What is our duty to bring justice?

Deep Thoughts (Some discussion questions)

  1. What is the government's duty to promote justice? Read Psalm 72.
    • How should the government help the weak?
  2. What is our duty to promote justice? Read the parable of the good Samaritan. Luke 10.
    • How should we help the weak?

Examples (Of government intervention)

In all the cases listed below the governments involved believe they are protecting the weak.
  1. New Brunswick to ban non-medical vaccine exemptions. This law would ban all vaccine exemptions except where the vaccine is known to be harmful, such as in the case of allergies.
  2. Teen girl, Jehovah Witness, required to receive blood transfusion. Jehovah's Witnesses believe blood transfusions violate Biblical principles of "not eating blood" in Leviticus and Acts. 
  3. German family not allowed to home school their own children. There are no religious exemptions if parents want to home school their children. The state believes it has a duty of care to ensure the children are properly educated.

Approaches (To thinking through things)

There's different ways to think about each of these issues.

 Emotional    Logical Positive  Creative Information  Logical Negative
 Feelings, hunches, gut reactions  What's the upside? How do we look at this logically and in an upbeat way?  Possibilities, alternatives. What could we do differently that might keep everyone happy?  Hunting for all the knowledge. What do we need to know to understand this?  Judgement. What could reasonably go wrong? What's the downside?

What you need to do

  • You are going to hand write (hand writing is nice, and apparently even more effective if you sent the letter, but not necessary) a letter to the appropriate government official. In it you will explain your position on one of the three news items.
  • As you write it you will try to use 3 of the 5 thinking styles listed above. 
    • Can you approach a problem with an emotional appeal, while providing information, and creative solution?
    • Or can you logically show the benefits of an idea, while also showing the logical problems, and give a lot of information?

Evaluation

  • Is the letter well written, with a smooth, coherent message?
  • Does the letter employ 3 of the 5 different methods of persuasion?
Comments