The intersection of envy and injustice.
Who is wise and understanding among you? By his good conduct let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom. But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth. This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, un-spiritual, demonic. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice. But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace. James 3:13–18.
What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. James 4:1–3
James, the apostle who wrote those passages, was the brother of John, another apostle. Jesus called them the “sons of thunder”, because in the early days of following Jesus Christ, they were intolerant of anyone who did not follow Jesus, or who was not a Jew. They were quick to criticize and threaten, even to destroy a Samaritan village. But the people did not receive him, because his face was set toward Jerusalem. And when his disciples James and John saw it, they said, “Lord, do you want us to tell fire to come down from heaven and consume them?” But he turned and rebuked them. Luke 9:53–55.
One day James and John asked Jesus for favoritism in the kingdom of heaven, and this did not go down well with the other apostles. And when the ten heard it, they began to be indignant at James and John.
And Jesus called them to him and said to them, “You know that those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. But it shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant,
and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” Mark 10:41–45.
“But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all.” This concept, taught by the Master, matured all the apostles. Maturity is only achieved by stewardship of people and property. Greatness, according to the Lord, is measured by servanthood, not striving to be in charge. As you can see from those first two passages from the book of James, he grew up, as did his brother John. James was eventually executed by Herod, and John was exiled to the barren island of Patmos, where he was inspired to write the final book of the Bible, Revelation. James and John were simple but emotional fishermen, as was Peter. All three confounded the wise, the pundits and sages of their day, as the Lord gave them an eloquence well beyond their lowly status and lack of education. They were lowly: Jews, fishermen, poor, uneducated, intemperate, emotional, looked down upon by the conquerors and occupiers of their land — the Romans. So they developed the first known example of intersectionality theory to explain away their status and to guilt Rome into sharing the empire’s goodies with them. As a result, the Roman Empire got woke and became a beacon of social justice…. Nope, as a result, the notoriously unsympathetic Romans crucified the lot of them… More likely, but still not accurate.
Peter, James, John, and all the apostles and followers of Jesus, all of Judea, the Roman Empire, and the entire known world of that day didn’t, and would not have, developed intersectionality theory, simply because everyone lived at the intersection of envy and injustice, even the Roman emperors, who had absolute power but were more likely to be assassinated for their position than die of old age. Freedom, “consent of the governed”, equality, fairness, “social justice” and other artifacts of a Judeo-Christian worldview and the principles embraced by our nation’s founders, which we moderns take for granted….did not exist. Kings and emperors ruled, succession by battle or assassination was the norm, ruthless conquest and subjugation was the fate of weaker nations. In that world, prior to the ascendancy of Judeo-Christian ideals (the foundation of the Declaration of Independence and many principles of the U.S. Constitution), military power was strictly for conquest and empire building of the most powerful, NOT for defending other nations from aggression nor promulgating the idea of freedom.
I have previously written about Critical theory and it’s handmaiden, Intersectionality theory. Look them up if you want to know about them. Such foolish and inane ideas could only flourish in a world where freedom and justice is taken for granted, and emotion rules reason and truth, and where the “seven deadly sins”, pride atop the list, reign. In the USA, our former ideals have been thoroughly corrupted by mutating Biblical justice into “social justice”, which is the suicide bomb of Critical/Intersectional theories. Academia has been the main culprit in this mutation, spreading the virus of “social justice” through the media and politics. The result politically has been replacing the Constitutional responsibilities of the federal (central) government-defense of our homeland, protection of our currency and international trade-with transferism, the ceaseless efforts to transfer government power and tax revenue to politically favored groups (i.e. “under-represented minorities”as defined by intersectionality theory).
True justice considers the consequences of freely chosen individual acts, but “social justice” tries to align the distribution of economic and social benefits with identity groups according to critical theory, justifying the exercise of the state’s coercive power to distribute “fairly” goods that include education, employment, housing, income, health care, leisure, a pleasant environment, political power, property, social recognition, and wealth. According to a recent report by the National Association of Scholars, NAS.org, called Social Justice Education in America: What we may call radical social justice theory, which dominates higher education, adds to broader social justice theory the belief that society is divided into social identity groups defined by categories such as class, race, and gender; that any “unfair distribution” of goods among these groups is oppression; and that oppression can only — and must — be removed by a coalition of “marginalized” identity groups working to radically. This is how envy works to create true injustice, which is theft on a massive scale, the transfer of earnings by government coercion. It may look like the whiners are winning, but God is sovereign.
