Laborers, Equity, and Golf Handicaps – The Justice Conference 2017
Christena Cleveland is a social psychologist, theologian, author and professor at Duke Divinity School. Her talk was one of the best talks on justice that I’ve ever heard. I highly recommend listening to the talk in its entirety here.
Her text was Matthew 20:1-16, The Parable of the Laborers. This parable is book-ended by “The first will be last, and the last, first” at the end of the previous chapter, and “The last will be first, and the first, last” at the end of chapter 20. Her exegesis was bang on.
To many American Christians, “justice” means “equal.” But according to The Parable of the Laborers, “fair” does not always mean “equal.” In this parable, all the laborers are paid the same amount, regardless of how many hours they worked. This doesn’t seem fair to them, but the Landowner corrects them: they all made a fair bargain well met, ergo, all WERE treated fairly.
This hardly seems democratic to the average American Christian. But the Biblical message is clear: in order for the last to be first, some re-balancing of the scales of justice is necessary, and it’s not in the direction of “equal.”
Think about the concept of a golf handicap for a moment. A golf handicap is a numerical value that gets subtracted from the scores of players of lesser skill to enable them to play with players of greater skill on an “equal” basis. Same concept. In Dr. Cleveland’s words, “justice” is “equity,” not equivalence. In order to equalize opportunity for all, the “haves” are required to yield MORE than an equal share to the “have-nots.”
This is the rationale behind affirmative action, as well as other social justice programs, and why socially-aware Christians are crying foul about how evangelicals voted in the recent election. To put ostensible “Christian” agenda issues, such as religious liberty, limited government-funded health-care, or border security ahead of social justice initiatives estops the Biblical mandate for EQUITY.
This is hard, but it’s not complicated. If you want to be first in the Kingdom of God, you will embrace the last position by letting others move ahead of you. You will generously grant others “handicaps” so that they can advance on equitable footing. And you will let others work less than you for the same amount of money.
Amen.