US Catholic Faith in Real Life

Why the Christian call to justice supersedes the legal order

Not all laws are just, and conflating the two means ignoring history.

Article Justice

Abiding by the law is a preeminent American value, yet a fixation with the letter of the law is often used to perpetuate injustice. Scripture says that law is important but also warns against a narrow focus on law at the expense of dignity or mercy. In one of his more scandalous moments, Jesus breaks religious law when he heals the sick on the Sabbath. According to Deuteronomy, the legal punishment for a woman caught in adultery was death. But Jesus intervenes on behalf of the woman caught in adultery. “She broke the law” was not all that mattered. 


In contrast, American culture often reduces law and justice so that colloquially legal and just are used interchangeably. This is perhaps most evident and dangerous with regard to immigration and racial justice. After a parish panel on immigration I sat on last year, an older man charged toward the table furious. “How dare you malign Martin Luther King Jr. and suggest he advocated breaking the law! He would never have broken the law,” he insisted. 


King noticed the greatest opposition to dismantling unjust laws often comes from those “more devoted to order than to justice” and those who have a “shallow understanding” of the situation. Family histories of immigration are one example of how a shallow understanding by people of good will impedes justice and prioritizes the status quo over justice. Today’s immigrants are pitted against earlier “good immigrants” who came the “right way” and followed the law. 

In 1848 my ancestors Timothy and Margaret Clarke, newlyweds from Ireland, boarded a boat for the United States, fleeing poverty and famine. They are the quintessential example of “the right way” invoked in today’s public debate. However, if my ancestors were subject to today’s immigration laws, they would have died in Ireland or migrated illegally. Of the millions of Irish immigrants who arrived in the United States during the 19th century, 95 percent would be denied legal entry based upon today’s laws. 

Today individuals wait years, sometimes decades, in the legal process to join family members. For those fleeing violence, persecution, and poverty, there are no good options. Everyone agrees the current system is broken, yet political will to create a just system continues to elude the nation. As Christians, we are called to distinguish between what is legal and what is just, to challenge unjust laws, and to prioritize dignity over order.

This article also appears in the October 2018 issue of U.S. Catholic (Vol. 83, No. 10, page 10).

Friday, September 21, 2018