What is Fairness?

A doctor asked me, “What is fairness?” Since he asked the question as I was leaving his office, I’ve been pondering how I should get back to him with a response. During my visit with him, in addition to discussing the medical reason for my visit, we talked about American history, our respective family history in Virginia, and the moral condition of our nation. He also mentioned the crises some religious denominations are facing regarding issues related to God’s Word – though he may see the issues not so much as tied to the authority of the Bible but rather in general moral and sociological contexts.

At least three or four times during my visit he said that we are an immoral nation – and we both agreed that this is the case from the top down – that is, immorality affects every segment of society, including our institutions. I am going to use his perspective that we are an immoral nation to respond to his question, “What is fairness?”

There is a sense in which I don’t think the question can be answered within the context of an immoral nation – nor do I think it can be answered within the context of a professing-church that has pretty much capitulated to the world. Questions such as this can be asked in perhaps any context, but I am not sure that they can be answered in any context. This has ethical, moral, and theological implications – and I think the theological implications are the greatest for I think that all other implications flow from them.

The Biblical view of man, especially of redeemed man, man recreated in the image of God in Christ, is that of an integrated whole – holistic. There have been other systems of thought that have shared this view to one degree or another, there have been philosophies that have viewed truth and life-experience as an integrated whole, which have sought to integrate knowledge and experience holistically. The very idea of a “university” speaks to this ideal; in this sense we no longer have universities for it seems to me that we no longer seek integrated knowledge and experience – it is “every discipline for itself” – academic anarchy.

If everything has been reduced to the pragmatic and utilitarian then the idea of fairness, of equity, has also been reduced to these things, these constructs. In such an environment can we really think in terms of fairness? Once we leave the transcendent, once we reject any notion of reality and truth on a higher plane than materialism, once we reject anything beyond “time plus matter plus chance”, then we reduce all logical concepts to the immediate, to the pragmatic, to the moment – and everything is in free-fall.

Imagine sitting in a sports stadium and looking onto the field and seeing baseball teams, football teams, soccer teams, basketball teams, lacrosse teams, and field hockey teams – all playing their games at the same time. Also imagine that there are no umpires or referees for any of these games. This imaginary scene of confusion is similar to the confusion we have when segments of society; government, education, business, family, church; operate without a sense or ideal of the transcendent – life becomes ad hoc and thinking takes on the life of a mayfly.

One difference between the above illustration and our lives today is that we recognize the situation in the sports stadium for what it is but do not recognize the milieu that we live in, in fact, we accept it and try to adapt to it. The more we attempt to adapt to the confusion around us, the more confused we become and the more we accept the ephemeral nature of society and life. The more we consume the more we are consumed. The more we try to be “relevant” the less relevant we become.

Can we even begin to discuss the notion of fairness within such chaos?

In theology, for the most part, academic learning has been divorced from spirituality. In Christianity, we can explore theology without living lives of devotion to Christ, without needing the Holy Spirit to reveal God’s Word to us, without living lives of spiritual, moral, and ethical integrity. This is contrary to the teaching of the Bible and of the Church Fathers. We produce seminary graduates who may be academically sound, but the academic learning has not been immersed in the life of the Holy Spirit and is not holistically integrated. (Yes, there are certainly exceptions).

The same can be said for our Sunday schools and many of our small groups. How else can we explain the fact that men and women can spend their entire lives in Sunday school and yet are generally unable to meet together around God’s Word without having a “professional”, either in person or via a DVD or written material, to guide them through the Biblical text? Aren’t we supposed to be seeking the Face of God and the Presence of Christ in His Word? Aren’t we supposed to be a royal priesthood and a holy nation?

I believe we need to rediscover Christocentric holistic and sacramental theology; the holistic (in Christ) and sacramental experience of His Word, as His People. Knowing a doctrine without having the experience of the doctrine in Christ falls short of the glory of God, and it likely pulls the glory of the doctrine downward into the natural where it suffers pollution.

When Jerusalem serves Rome (political) and Athens (intellectual) we find Jesus Christ cast out of Jerusalem. When the City of God serves the City of Man we have chaos in the professing-church. In such a world, and in such a church, it is well-nigh impossible to talk of fairness and equity. In fact, it is about impossible to speak of anything that is not focused on the moment and immediate gratification.