1. INTRODUCTION
The Bible on which Christians like me stand on as we confess our faith states clearly that human beings are both flesh and spirit. Flesh is what the senses give room to observe, feel and prognosticate or analyse for scientific purposes; but the spirit, partially, is like the brain of human beings that operates at 10% level, and is still not finding it easy to grow beyond that stagnated 10%. The spirit being as the Bible states is, also, partially as the Almighty, unseen, and quite immeasurable; that is man created in His image. However, the sun that could be seen separating the senses from “beyond the sun” for now, could remain a mystery for human beings. Until that mystery is solved, every human being lives within the limits his or her faith allows. The Christians know that love is the ultimate hence Faith, Hope and Love but the greatest of all is Love; and Jesus Christ, the Saviour stated it in the summary of the 10 commandments as: love God and love your neighbour as yourself. So, for every belief system, to have a tolerance value, from Christian perspectives, it must state the quantum of love value it incorporates as contribution to the progress of humanity; and, in extension, it remains the value of its spirituality as well as its own “GNP” (or GGLO – Gross Global Love Output) to human prosperity; and it correlates with social justice in a society to create the degree of societal harmony. Our presentation is to survey cultures and myths available to the limits of our research and see how they incorporate such spirituality and how it paves way for harmonious social justice across spiritual contents of belief systems, cultures and traditions. We start with the knowledge of social justice, some
1traditional belief systems and end with the Christian belief system as it has stood the test of time for almost 2000 years, notwithstanding schism from Roman Catholic, through Protestantism to current Pentecostal, all as functions of schism in reducing love content of Christianity and in allowing the decline of spirituality, as social justice processes fail to adhere, more, to love minimalism of “love your neighbour as yourself”. So, what is social justice; what is love; how do the myths and cultures apply or adopt their precepts and, finally, why are Christians faltering?
2. WHAT IS SOCIAL JUSTICE
According to Rousseau (1998:37), regarding things from a human standpoint, the laws of justice are inoperative among men for want of a natural sanction; they only bring good to the wicked and evil to the just when the latter observe them with everyone and no one observe them in return. Conventions and laws, then, are necessary to couple rights with duties and apply justice to its object. Justice is not “recognizing as belonging to others what is useless to you”. Furthermore, he states: with regard to equality,
We must not understand by this word that the degrees of power and wealth should be absolutely the same... power should fall short of violence, and never be exercised except by law . ... wealth should not allow citizens to be rich enough to be able to buy another and one poor enough to be forced to sell himself (p.52).
According to Fadakinte (2014, 67) the human condition in Africa seems to obey force theory – a small number of people impose their will on a reluctant majority in support of the tendency that the state was not built on any contract and that force has to be applied to maintain stability; or, that a state serves as a battlefield between social classes, the dominant social class hold other classes to submission and make them feel like its subjects.
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In effect, it is a proof of what a kingdom is and how social justice comes only in form of getting reward or being punished if you dissent and disobey royal agents. It is also seen in supposed Republics like Rousseau says of elective aristocracy of North America where power and wealth matter. In all, social justice is constrained as a shadow of natural justice – living in harmony with nature before conquest and the civilizing projects of empires and warriors. Myths have it that humans once lived in harmony with wild animals and there was no harm as nature provided in abundance what made such harmony to reign before humans started their wars and greed for expansion and wealth accumulation which necessitated laws and search for social justice.
Social justice is derivable from a given cultural confine which in itself is either the product of myth, scientific findings or divine inspiration. While the former two are human imaginable the last one could give impression of foolishness to human beings and it is part of the “foolish” way of perceiving God which confounds the claimed wisdom of humans as the Bible states it. Note also that cultural dynamics anticipates change in the content and perception of culture otherwise it goes extinct. So, whether in the family, in the society or event in the workplace or professions, environmental epiphenomena could cause or trigger culture change so as to get the culture moving; and, in the process, social justice derivable from that culture shifts also its value paradigms. Like stated by Rousseau, the basic is to agree to associate with others on defined terms sometimes seen as constitution, and state the rights and obligation of people therein as well as how they intend to be governed; so, for each social contract process some stated rules of social justice apply. When the society is mythically guided or formed, social justice is also mythically derived or convention driven like it was in traditional African society and as it is, partially, in United Kingdom
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until of recent that they decided to have a supreme court; otherwise the peers in the House of Lords and their domains of lordships interface with the King or Queen to evoke mythical laws or convention that the House of commons adjust to. The spirituality of their social justice is on convention basis and once established it stands till new phenomena call for its readjustment. That is why no deal Brexit is going to be triggered as UK has never come to term with the social justice system that is obtainable in Brussels’ European Parliament. For example, the privileges for the Lords, Kings and Queens in the Netherlands, Spain or Belgium are in aberration with those of the UK. Social justice is hierarchisised and applied effectively in UK among the commons for social stability; and, observed degree of loyalty or obedience to the law or conventions adopted by the commons give the common subjects right to reward; and disobedience attracts punishment; which is also seen in social welfare packages that encourage good subjects or punish them while in some cases the Lords and the Royal family are shielded from the wrath of common laws or, at worst, they are excommunicated and made to face common law dictates. Lord Lucan in 1974 was shielded against prosecution. Prince Edward could not obey Prime Minister Baldwin as he coveted an American lady and ended up marrying her; though it ended in excommunication and self-imposed exile in France. These are unexpressed mythical culture processes allowed as conventions. Under Royal law, enforcement agents, Knights, Lord and Royal family are at the apex of social justice observance, on whose interest changes or reforms happen, that could create laws to promote extant social justice or reform it for sustainability of harmony between the commons and the upper class of the society where the peers and the knights belong for the well being of the Royal family or the mythical state, remaining o an extent
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mystery to the commoners. The middles class “rules” among the commons and majority of the UK subjects are to, conventionally; expect equity in observance of the Act of the Union.
The basis of the Acts of Union of 1536 was that Welshmen (like other non English) would acquire equal rights with Englishmen... if and when they abandon their own language and learned English... (So) education, knowledge of (English) law and commerce were combined to convince Welshmen that they had no civilized or ambitious future ahead of them except by claiming equality on those three. (Roland Mathias in Meic Stephens 1973, 40).
The Acts, conventionally, apply to the present day commonwealth as well as, mythically, binding on the houses that had ruled the Royalty with its current states or the House of Winsdor. Seeing UK as embodiment of social harmony driven kingdom out of Social Justice process that revolted from the Papal watch, it is assumed that the rule of law that UK preaches permeates all strata of the society; but it is not so as evidence show that there are great effects of hierarchy watch. Social justice as observed, in all, is that of the application of the common law which some countries like Nigeria observe without transparent knowledge of its spirit like Montesquieu question in his “Spirit of the Laws”. In effect the letters are not as deep as the spirit that created them. So what is the love of humanity that propels the spirit behind the letters. Societies or Nations or countries now make laws but fail to adhere to the Spirit of the letters they have passed as laws. Some people see it as he philosophy or the thinking of the founding fathers.
3. WHAT IS LOVE IN THE LIGHT OF SOCIAL JUSTICE?
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Like what the spirit or spirituality is, like what love means; quite humanly difficult to pin down or practice, not that it is impossible to remake humans to align with it. The Bible says: “there are diverse gifts of the spirit and you hardly find them in one person just like there are diverse love forms – patience, forgiveness, never envious, never haughty, never boasting, never dishonest, never selfish, never irritated, never suspicious of even evil intents, never rejoicing in injustice, never inventing excuses though accept them from others, never disbelieving other, never hopeless and ever expecting for the best; and, finally, endure all that comes your way”. (Corinthians 13)
The last one is where social justice comes in; no human is capable of enduring oppression till death do part him/her from that oppression; one thing will happen, he will either fight back, relocate or take his/her life or at worst enter into the state of mental disorder to be ignored or left alone by the oppressive power. Some oppressed people in Salvation Army camp observed confirm the possibility of feigning mental disorder. Sometimes when nations pin their existence on some difficult dogmas, frustration can set in for some people.
Like Rousseau mentioned, in passing, that for the Hebrews and the Arabs, being in their midst or excluding yourself, is based on the love or not of their religion, for the Athenians it is literature; for Carthage and Tyre it is commerce; for Sparta it is war; for the Rhodes it is navigation and for Rome it is valour. These are the bases for which Montesquieu in Spirit of Laws felt that legislative activities should be based on what interests or drives a nation to make social justice workable. In Africa, where great and mysterious pyramids were built to conserve venerable ancestors, it seems that what drives values are veneration of ancestors as the pyramids show, thought or the philosophy in those pyramids that keep the
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ancestors, Africans had failed to learn their mysteries that make for progress and the West had explored them to their benefits. The love that bound Africans of those era to be focused on hereafter and, so, respect their ancestors seems missing now.
Love is living in harmony with the totality of humanity with its diverse gifts; and it places individuals in a society for mere respect of what that society stands for, culture or myth wise, or its dynamic process. Social mobility or social justice could find meaning in it. Love chooses a person, as per birth, to belong to a society and, in turn, the person decides, or not, to respect that society that has chosen them. The person could be recalcitrant but the society as embodiment of a species of love remain faithful in rescuing the person by the laws, conventions and “rescue projects” the society designs. When you read “Hosea”, you see how that relates to love dominion and the objects of love. God never rejected His chosen people notwithstanding their foibles. They were only made to face natural justice sanctions as they move on disobeying God, and instituting their own way of justice.
So, social justices are more of “attract” or “rescue” processes as people in the society adhere to the species of love a given society represents. Your attraction to it gives you a greater leverage for prosperity and your loathe for it calls for your rescue and a great constraint for the driving force of that species of love for establishing loftier humanistic goals. Countries, Nations and Empires have linked such attempts to the myths and cultures they surreptitiously or overtly observe; like arguing for capitalism or socialism and checking out how technological and industrial abundance help or alienate the individual in their respective corners. USA elections that challenged the status quo say it all as the frustration of some Americans gave birth to another form of love; paternalistic love.
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Liberalism was seen as not working; that is, believe as you wish, attack not greed, respect queer minorities, encourage welfarism, but not as a decree.
4. MYTHS AND CULTURES IN RELATION TO GRAVITATING SOCIAL JUSTICES
Peoples build their cultures or their known myths of origin; and, whence, they guide them in developing their cultures and traditions. They forge their identity on them and somehow they are driven by the languages they speak. However, as civilisations come and go or empire rise and fall, people change also in line with either conquests’ demands, colonisation impositions, or exigencies of formation of nations. In all, religions have made nations to turn to cultural migrants as they adopt religions they feel could give them more meaning to life here on earth and beyond. Whether believers, agnostics, gnostics, or even atheists, no one is an island unto themselves. However, the quantum of love they bring into humanity makes the difference; that is why Mahatma Ghandi; the Hindu teacher and Prime Minister of India said that he would have turned Christian if he had found anyone close to him who acted like Jesus Christ. Gandhi as a leader of a nation that professes, in majority, Hinduism could not understand his own religion that exclude almost 20% of Indian population, almost as at now no fewer than 250million people, from any form of social justice as they are seen as ‘dalit’ – untouchables. He decided to be calling them the children of God instead of untouchables and it offended most Hindus. Hindu, on such precepts of Gandhi started adopting unity in diversity for probable tolerance purposes as within India, dominated by Hinduism, Buddhism, Djainism, deep Mahaviraism, notwithstanding the Christians and Muslims among them. So, in India, with dominance of Hindu that harboured the myth of “live and let live” where other creatures are left alone to live, within humans it
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turned to “live separately if not Hindu” as against what Christianity preaches – born a new, no exclusion, (See Fisher, Louis 1983).
On African continent, where Gandhi once practiced as a lawyer, it does not seem to be different as religions spring everywhere. Religions create ground for cultural migration that relegates myths and traditions to recessive positions and sometimes are allowed to reappear when oppression of the new religions rears its head. Boko Haram, Herdsmen, Janjaweed in Sudan, Tuareg insurrections, etc, are part of recessive myths and traditions rearing their heads out of frustration from their migrated culture. The Mandigo tribes, where the first university in Africa – Timbuktu, emanates give clear signs of constraints in migrating to the religion they felt could create a better human condition upon which better social justice thrives. Olivier de Sardan (1984) narrates it as it concerns the Mandingo people who even got to Oyo Kingdom and Gold Coast as (Awon Omo Mali or Omomale) mythical and caste conflicts that join all the tribes seen in Niger, Mali, Burkina Faso, Sudan, etc, show.
It is also a contest between forgiveness, reforming, and, out-rightly, punishing. It is also a contest between ideal communality and unbridled wealth accumulation in which cases humans are either moving faster on their own for possible peril or adopting flock movement for backwardness. Basically, the Christian living that ought to lead in chastity so as to get others yield to its love dictates, for human prosperity, is also lacking in its love output. Love is the utmost for the Christian, beyond faith and hope.
5. CONCLUSION
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In this presentation we have tried to prove that spirituality which is not quite visible and tangible in humans’ perceptive domains remains the essence of humans which must be sought for and that myths and cultures have been subsumed in multiple religions that have made them migratory elements with no sincere push to better human conditions as to strike at a better social justice process; that though, faith and hope give room for optimism – Christianity’s two fold of perfection movement – love is still not well appreciated and that species of love should be elaborated on as proposed in the book of Corinthians so as to spark new dispensation of life on earth for the restoration of greater humanity. Let’s end it with the quotes of Merkel and Obama.
We (Germans) have strong links with Christian values. Anyone not comfortable with that is not welcome in Germany (in Les Afriques No.135, 2010)
Note that the language is that of preemptive action not redemptive one of proselytising. It forms the basis of German spirituality upon which social justice develops. In effect Markel was worried about a refugee with many wives and children and still wanted to be cared for without shedding his original culture and enter into a migratory culture; the German culture. Now check out a voluntary redemptive one by Obama:
In our household the Bible, the Koran, and the Bhagavad Gita sat on the shelf alongside books of Greek and Norse and African mythology... (My mother) would say religion was an expression of human culture... my father had been raised a Muslim... But it was my mother’s fundamental faith in the goodness of people... for both a language and systems(...) that make real... and application of those values that I accepted work after college for a group of churches in Chicago trying to
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cope with joblessness, drugs and hopelessness in their midst. (In Obama 2008, 205 and 206)
Obama was not saying in that quote that he was a Christian, ab initio. His emphasize was that a selfless platform was provided for him by those churches to make a mark that gives values to a “set of species” of love; what his baptism meant to a church, and subsequent marriage to his wife and further baptism of his children till he became president of USA, vindicate the prospects of moving faith and hope to some degree of love forms as personified by his person in a born again state. It is also on those bases that the mini-social justice he received from those churches permeated his being and made him imbibe a dimension of love that progressed to the love of upgrading human goodness that guided all his time as the president of USA; and they are still available for contest with the new President’s paternatlistic approach as Democrats of Obama’s love species’ types dominate the Congress and are insisting on social justice that must tax more the rich to help the poor. When Republicans rule the rich are in the nadir of social justice enjoyment and when Democrats rule, the poor are contented with social justice system that relieve them of their poor conditions – food stamps and extended cheap health care policy.
The quantum of love output expressed by these systems of two-party traits give a better perspective of social justice for the progress of humanity; the people make their choice in objective way, during elections, and it is a basis to evaluate their level of spirituality – the governors and the governed. They allow their spirituality to oscillate or swing with greater values or lesser values as they choose the kind of social justice system to be provided by the parties. In effect, that is the value of spirituality visibly felt in tangible contents of social justice provision.
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