equality of opportunity means providing everyone with equal prospects of success from equal individual efforts. Note how the word “fair” has an entirely different meaning in this context. Cosmic justice is not about the rules of the game. It is about putting particular segments of society in the position that they would have been in but for some undeserved misfortune”.[1] Cosmic Justice is in the business of righting every misfortune whether it is the fault of the universe or the fault of society’s formative structure provided or even if it is a no fault misfortune or harsh realization of results earned through a crime committed or a mistake made: cosmic justice seeks to make reparations in a collective sense instead of leaving it up to individual justice and less broad approaches than that of a governmental solution. The problem is that no one is God and can possibly know what a sense of fairness actually is since we have never had an equal universe before. People are born differently and disproportionate and die at varying times from varying methods and we take on too much when we decide to play God without even the knowledge of what it would take to make all things equal. A just system is better played out when there is equality of opportunity and countless number of people helping those that suffer less fortunate circumstances out of their own freewill love and not a broad government mandate. Thwarting the freewill of people to help out the unfortunate (by broad governing reapportionment of segments of society) negates the opportunity for God to exalted, for helpers to love and the truly helpless to be loved.
Dr. Kahlib Fischer in his presentation emphasized that there should not be an overemphasis on political ideology in of itself as not to make the ideology all-encompassing because well-meaning people have, maybe even unintentionally, sought to defend their particular label of ideology and have found themselves on the wrong side of truth and have had to live with the implications of following an ideology at all costs. “We don't worship the state, we don't worship political ideologies as if they're all encompassing.”[2] Emphasizing a Biblical worldview in the political arena will always allow one to part ways with a party or a doctrinal deviation that a particular ideology has taken and remain true and loyal to a world view where truth is the emphasis and God is lauded. Any deviation from this model of idealism can lead to idolatry where one worships the creature or created being (institutions, political parties) more than the Creator.
The concept of a biblical worldview is not hidden from society or intrinsic to only Christians: all people were created by God in His image and can understand God. (Romans 1:18-20) 18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness; 19 Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. 20 For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:[3]
Political idolatries, according to David Koyzis are rooted in religious idolatry through a presupposing worldview and have subtle implications that manifest openly, as taking the place of God or at least using His narrative of saving the world.[4] The Bible narrative is Creation, Fall, Redemption and Consummation. God created man. (Genesis 1:27) Man fell in the Garden of Eden by sinning and was separated from God consequentially (Romans 5:12). God sent a Redeemer (Jesus Christ) to bring mankind back in fellowship with God and give him eternal life and life more abundantly (Romans 5:8) (John 10:10). We can receive that redeemer and become a child of God and enjoy His rule and reign as He makes all things new both in us and around us one day (John 1:12). The Bible is replead with verses to back up God’s main story to mankind and it is with this support that God intended for mankind to interpret all ideologies whether religious by name or political by name. The quest for Cosmic Justice as an ideology can be interpreted to fit the category of exalting itself into the category of political idolatry.
The two ideas intersect as cosmic justice takes on the variation of a different world view rather than God intended. The idea of Cosmic Justice spins out as the answer for interpreting the world and its problems. Cosmic Justice seeks to find a problem with the inequities in the world as it is created. The source of evil is deemed as a failure of collectivist action throughout history because of the misfortunes or inequities of all. “All things being created equal”, not all things are created equal. The solution or redeemer to cosmic justice is the select few who are cosmic justice warriors and use the mechanism of the state to redeem the disparities and disproportionalities by making all things right in their consummation attempt. The problem with this quest is the object of worship, hope, trust is the state or otherwise known to God as “created beings and things”. Exalting the creation above the Creator is the definition of Idolatry and is a futile exercise because the state is not Omniscient, Omnipresent or Omnipotent. According to Sowell, the quest for Cosmic Justice is insatiable[5] and a Koyzis would liken this ominous practice just a futile as those who carved wood gods with their own hands and worshipped them. (Psalm 115:4-6) 4 Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men's hands. 5 They have mouths, but they speak not: eyes have they, but they see not: 6 They have ears, but they hear not: noses have they, but they smell not:
James Forman in his article outlining a critique of mass incarceration based on race demonstrates what Sowell conceptualizes as a quest for cosmic justice, by analyzing interpreting the mass incarceration of blacks as the new Jim Crow laws. In his article, Forman lays out statistics about justice and the disproportionate representation in the penal system as if the two had any correlative causation.[6] This approach to justice is subversive to actual justice because each criminal was tried by the same just system, and lady justice wears blinders. A failure on the part of a blind justice system is not out of the realm of possibility but declaring a new justice by re-proportioning our prison systems would be the new Jim Crow laws: on every other ethnicity.
In another article by Michelle Alexandra on the quest for cosmic justice, she decided to bring up the Jim Crow once again because she wasn’t done fighting as a Cosmic Justice warrior and obviously had an axe to grind when she declared that,
Media pundits and more than a few politicians insist that we, as a nation, have finally "moved beyond race." We have entered into the era of "post-racialism," it is said, the promised land of colorblindness. Not just in America, but around the world, President Obama's election has been touted as the final nail in the coffin of Jim Crow, the bookend placed on the history of racial caste in America.
This triumphant notion of post-racialism is, in my view, nothing more than fiction-a type of Orwellian doublespeak made no less sinister by virtue of the fact that the people saying it may actually believe it. Racial caste is not dead; it is alive and well in America. The mass incarceration of poor people of color in the United States amounts to a new caste system-one specifically tailored to the political, economic, and social challenges of our time. It is the moral equivalent of Jim Crow.[7]
There is never a political savvy time to let go of the quest for cosmic justice when the system itself serves as your god and is made in your image and after your likeness: Idolatry 101.
Implications for Competing Worldviews in Educating the State
The real test for maintaining a truth orientation when ideologies are tried at the state level, manifest as when one is faced with a choice to sin and maintain the congruence of a political ideology or remain in fellowship with God and chose truth over party. It is understood that if one is willing to sin to gain something than that item or gain has taken precedent over God and is exalted into the position of idolatrous worship. It is the job if the church to educate the state since God has spoken about the duties and roles of the state in his word. It is the churches job to be the pillar and ground of truth to every generation (I Timothy 3:15). When the church chooses political sides for the sake of coziness with the state then the truth will be distorted in the church and foggy to the state.
One clear example is when Pilate sentenced Jesus to die based on cosmic justice or in order to right a wrong societally. Pilate decried casual words denouncing any firm basis of judgment when he admitted the words, “what is truth”? It was on this basis that Pilate crucified an innocent man and allowed a robber to go free. Worldviews matter and ideologies have consequences. Illusive as they may be to research to understand their foundations, it is the duty and Christians in the church to bring light to the world and bear witness as to what is truth. One reason that Jesus declared to Pilate (for the existence of his very being on the planet) was to bear witness of the truth. John 18:37 Pilate therefore said unto him, Art thou a king then? Jesus answered, Thou sayest that I am a king. To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice.
As a Pastor, I am called to elevate the truth and educate the state.
Bibliography
Alexander, Michelle. "The New Jim Crow ." Ohio State Journal of Criminal Law 9, no. Fall 2011 (June, 2011): 7-26, https://heinonline-org.ezproxy.liberty.edu/HOL/Page?collection=journals&handle=hein.journals/osjcl9&id=12&men_tab=srchresults#.
Ideology, Religion, and Idolatry . Directed by Kahlib Fischer. Lynchburg, VA: 2022.
Foreman Jr., James. "Racial Critique of Mass Incarceration: Beyond the New Jim Crow ." New York University Law Review 87, (June 8, 2012): 21-69, https://heinonline-org.ezproxy.liberty.edu/HOL/Page?lname=&public=false&collection=journals&handle=hein.journals/nylr87&men_hide=false&men_tab=toc&kind=&page=21#.
King James. Bible No Copyright, 1905.
Koyzis, David Theodore and Richard J. Mouw. Political Visions & Illusions: A Survey and Christian Critique of Contemporary Ideologies. Second ed. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2019, https://go.exlibris.link/nzqyS06q.
Sowell, Thomas. The Quest for Cosmic Justice. First Touchstone ed. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2002, https://go.exlibris.link/TnStRdPD.
[1] Thomas Sowell, The Quest for Cosmic Justice, First Touchstone ed. (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2002)p.12, https://go.exlibris.link/TnStRdPD. [2] Ideology, Religion, and Idolatry , directed by Kahlib Fischer (Lynchburg, VA: 2022) [3] King James, Bible No Copyright, 1905). [4] David Theodore Koyzis and Richard J. Mouw, Political Visions & Illusions: A Survey and Christian Critique of Contemporary Ideologies, Second ed. (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2019), https://go.exlibris.link/nzqyS06q. [5] Sowell, The Quest for Cosmic Justicep.89 [6] James Foreman Jr., "Racial Critique of Mass Incarceration: Beyond the New Jim Crow ," New York University Law Review 87 (June 8, 2012): 21-69, https://heinonline-org.ezproxy.liberty.edu/HOL/Page?lname=&public=false&collection=journals&handle=hein.journals/nylr87&men_hide=false&men_tab=toc&kind=&page=21#. [7] Michelle Alexander, "The New Jim Crow ," Ohio State Journal of Criminal Law 9, no. Fall 2011 (June, 2011): 7-26, https://heinonline-org.ezproxy.liberty.edu/HOL/Page?collection=journals&handle=hein.journals/osjcl9&id=12&men_tab=srchresults#.
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