This year's Institute

I am really, really excited about this year's Institute for Leadership and Social Justice. I participated last year also (which was sort of the kick-off year), and it was great. I learned a lot, built new relationships, and had a lot of fun. But I think that this year is going to be filled with so many more opportunities, mostly because now we have an actual schedule and agenda, and because we broke up into specialized groups.

The first assignment Mr. Chen gave us was to answer 3 questions: 1) What is justice? 2) What is social justice? and 3) What is social justice in the context of your project? I don't remember exactly what I answered, and Mr. Chen still has my paper :) , so I'll just sort of touch on my answers to both 1 and 2. I said that justice is fairness. I said that there are 2 sides to justice: legal justice and social justice. I use the term "legal" not to describe the court system specifically, but just the whole idea of getting what your actions deserve. Good actions are rewarded; bad actions are punished. This is fair and right. Legal justiced is based on God's holiness and His law for His people.

Social justice is fairness among people. It is founded on the idea that all people are equal, and it calls for equality, whether equality of wealth, opportunities, treatment from others, etc. It requires that those who have much give to those who have little, and that those who have power protect the rights of those who don't. Social justice is based on the fact that God created people, all people, in His own image.

Sometimes legal justice and social justice seem to conflict with or even contradict each other, but a closer look always reveals that this is never the case. Legal justice and social justice go hand in hand; they are 2 faces of the same pillar.