A justification for unrest? Look no further than the Bible and the Founding Fathers

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(THE CONVERSATION) – In his 1968 speech, “The Other America,” Martin Luther King Jr. concluded that there can be no peace without justice – a concept that has a strong foundation in the Judeo-Christian tradition, according to Samira Mehta, an assistant professor at the University of Colorado in Boulder, Colorado.

Justice is a major theme beginning in Genesis and Exodus. Later, prophets such as Amos and Isaiah called for justice and equality. New Testament passages such as Jesus’ words in Matthew, “I have not come to bring peace, but a sword,” have been used to justify destruction of property in the name of justice, while passages like Romans 13 have been used to argue that Christians are commanded to obey their respective governments even if they are perceived to be unjust.

The American Founding Fathers also spoke to the importance of justice and recognized that unrest was sometimes necessary to achieve it, writes Mehta – an example being the Declaration of Independence.

King did not champion violence but warned against condemning riots if society did not also condemn the conditions that brought them about, she argues.

“Peace is not merely the absence of this tension, but the presence of justice,” said King.

Read the full article at https://theconversation.com/a-justification-for-unrest-look-no-further-than-the-bible-and-the-founding-fathers-139742.