Gerechtigkeit nicht nur in Europa - Justice not just in Europe

*** Die deutsche Fassung des Beitrags können Sie per E-Mail erhalten: hahn@eaberlin.de

For a fair Europe – under this headline, we wanted to think about a context between Europe as the place where we live and the guiding idea of justice or righteousness in the Bible. In this blog at least we hoped to share some thoughts on how to shape our lives in a way that would make life on this continent more just. Today I wish to address another question: Can fairness really be limited to one continent?  

People of my generation or older will remember the peace movements in the 1980s. In a time of arms race and mutual threat, we pushed for the Churches all over the world to stand up for peace. The philosopher Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker called for gathering the Ecumenical Council of Churches – taking up words by Dietrich Bonhoeffer: that preserving peace be a common mission for all humanity and that Christians should be standing in the front lines. And now those from the global south are saying: You in Europe and North America see your good life threatened – we would be glad if our lives would be nearly as good as yours. And so you see peace as the highest good. We, however, see justice as the highest good. Because we suffer every day from injust structures in our countries, but also from a world order that allows rich countries to get richer and poor countries to get even poorer. Peace, yes, but the struggle for justice must be part of it and has to be named first.. This was – btw – already written down in the Leuenberg Agreement from 1973. It says here: (Christians) stand up for temporal justice and peace between individuals and nations. (https://www.ekd.de/en/Leuenberg-Agreement-304.htm)

This was an important lesson for my generation. Not just our concerns for our own life should drive us, but solidarity with all human kind. And so “Justice, Peace and the Integrity of creation” became the guiding words for Christian activity. Neither of the three can be neglected for the sake of the others.

That should make it clear: Justice cannot be divided. By its very nature, it can never exist in only one country or on only one continent. If all people are created in the image of God, then justice means, that all have equal rights and equal chances to live and have part in the wealth of the earth.

I had to think about this often when we prepared for this Bible Dialogue. We are – with some good reason – proud to be Europeans. We have reason to be glad to be living on a continent that – after bringing so much suffering on humanity – has kept peace among its nations for decades and rising prosperity for most people. And yet, we know that even today, there is still a lot of injustice in Europe. And it still remains a fact: Looking at where we live, we often fail in what we were meant to stand up for. The majority of human kind live in countries dominated by exploitation, corruption and misgovernment. And the scandal is really the continuing inequality of the wealth and goods of this earth.

We cannot do everything at once. We cannot just go and change other countries’ systems of government or economy. We also have a very indirect influence on how and under what conditions the global economy works. And so our commitment will be mostly here in Europe and for Europe. Here, where Human Rights were first declared and where for decades, an – imperfect yet fairly convincing - project or peace and prosperity was developed, we have a special responsibility. Part of this responsibility is to not forget that all people on Earth belong together. Especially in this day and age, during a pandemic that brings fear and suffering in our societies, when even inner-European solidarity is under severe stress, we have to stand up for justice even beyond European borders.

We at the Community of Protestant Churches in Europe (CPCE, https://www.leuenberg.eu/), where I work, have been thinking about how to express this in the time Lent and Easter symbolically. For the first time in our history as CPCE we have campaigned for donations ourselves. We decided to combine two projects. On the one hand, we support health care in the large refugee camps on the Greek island Lesbos, where those fleeing war and violence are stranded on their way to Europe. And we will donate an equal share to a hospital in Aleppo, Syria where those who have not fled, are holding out. You can find out more (and bank accounts if you wish to contribute) on our website https://www.leuenberg.eu/ostern-2020-spendenaufruf-fur-lesbos-und-aleppo-easter-2020-appeal-for-lesbos-and-aleppo/.

Righteousness exalts a nation, yes. But this cannot mean to sit on the high horse and look down on others. No nation can keep justice or righteousness for itself alone. Maybe we can start a competition, which nation – or which continent - can make the best contribution to justice: Just for the entire World.

May God bless you

Martin Friedrich, Wien/ Berlin