Justice and Mercy

One of the more disturbing trends to emerge out of a rash of violence against Whites by illegal immigrants is to observe the victims’ families make a big public show about how they (1) forgive the killer, (2) they don’t blame all immigrants, (3) how enriched they are by diversity, and (4) even on occasion blatantly insult their actual neighbors with: “Our food sucks! Their food is good.” Watching these events is a testament to a people that have lost their will to live, and it shows just how dire the situation is. Their bellies are their gods, and they love their social status more than their own children. To get “authentic street tacos” and not be called a racist, they are willing to let their families die.

Much of this can be blamed on a hedonistic, materialistic culture that holds no other values beyond physical comfort. While every society in the past considered concepts such as honor as something to die for, the West, since 1945, cannot even fathom such a value system. Hence why the modern West cannot attribute any motivation beyond financial gain to any other nation state. Russian President Vladimir Putin is a great example of this. For many people who fancy themselves as smugly intelligent, Putin’s actions in Ukraine and the Caucuses are because he “wants money.” In reality, nothing could be further from the truth – he believes in Russian national glory and wants to see Russia restored as a great power. If he was really only interested in money, he would stay put and just let Russian natural resources flow into the West.

But there is another source of this ailment, one rooted in the horrible state of catechesis that has rendered modern culture unable to discern the true nature of justice and mercy. In the aftermath of many of these killings, the families of the victims will often talk of mercy and forgiveness, mostly in an effort to stop any kind of policies from being enacted to prevent similar tragedies from ever happening again. But this is rooted in a false notion of mercy that has dominated Christian discourse since 1945, and especially since 1970. Yes, God is merciful, and we should strive to be merciful as well. Without God’s mercy, we would all go to Hell for our sins. But to speak of mercy in the authentic Christian sense, we must also recognize justice. Mercy is often connected with forgiveness and, again, we are to forgive. But forgiveness is more than saying “I’m sorry,” and never taking any serious efforts to change one’s behavior. Forgiveness, and mercy, requires repentance – which is to turn away from wickedness and make a serious effort to sin no more. Even with repentance, some restitution is required for there to be justice. In the classical Christian understanding of God – if God is all good, he must be both fully merciful and fully just. If He is not both merciful and just, He is not all good, and thus not God.

Consider the following scenario: three sets of two brothers, ages 12 and 10, from different families and the brothers like to play baseball in their respective front yards. In all three cases, the father has warned them that they are not to play baseball in the front yard, as the house has a very large bay window and, by playing in the front yard, they are risking breaking it. The brothers refuse to listen and continue playing in the front yard when no one is home until one fateful day they finally break the window. In all three cases, the respective father comes home to find the damage and the brothers sincerely and profusely apologize. However, all three fathers react differently.

1. Father 1: immediately kicks the brothers out of the house for disobeying him and informs them that, no matter how much they apologize, they are not welcome back until the window has been fixed.
2. Father 2: tells the brothers that since they’re sorry there will be no punishment whatsoever.
3. Father 3: tells the brothers that, although they are forgiven and they can still stay in the house, they need to clean up the mess and they will both be working until the window is repaired and paid off.

Of the three fathers, only Father 3 is a good father. Father 1 is an example of justice without mercy, and Father 2 is an example of mercy without justice.

Similarly for God to be good, He must be both merciful and just. But for decades God’s mercy has been emphasized over God’s justice and, as a result, the culture at large can no longer understand the importance of justice. It can no longer understand why repentance matters and why, even after repentance, some restitution is still necessary. To understand God as both fully just and fully merciful is incredibly difficult for the limited human mind to fully understand, and perhaps it never will completely grasp this. But that is no license to completely run with one at the expense of the other. The current lack of discussing God’s justice is dangerous – spiritually yes, as it downplays, if not negates, the realities of Hell. But it is also physically dangerous as it has led people to be unwilling to even defend themselves. By restoring the traditional Christian understanding of justice to our understanding of God, we can begin the process of undoing the damage of decades of bad theology.

Yes, mercy is good. As a sinner, I am dependent upon it. But so is justice. And justice means that nations have the right to defend their own borders. Justice means that illegal immigrants must face punishment for their trespasses, and it means that steps must be taken to prevent crimes from being committed against native populations of a country. Self-defense is justice.