Entitlement and Justice

In Jean Twenge and Keith Campbell's book, The Narcissism Epidemic, the evidence for a  strong entitlement mentality in North America's post baby boomer generation is quite overwhelming. This is not to say that the baby boomer generation does not also have a sense of entitlement but they tend to be less blind to it. I am all too aware of it as a professor to 18 to 25 year olds. The question we all need to answer is, is this mentality in agreement with the teachings of Christ and the gospel. It seems to me from a number of sayings of Jesus and from the letters of Paul that we are entitled to nothing. Did not Jesus say that we are to deny ourselves and take up the cross and follow Him? Did Jesus claim his entitlement as the Son of God when he was shamefully treated by the Sanhedrin? If anyone was entitled, it was He? Yet he did not call upon His Father to rescue Him but said, "not my will but yours be done." And what about Paul's words to the Phillippians, "Do nothing out of selfishness and vain conceit but consider others of more value than your self."

This brings me to a second issue that is very popular today in Christian circles that is often confused with entitlement or justifies an entitlement mentality, and that is, justice. I hear arguments for justice that are merely cloaked arguments of entitlement. Could the recent "occupy movements" be motivated more out of entitlement than justice? I agree there is some injustice in Canada and the US but, all things being equal, we are two of the most just societies in the world. Such people might think they are speaking out against injustice when in reality they are often simply defending entitlement. I confess, I believe that many are ignorant of their own entitlement motives. But we as Christians should not be ignorant of them and so be self critical, asking whether we are motivated by entitlement or true biblical justice when we call something unjust.

 I am concerned for us as Christians that instead of taking our ideas of justice from the word of God, we often see what is just or unjust from our cultural context. For example, if I believe that a person should forfeit his life for a premeditated murder on the basis of the word of God, I am not being unjust to that person (I am aware that not all Christians agree with captial punishment but my point still stands). I believe I am following God's justice. Another example may also help: if I believe that the scriptures teach that women should not be elders in the church, am I unjust to women (again I am aware that not all Christians agree on this issue). I have heard this argument of injustice toward women, and I wonder if the speaker is being more influenced by the culture than scripture (I am also aware that there are reasonable biblical arguments for women as elders but again my point still stands).

We need to be reminded that justice is in the eye of the beholder and is always based on some presuppostions. As Christians we need to remember that our presuppostions ought to be grounded in the scriptures as our authority for justice or anything else. Moreover, we need to be reminded that we are not God and don't know all the circumstances and reasons for decisions that another person makes. From our perspective it may seem to be unjust but if we knew all the facts, we might not be so quick to call it injustice. As Christians we ought to be aware that we are not only not omniscient but we are also fallen, and our judgments can be quite self- oriented, and so take such motives into account when declaring something unjust.

My plea is for more self awareness on these issues of entitlment and justice, and to seek to bring our motives and attitudes in line with Jesus and the gospel.