I read Heather Delaney Reese’s recent post this morning and found myself returning to a question that has shaped much of my life and work: What does it mean to pursue justice as part of our calling as Christians? For me, following Christ has never been separable from truth, human dignity, compassion, justice, and concern for those vulnerable to the exercise of power.

That is why I find this moment so deeply troubling.

I struggle to reconcile some of the actions and rhetoric we are witnessing with the Christ I encounter in Scripture. And I struggle even more with the reality that some of the strongest support for this leadership comes from people who, like me, claim the name of Christ.

This is not simply a political question for me. It is a spiritual and moral one.

Does truth still matter when the truth challenges our political loyalties?

Does human dignity still matter when the person being diminished is someone with whom we disagree?

Does justice still matter when pursuing it costs us affiliation, access, comfort, or power?

Scripture does not call us merely to admire justice. It calls us to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with God (Micah 6:8).

And Christ did not ask us to protect power. Again and again, He directed our attention toward those who were suffering, excluded, marginalized, and vulnerable.

There is something profoundly providential to me about the timing of all of this.

This coming week, I will have the privilege of speaking to the Justice for Flourishing group about my friend, Judge Thomas Buergenthal, whose life and work profoundly shaped my understanding of justice, human dignity, and moral courage.

Tom survived the Holocaust as a child and devoted his life to advancing international human rights and the rule of law. I find myself thinking about him now as the international institutions and principles that generations of people like Thomas worked to establish and strengthen are being challenged.

Knowing Tom made these questions deeply personal for me. His life taught me that justice is never merely an abstract principle. It depends upon human beings willing to defend the dignity of others, tell the truth when truth is inconvenient, and resist the gradual normalization of injustice.

Perhaps it is providential that I will be telling his story at this particular moment.

My years studying resilience, oppression, moral courage, and the Holocaust have taught me to take seriously what Hannah Arendt called the banality of evil. Great moral failures do not always announce themselves dramatically. They can become possible as people gradually accommodate themselves to what once would have shocked their consciences.

Thomas understood, in a way few of us ever could, what can happen when human beings are dehumanized, when truth becomes negotiable, when institutions intended to restrain power are weakened, and when ordinary people become accustomed to what should never be considered normal.

His life reminds me why justice and flourishing can never be separated.

There can be no genuine human flourishing where human dignity is conditional, truth is expendable, or justice depends upon who holds power.

And perhaps that is part of the calling before us now.

So I pray.

I pray for our country. I pray for our leaders. And I pray that God opens all of our eyes, including mine, wherever political loyalty, fear, anger, or certainty has made it difficult for us to see clearly.

And I pray that those of us who call ourselves Christians will have the courage to ask one deceptively simple question:

DOES THIS LOOK LIKE CHRIST?

Not: Is this Republican or Democrat?

Not: Does this advance my political agenda?

Not: Is this being done by someone I voted for?

Does this look like Christ?

Because if the answer is no, our calling is not to rationalize it.

Our calling is to tell the truth, protect human dignity, pursue justice, love mercy, and have the courage to stand.

Even when standing costs us something.

Read the post that prompted these reflections

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