Theologian and philosopher Ronald Nash authored more than 35 books explaining and defending the Christian worldview. He taught at both secular and Christian institutions, including Western Kentucky University, Reformed Theological Seminary, and The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.

This selection, taken from his book Social Justice and the Christian Church, combats the common misperception that justice requires governments to guarantee comparable levels of economic success for all citizens. Though encouraging state assistance for the most destitute, he argues that just government should focus primarily on enforcing fair procedures rather than insisting on equal results.

[O]ne of the major differences between a liberal and conservative understanding of justice involves a choice between an approach that insists that the attainment of justice is impossible apart from the realization of certain just results and a competing view that maintains that a just society is one that adopts just procedures. A theory that places its emphasis upon just procedures will recognize that there is no way of specifying or knowing in advance what a just result would be. All one can do is try to make the procedures as just as possible. Then, whatever results from those just procedures must be recognized as just. . .1

[I]t is not self-evident that words like “injustice” are used appropriately when describing the unpleasant results that bother so many. In most cases, it seems, words like “injustice” are thrown carelessly around as labels for whatever some people find personally or morally unsatisfactory.2
 
Footnotes:
 
1  Ronald H. Nash, Social Justice and the Christian Church (Milford, MI: Mott Media, 1983), 53.
 
2  Ibid., 58.
 

article adopted from Kairos Journal

First Baptist Church of Perryville is located east of Rt. 222 across from the Principio Health Center.