The public may not think so but there is good news for everyone about the only true God of justice. Everyone has a right to know about him and his justice which is available for all. We don’t have to live with injustice, either as witnesses or as victims.

A man in the Metro saw the title of a book that a fellow traveller was reading. It was Good News about Injustice. The man, unbidden, lent forward and said ‘There is no good news about injustice in India’. Grinding poverty, oppression, exploitation, discrimination, prejudicial justice, slavery, trafficking, abuse and neglect of basic human rights, corruption and a non-accountable government all verify that belief.

What is the Christian response to this grave situation? Does it grieve the hearts of those who believe in a God of justice? More importantly, does it grieve the God of justice who looks with compassion on the hungry? Justice is rooted in the character of God. ‘For the Lord is righteous, he loves justice” Ps11:7. Justice expresses God’s actions to restore his provision to those who have been deprived and to punish those who have violated his standards.

God’s justice and his passion for the poor leads to the transformation of human lives through personal faith and also through stemming the cause of the poverty.

Because of our Christian responsibilities of citizenship and the importance of a commitment to social and economic justice as an outgrowth of Christian faith, we need to build our capacity to interact with the nation’s policy makers and implementers and to engage with public policy so as to influence them for good.

Public policy can be defined as courses of action, regulatory measures, laws, and funding priorities executed by government.  Engaging democratically in public policy is vital in addressing social concerns.

Let’s remember Habakkuk’s cry for justice

Habakkuk looked and saw the wickedness around him and cried out to God asking "How long, O Lord, must I call for help, but you do not listen? Or cry out to you, "Violence!" but you do not save? Why do you make me look at injustice? Why do you tolerate wrong? Destruction and violence are before me; there is strife, and conflict abounds (1:2,3)

Habakkuk looked around him and said that - the law is paralysed, justice never prevails, the wicked hem in the righteous and justice is perverted. As injustice increased he wondered, ‘Where in the world can God be? How could God stand back and let His people become more and more wicked without stepping in and bringing the nation to its knees as in days past?’

In India, it is estimated:

Why must some children continue to suffer this injustice ?

'We don’t need to live with this injustice, this poverty and discrimination,' says CB Samuel.  We don't need to accept it as silent witnesses, hurting or hardened by the frequency of it and we don't need to live as long-term victims either. He recently attended an interfaith meeting on injustice where he said, 'We need a God of justice and if we haven't got one, we must create one.'  After the meeting leaders of other faiths came to him and said, 'We recognise that it is only the God of the Judo-Christian faiths that is a God of justice.'  Wonderful, what a God we have! The unique God of absolute moral excellence, the only one with faultless knowledge of right and wrong, the only one qualified to judge and to uphold supreme justice. Good news indeed, for all.  Everyone has the right to know; it’s a matter of justice, in fact.