Justice and Institutions

Having written a bit about the relationship between justice and vocation, I think we can tackle the subject of institution. Vocation is the doctrine that describes a person's given roles, responsibilities, and relationships. For example, my top vocations are husband, father and pastor. To understand if I am fulfilling my vocation would mean that I have a good grasp on what my responsibilities are in those particular roles. So am I leading and loving my wife? Am I caring for and training my children? Am I shepherding, leading and teaching my church? So I can know if I am doing justice in those areas if I am fulfilling the responsibilities of those roles.

A way to understand institutions is that they are vocations writ large. Institutions are groups of people that gather to form an entity that accomplishes a purpose. Some examples of institutions would be families, churches, fire departments and local governments. Institutions are important because they fulfill specific responsibilities and at their best work towards justice. So a well functioning family accomplishes the protection, maturity and care of those within the family (especially children). A well functioning family fire department would put out fires effectively. When institutions are fulfilling their function they work towards societal justice.

So we could locate injustice as a failure of institutions in some way. Again institutions have vocations or particular goals and purposes. If they do not meet them or abuse power they create injustice. So if there is a school district in which children have failing grades, it would be appropriate to examine the institution of the district and particular schools to see if they are to blame for a failure to fulfil their vocation. Things would be relatively simple if institutions existed in vacuums but they do not. Any given person is a part of and affected by multiple institutions. So in examining a particular student's reasons for not excelling in school we would have to look at multiple institutions. The most obvious would be the school. But the student is part of a family. That student lives under a particular city and county government. That student has particular neighbors. Where the student lives could be affected by gentrification or displacement. I could go on but you get the idea.

In order to identify the loci of injustice one have to understand the purpose of the various institutions that affect a person and ask of each institution, “is it fulfilling its vocation?” So what if said student is hungry when they come to school? We would have to example the institution of that particular family. Now suppose the parent(s) or guardian(s) do not have adequate transportation for work. Then you would have to look at the institution of the local government and public transportation. Suppose the student lives in a violent neighborhood that distracts him from studies. Then we would have to look at the institutions of neighborhood associations and local policing. The point is that in any given situation of injustice there are a variety of institutions that could positively or negatively affect a person.

So what do we do? Is the situation too complex to achieve justice? No. But we have to pursue justice through various institutions. For example if I want justice for children I can contribute to justice through the vocations and institutions that I am a part of. So I father 3 children in the institution of my family. For the sake of my own children, I must fulfill my responsibilities so that they are taken care of. You may say what about the other children? I would say that I certainly cannot advocate my immediate vocation for the sake of others. But my vocation and institution does not end there. I pastor a church which is an institution. We know that many students are having trouble in school because of covid-19 changes. My church has an afterschool program for students to assist them with their school work. We cannot help every student. But we can help the ones for whom we have capacity. The institution of my church partners in a small way with the institution of the local high school to appreciate the teachers and faculty of that school. This does not alleviate all pressures nor serve all the teachers in our area but it is what we can do.

Now, imagine if every institution took responsibility for the roles and responsibilities that they had. Imagine if institutions were held accountable to accomplish the responsibilities for which they exist. This is the work of justice. And it is the work that you can do now because you are inevitably a part of several institutions.

Problems in the pursuit of justice happen when we have sloppy analysis of injustice and are unclear about the purposes of particular institutions. To bring it back to vocation, wouldn't it be weird if you were mad at your doctor because he did not work on your car? Of course because your doctor has responsibility for your physical health not your broken automobile. So in instances of a person’s poverty there could be multiple institutional failures at work. For a myriad of reasons, the person’s family may not have taught them much about finances. Maybe the title loan place gave them an astronomical interest rate on a loan. Maybe his local school was failing. Maybe he had a racist principal which negatively contributed to the institution of his school. It could be all of those things or none of those things but we will have the wrong solution if we do not analyze what is contributing to which institutional failure.

Moreover, we create frustration when we assign blame or the wrong amount of blame on a particular institution. For example, I know that many teachers in low income areas face a lot of pressure because too much blame and weight is put on that one institution. Remember a person’s lot in life is greatly affected by the various institutions to which they are members. So if they are family dynamics, economic dynamic, drug dynamics etc, they have to be addressed through various institutions. All of the blame cannot fall on the school though some of it may justly be placed there.

This institutional confusion creates frustration and anger because it is not thought through well. For example many people are mad at the institution of the church without thinking through what the institution exists for or what goals it must accomplish. When one is asked what a pastor ought to do, you get as many answers as our people. From my estimation, various people expect me to be the following: great teacher, compassionate personal counselor, competent social worker, cutting edge activist, savvy political commentator, impressive organizational leader, towering intellectual, down to earth evangelist, racial reconciliation expert, cultural analyst etc. And the expectation of the church is the institutional equivalent of those vocations. My goal here is not to define the vocation of pastor or institutional church but just to point out that if those are not clear in one’s mind there will be frustration.

In closing, everyone can be involved in the work of biblical justice through the institutions that they exist in and some have the bandwidth to join voluntary institutions to work for justice. But we must understand the complexity of issues and that people will be called to various institutions that have different functions but the same goal of societal justice. I will tell you what is not helpful: getting mad at the institution of a pro-life pregnancy center because they do not do enough about racial justice or vice versa: getting mad at an institution for racial equality that does not spend all their energy on the pro-life agenda. That is juvenile and displays a lack of careful thought regarding the complexity of our world.