“One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all!” are the final few phrases of the United States Pledge of Allegiance. The Pledge highlights our ideals, one of which is justice. Our nation has always held justice in high regard – and so it should! God loves justice. Through Isaiah, God called upon the Israelites to, “Learn to do good; Seek justice, Rebuke the oppressor; Defend the fatherless, Plead for the poor” (Isaiah 1:17 NKJV). God’s concern for “justice” becomes even more apparent when we consider the vast number of times the word occurs in the Bible. In the NKJV, the term “justice” occurs 130 times. The most common Hebrew term for “justice” is mishpat, occurring 421 times in the Old Testament. The most common Greek word for “justice” is krisis, occurring 49 times in the New Testament. Both terms are most often translated as “judgment,” which, of course, has a very close connection with justice. God is obviously concerned with justice, and, consequently, we should be too.
As a nation, however, we have not always consistently applied our ideals in general and regarding justice in particular. Historically, we have advocated justice for all, but many times we have fallen short. This is not a new problem, but it is something that every generation faces. Previous generations confronted various issues of justice: slavery, capital punishment, women’s rights, workers’ rights and many others. One specific issue in the past was the nation’s dealings with the Native American population. Certainly, we want to be balanced and fair in our evaluation. Fair evaluation would probably have to agree that both sides committed abuses. Surely, the U.S. was at fault at times.
The events surrounding the “Trail of Tears” are some of the most glaring abuses against Native Americans on the part of the United States. In the late 1820’s and throughout the 1830’s, the U.S. government and some state governments disregarded former treaties, tribal sovereignty, and in general human rights of the Native Americans in the southeastern U.S. During that time, under the Indian Removal Act of 1830, the federal government and certain state governments forced the Creek, Choctaw, Seminole, Chickasaw and Cherokee nations to relocate west of the Mississippi River in what later became Oklahoma. Around 100,000 Native Americans left their homeland. Of those, approximately 15,000 died during relocation. One reason for their removal was the discovery of gold in northern Georgia in 1829 (Pauls).
At the same time as these incidents, the early efforts of the Restoration Movement had begun. How did the early restorers respond? Did they say anything or remain silent? Of course, we cannot know what all of them thought, but Alexander Campbell provides some insight. In a January 1830 article entitled, “The Cherokee Indians,” Campbell wrote about their plight, citing a Mr. Garrison, an editor of The Genius of Universal Emancipation, who denounced Georgia’s mistreatment of the Cherokee (45). “Justice,” Garrison’s keyword, “is eternal, and its demands cannot safely be evaded,” he affirmed (45). Campbell, in his concluding remarks, wholeheartedly agreed: “I humbly trust there is yet so much justice, so much pure republicanism, so much regard to truth and national faith, in the bosoms of the American people and of their representatives in congress, as will not permit them to give up an innocent and harmless nation to the cupidity of a few capitalists in Georgia or any where else” (45-46).
Like Campbell, we too, as Christians, preachers and teachers, must stand for, proclaim and demand justice, personally, socially, religiously, nationally and even internationally. Although the particulars differ, we face just as many, perhaps more, abuses of justice: violence, abortion, human trafficking, euthanasia, religious persecution, oppression of the poor and others. Yet, we must declare, “Justice for all”!
Works Cited
Campbell, Alexander. “The Cherokee Indians.” Millennial Harbinger 1.1 (1830): 44-46. Print.
Pauls, Elizabeth Prine. “Trail of Tears.” Encyclopedia Britannica. 11 June 2014. Web. 27 June 2014. <www.brittanica.com /EBchecked/topic/602008/ Trail-of-Tears>.
