A Vision of Justice

In the biblical worldview, the righteous (tzaddiq) are willing to disadvantage themselves to advantage the community. The wicked, in contrast, are willing to disadvantage the community to advantage themselves. (see Bruce Waltke "The Book of Proverbs")

I find that a helpful way to understand justice. If we follow Jesus, we are willing to disadvantage ourselves for the sake of the common good. Here is a true story that describes what this kind of justice looks like in the community of Martha's Vineyard.

Martha's Vineyard is an island off the coast of Massachusetts. It's known as an elite enclave for celebrities and wealthy politicians looking for private retreat. It was first settled by immigrants from Kent, England in the 17th century, and those pilgrims happened to have a high incidence of hereditary deafness.

Because the island was isolate for many decades, there was also a great deal of intermarriage. By the 19th century, between 5 and 25 percent of residents in the Vineyard were deaf. In most cases, people with handicaps such as deafness are expected to adapt to the habits of the non-handicapped, but that is not what happened on Martha's Vineyard.

A sociologist who studied the culture there in the 1980s asked a hearing person how he felt about the non-hearing people. "We didn't think anything about them, they were just like everyone else," one older man replied. Did they write down notes to the deaf people in order to communicate, the sociologist asked? "No," said the man in surprise, "you see everyone here spoke sign language."

Those people who could not hear were not considered handicapped. They were just deaf. They were treated like everyone else, because everyone learned to speak sign language. An entire community "disadvantaged itself" for the safe of the minority. Instead of making the non-hearing minority learn to read lips, the whole hearing majority learned signing. An inspiring example of justice.

And the hearing people found knowing sign language carried other benefits! The kids could "sign" behind a teacher's back in school. Church members could "sign" to each other during the pastor's sermons. People could communicate across long distances and express their needs when they were sick or aging.

Deafness as a "handicap" largely disappeared.

That's a vision of justice, alright. God's realm come to earth. I suppose all of us could learn something from Martha's Vineyard. Tim Keller says this in his book Generous Justice. "The strong must disadvantage themselves for the weak, the majority for the minority, or the community frays and the fabric breaks."