Justice

Injustice and oppression cause offense to God and humanity. People everywhere will fight for justice, but believers who know God’s all-encompassing love have a special responsibility to use their influence to promote justice.

Scriptures admonish people of faith not to sit idly by and not assist the downtrodden in obtaining the justice that is their due. Long before oppressed people in frustration take up arms to revolt against their oppressive circumstances, religious people should strive as society’s conscience to prompt the authorities to give justice to those who have long been denied it.

Father Moon himself often tasted injustice, but he never seeks to avenge himself upon his persecutors. Instead, he always chooses the method of love and forbearance, firm in his conviction that the way of service and sacrifice is the surest way to overcome injustice on all sides.

Thus says the Lord, “Do justice and righteousness, and deliver from the hand of the oppressor him who has been robbed. And do no wrong or violence to the alien, the fatherless, and the widow, nor shed innocent blood.” Jeremiah 22.3

O ye who believe! Stand out firmly for justice, as witnesses to God, even as against yourselves, or your parents, or your kin, and whether it concerns rich or poor: for God can best protect both.

Follow not the lusts of your hearts lest you swerve, and if you distort justice or decline to do justice, verily God is well acquainted with all that you do.37 Qur’an 4.135

Take away from me the noise of your songs; To the melody of your harps I will not listen. But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream. Amos 5.23-24

Beware of the plea of the oppressed, for he asks God Most High only for his due, and God does not keep the one who has a right from receiving what is due. Hadith of Baihaqi (Islam)

God said, “O My servants, I have forbidden wickedness for Myself and have made it forbidden among you, so do not do injustice to one another.” Forty Hadith of an-Nawawi 24 (Islam)

The Lord said to Moses, “Go in to Pharaoh and say to him, ‘Thus says the Lord, Let my people go.’ ” Exodus 8.1

Whoever of you sees something of which God disapproves, then let him change it with his hand; and if he is not able to do so, then with his tongue; and if he is not able to do so, then with his heart; and that is faith of the weakest kind. Forty Hadith of an-Nawawi 34 (Islam)

All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good people to do nothing. Edmund Burke

To come to the relief of the distressed and to help the oppressed, act as amends and expiation of many sins. Nahjul Balagha, Saying 22 (Shiite Islam)

If you are neutral in a situation of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has his tail on the foot of a mouse, and you say you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality. Desmond Tutu (Christianity)

Upon seeing someone else committing a sin or following a way which is not good, it is a commandment to return him to doing good and to make it known to him that he is sinning against himself, for it is written, “You shall definitely rebuke your fellow.” When rebuking someone, whether in matters between him and others or between him and God, one should do so in private, speak to him in repose and soft tones, and make sure that he understands that one is speaking to him for his own good, and [thereby] to bring him to life in the World to Come. Maimonides, Mishneh Torah (Judaism)

Justice is conscience, not a personal conscience but the conscience of the whole of humanity. Those who clearly recognize the voice of their own conscience usually recognize also the voice of justice. Alexander Solzhenitsyn

Someone said, “What do you say concerning the principle that injury should be recompensed with kindness?” The Master said, “With what will you then recompense kindness? Recompense injury with justice, and recompense kindness with kindness.”40 Analects 14.36 (Confucianism)

According to Anas ibn Malik, the Prophet said, “Help your brother whether he is oppressor or oppressed.” Anas replied to him, “O Messenger of God, a man who is oppressed I am ready to help, but how does one help an oppressor?” “By hindering him doing wrong,” he said. Hadith of Bukhari (Islam)

No man can put a chain around the ankle of his fellow man without at last finding the other end fastened about his own neck. Frederick Douglass41

While women weep, as they do now, I will fight. While men go to prison, in and out, in and out, as they do now, I will fight. While there is a drunkard left, where there is a poor lost girl upon the streets, where there remains one dark and without the light of God, I’ll fight. I’ll fight to the very end.42 William Booth (Christianity)

Teachings of Sun Myung Moon
God is calling to us to challenge worldly unrighteousness, evil, sins and crimes, and practice true love. (234:273, August 26, 1992)

I believe that we people of faith should feel responsible for the lawlessness and injustice of this age, and we should be the first to assess our role in permitting it.

God is calling upon leaders, especially us religious leaders, to stand against the world’s injustices and evils and to bestow His true love upon the world. (330:247, August 18, 2000)

Before dreaming of eternity, religious people should first work with God in their daily life to eradicate evil. They should be fighters for goodness. (37:219, December 27, 1970)

He who sees unrighteousness but leaves it alone is not a man of conscience. (Way of God’s Will 2.2)

Who possesses the central and highest conscience in the universe? God. When a man of conscience sees injustice, does he sit still? No, he explodes in righteous indignation. Is God’s conscience any weaker? After seeing six thousand years of injustice His indignation grows hot; He prepares to do battle.

God cannot stand by when sees people committing wickedness—damaging the world for their own selfish benefit or for their own family’s or tribe’s benefit. He reserves a day to strike them down. Consider the Roman Empire. For four hundred years Rome had dominated the world, but when she persecuted Christianity, God punished her. Less than four hundred years after Jesus’ death, Rome surrendered. (51:44, November 4, 1971)

I have endured, thinking that justice does not win by fighting, but wins by enduring. There were times when I was so indignant that my whole body was numb. But I endured, accounting myself an inadequate and unworthy son and thinking, “God has endured far more indignation than me.” (74:252, December 31, 1974)

When young people dedicate themselves to sacrifice and service with God’s true love, they will find the key to solving world poverty and hunger. They will be able to heal the feelings of animosity and hatred caused by differences between rich and poor and by different historical backgrounds and experiences.

Only based on love that loves the unlovable, can we find a clear direction to overcome the intractable conflicts that plague our age. We can even find common ground to meet the ideological divide between the advocates of freedom and the advocates of equality. (288:201-02, November 28, 1997)

Once true love is perfected in the human world, what possible political, economic, cultural, or environmental problems could persist? In the world of true love, every problem can be solved.

It is the world of freedom, peace, and happiness, replete with joy. It is the world of God’s ideal. It is the world where joy and happiness are magnified infinitely and eternally, and where everyone has the right to equal position, equal participation, and equal inheritance. (294:65, June 11, 1998)