Things I Want My Kids to Know #6: There Is No Such Thing as Fair

I want my kids to understand that justice is worth fighting for. I want them to understand that justice can be understood, known, fought for, implemented, acted out, invoked. Justice is real. "Fair," on the other hand, is a sad substitute for justice. It is elusive. It is real only in that it is an idea that exists; it is never truly lived out in practicality. It is important to know that what I mean by fair is not the proper dictionary definition, but rather, what we have come to assume fair to be. We, in our collective mindset, have come to understand fair to be an idea that we are all bound to, in which, the playing field is leveled for each party concerned. We have come to think that this kind of equality is society's responsibility and that the lack thereof is proper excuse for all unpleasant behavior; adequate excuse for not doing the right thing(s). My thinking on this has been inspired from some Biblical material.

The whole Cain and Abel story is pretty disturbing. It is disturbing because the whole thing wreaks of: "that's not fair." And yet God seems quite comfortable with the lack of fairness. Cain, being a farmer, brought God his very best produce as an offering. Abel, being a shepherd, brought the best of his flock as an offering to God. God favored Abel's offering and rejected Cain's. The text gives no explanation of why (if you feel the need to insert an explanation here, you are being unjust to the text and are showing off how deeply engrained this whole idea of fair is.) According to God's whim, one offering (and, by implication, one brother)was accepted by God and one was not. Cain, theoretically, would have had the opportunity to approach God differently later... he could have been accepted too. There is no lack of justice in the story- just the disturbing lack of parity. -Perhaps parity is a better word here. It's just that we are removed from that word and don't use it often. We use fair when we mean parity- In the parable of the talents (Matthew 25:14-30) We see this same lack of parity, and it is disturbing. It's just not fair that one guy was given a little and had to hand it over to the guy who was given the most in the first place. A similar thing happens in the parable of the Laborers in the Vineyard (Matthew 20:1-16). Different guys are hired to work different lengths of time to harvest a vineyard. In the end, they are all payed the same wage. Disturbing. Not fair. No parity. It was all just, however. They were each paid according to the deal that each of them agreed to. Consider Jesus: it is not fair that He should bear the burden of the world's sin through his torture and death- it is, however, just, in that God requires payment for sin and that payment was made in full.

So here's the deal: By teaching my kid's to not evaluate things in terms of what is fair or unfair, but by what is just and unjust, I am empowering them. I am empowering them to identify those whose intent is to mistreat them (he who cries foul saying: "that's not fair" is the guy who wants it a little more fair for himself at another's expense). I am empowering them to seek out an economy of correctness that is more in line with God's expectations and is more realistic with how the universe is ordered. Ironically, as things go, my children's pursuit if justice will, in the end, increase the standard and quality of life with whom they come in contact... with that in mind, who needs a leveled playing field anyway?