“You shall not bear a false report; do not join your hand with a wicked man to be a malicious witness. 2 You shall not follow the masses in doing evil, nor shall you testify in a case so as to turn aside after the masses in order to cause justice to be turned aside; 3 nor shall you be partial to a poor man in his case.
4 “If you meet your enemy’s ox or his donkey wandering away, you shall surely return it to him. 5 If you see the donkey of one who hates you lying helpless under its load, you shall refrain from leaving it to him, you shall surely release it with him.
6 “You shall not cause the justice due to your needy brother to be turned aside in his case. 7 Keep far from a false charge, and do not kill the innocent or the righteous, for I will not justify the guilty.
8 “And you shall not take a bribe, for a bribe blinds the clear-sighted and subverts the cause of the just.
9 “And you shall not oppress a sojourner, since you yourselves know the soul of a sojourner, for you also were sojourners in the land of Egypt.
Judgments About Work and Rest
10 “Now you shall sow your land for six years and gather in its produce, 11 but on the seventh year you shall let it rest and lie fallow, so that the needy of your people may eat; and whatever they leave the beast of the field may eat. Thus you shall do with your vineyard and your olive grove.
12 “Six days you are to do your work, but on the seventh day you shall rest so that your ox and your donkey may rest, and the son of your maidservant, as well as your sojourner, may refresh themselves. 13 Now concerning everything which I have said to you, beware; and do not mention the name of other gods, nor let them be heard from your mouth. Exodus 23: 1-13 LSB
Define Equity:
Merriam-Webster definition of equity states in the positive that equity is a) justice according to natural law or right and in the negative b) freedom from bias or favoritism.
Oxford Languages definition of equity states it as: the quality of being fair and impartial.
The definitions above align with what you can read from the passage in Exodus 23, in verse 1 we see that justice should not be subverted by lying in order to get an outcome that favors you or another wicked man. Verse 2, justice should not be subverted by way of the crowd, numbers nor might make right. Our founding fathers realized that the majority can be wrong, like lynch mobs and rioters, and so they wrote a constitution. People confuse democracy with the power to vote to make something true that isn't or to call something just that never will be. Going along with the crowd may feel exciting, as movements often do, but numbers and momentum don't make something good or just, a tsunami is also a movement, but I wouldn't want to be in front of it. Verse 3 goes so far as to say that one should not be partial to a poor man in his case either, favor him because he is poor, that is not just. Verse 6 protects the needy as does 8 because it is the rich that can afford to pay bribes, but again, that is not justice, that is not equity.
More on Exodus 23
I see equity as I see equality, that we are all human beings, belonging to the human race, sharing the same parents. In this I believe that justice should not be meted out according to titles, melanin levels, wealth or lack of. We are all made in the image of God and so we should respect that image in every individual, regardless of whether they agree with us or not. In verse 17 of Isaiah 1, above, Isaiah, at the behest of the Holy Spirit, mentions two groups of people that also deserve justice, the fatherless and widow, people who do not have the power to repay us. James later echoes these same sentiments.
For those who wonder at my use of Scripture, I have many good reasons to trust the Bible as a reliable source. Even the opening verse is a scientifically sound statement.
The words of Genesis 1:1 are precise and concise beyond mere human composition. They account for everything evolution cannot explain. Evolutionary philosopher Herbert Spencer, one of Darwin’s earliest and most enthusiastic advocates, outlined five “ultimate scientific ideas”: time, force, action, space, and matter.25 These are categories that (according to Spencer) comprise everything that is susceptible to scientific examination. That simple taxonomy, Spencer believed, encompasses all that truly exists in the universe. Everything that can be known or observed by science fits into one of those categories, Spencer claimed, and nothing can be truly said to “exist” outside of them. - Article adapted from a JMac lecture, Master's College.
In the beginning (Time), God (Force), created (Action), the heavens (Space), and the earth (Matter).
When I wanted to be an atheist it was mostly appealing to me because I didn't like the idea of a just and Holy God. I loved my sin and I did not like that He called it such. But how from that ideology could I possibly address this present topic of equity, of justice without bias? If I eliminate God then men are no longer made in His image and no longer beholding to Him, a thought that I once found comforting. No God = no sin = no sin of inequity either. Think about it, if we are not designed by a Creator, Who would then have a right over His creation, which thought we can't bare because it would question our autonomy, then where is the basis of our complaint for equity, fairness, justice? If you and I are only a result of many accidents, if we came into being from nothing, unguided, not designed, well that bares a lot of questions in relation to Spencer's five "ultimate scientific ideas" as well, but where is the foundation of your demand for equity? What is your highest court of appeal?
One answer that I often get back is "society", we decide together as a society or by the standards of the present culture. Right and wrong are decided by society, a collective of individuals, by democratic vote and they are right based upon the light they have or don't have according to their time. The reality of that is that without God there is no ultimate right or wrong, so there is still no actual, fixed, absolute for any of these ideals except that it will be determined by men and women, and even then by power. Might makes right in this scenario either by numbers, weapons or technology. Another issue here is none of these things are free from the lies of politics, of cheating, but again you would have to be strong enough enforce even actual good, fairness. Good government would do just that.
Let's look at another outcome, can the majority not only beat the minority by vote, but also vote to exploit and or eradicate the minority? I submit to you Nazi Germany, and if society decides right and wrong, that society was on board with taking their weapons, their military might and power to push forward an ideology that killed Jews, homosexuals, and Christians who decided to hide and protect their neighbors. Read the story of Corrie ten Boom, The Hiding Place, and I would also challenge you to read about the Nuremburg Trials where the defense offered by men who oversaw the genocide of their fellow humans in gas chambers, firing lines, by starvation, rape and torture, was that they were simply following orders. They were just going with the power, with the movement, someone they found to be a dynamic speaker. The same with Mao Zedong, Stalin and Lenin; people liked what they had to say, and those people were willing to slaughter over a hundred million of their fellow humans in the name of the god of atheism. They all promised equity, but they bravely called it communism and socialism back then.
The indictment of 24 Nazi government officials and organizations was filed on October 18, 1945 by the four chief prosecutors of the International Military Tribunal: Robert H Jackson of the United States, Sir Hartley Shawcross of Great Britain, Francois de Menthon of France, and Roman A Rudenko of the Soviet Union. The jurisdiction of the Tribunal included crimes against peace, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. The IMT defined crimes against humanity as "murder, extermination, enslavement, deportation...or persecutions on political, racial, or religious grounds." From The National WW2 Museum New Orleans
So when we talk about DEI today what are we talking about? I believe in equity of opportunity, that's the way I hire, I am looking for the candidate with the best credentials as relating to the job. Like I said before, this takes care of the natural available diversity as well. Once you go around this and make something aesthetic or cultural a requirement, you have actually perverted equity because you are unjust. I have heard arguments for equity that demand reparations, and they again choose melanin as the highest appeal to this. So, if you are a person of color living in America or Western Europe, you are owed reparations because you did not get as fair a shake at the American dream as people with less melanin. You are here because you, oh, well not you, but your ancestor, some centuries ago, was kidnapped and brought here to work against their will. This isn't new, and we all got to hear much about this in recent years from BLM and other groups that have had a lot of help from corrupt media, calling violent riots mostly peaceful protests and government that was mad about Jan. 6th, where the capitol police walked people through the capitol, but not so angry about fires, looting or the lynch mob that came against the capitol at the end of the previous administration and hurt police. There's another issue, we have seen that corruption is in all human groups, that the people that peddle equity often don't know what it is and are really bad with the money that they ask you turn over to them. We have government that promises entitlements (welfare programs), which has been a long standing experiment in equity, but what has it produced? People now teach their children that this is how you survive, rather than learning a real world skill they appeal to an artificial entity, the people that say vote for me and I will take what someone else has worked for and give it to you. Another issue, how far back are you willing to go? Who kidnapped and sold Africans to the Portuguese, the Spanish, and other Europeans, the answer, other Africans. What does the Bible have to say about this type of slavery? This is important because it and people influenced by it, like
Harriet Beecher Stowe, who was also influenced by the plight of African Americans that she witnessed, were moved to become abolitionist.
16Whoever kidnaps another man must be put to death, whether he sells him or the man is found in his possession. Exodus 21:16
Now that passage was written to Israel in a Theocracy, but the abolitionist recognized that while there was forgiveness available through Christ, yet God did not change. It is still wrong to make someone else less than you in your eyes in order to take their freedom or live off the sweat of their brow, the bending of their back. Their appeal was to men being made in the image of God. It is also wrong to answer racism or supposed racism with racism. I say supposed because race baiters are a greedy lot that rely on racism one way or another. It's their bread and butter. They use it every voting cycle, vote for me because everyone else is racist, and I am going to save you. It gets them in power, they give out some money, but there is never enough "free money", so when their programs don't work they just slander their opponents more. They vote themselves raises, and when they budget poorly they just raise the taxes and there is no accountability. Ask yourselves when you vote for them, do I want true equity and equality, or do I want special treatment for something that has nothing to do with merit? These people are snake oil salesmen that need all of us to be at each other's throats, and will call truth hate speech as soon as someone disagrees with them.
In reality the greatest threat to this nation is the government, the government. And I want to show you how we are to understand that. Turn to Romans 13, Romans 13. Listen carefully to what the apostle Paul said: “Every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God. Therefore whoever resists authority has opposed the ordinance of God; and they who have opposed will receive condemnation upon themselves. For rulers are not a cause of fear for good behavior, but for evil. Do you want to have no fear of authority? Do what is good and you will have praise from the same; for it is a minister of God to you for good. But if you do what is evil, be afraid; for it doesn’t bear the sword for nothing; for it is a minister of God, an avenger who brings wrath on the one who practices evil.” The role of the government is to restrain evil; and when it functions to restrain evil, it is fulfilling its God-ordained purpose.
Please notice in verses 1 and 2 that government is from God, by God, of God. It is designed as a necessary restraint in a world of sinners. Verses 3 and 4 tell us it is not a threat to those whose behavior is good, but evil. It is those who do evil who should be afraid, not those who do good. In fact it offers praise to those who do good, and brings wrath on those who do evil. And rulers actually, according to verse 6, are servants of God, devoted to that service.
This is God’s design for government. The problem is, when government ceases to function by God’s design, it yields up its authority. The same would be true in a family. God’s design is that the father lead the family. When the father leads in a destructive and evil way, he yields up the right to exercise that God-given authority.
And by the way just as a footnote, the man who wrote that, the apostle Paul, was in violation of the government more often than any other person in the entire New Testament. And when he went to preach the gospel, he was very often thrown in jail; and ultimately he was executed by the government that he refused to obey when it no longer functioned to protect good behavior and punish evil behavior.
A second passage, 1 Peter chapter 2, and verses 13 and 14 will suffice, I think: “Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether to a king as the one in authority, or to governors as sent by him”—by the Lord—“for the punishment of evildoers and the praise of those who do right.” There again we are to submit for the Lord’s sake. “What do you mean ‘the Lord’s sake’?” When the government is doing what the Lord designed it to do.
When government turns the divine design on its head and protects those who do evil and makes those who do good afraid, it forfeits its divine purpose. In our world today rulers are designing a culture that protects the immoral. It even has reached the point where it desires to protect criminals, and makes those who do good afraid. When the criminals are unrestrained because they don’t fear the consequences, but the police are restrained because they fear the consequences of stopping criminals, you know everything is turned on its head. Our government is the source of lies and the protector of liars, and the enemy of those who speak the truth. It praises the evil and persecutes the good.
So God’s design for government has been entirely corrupted. As these divinely designed spheres of control in human society descend into chaos, the government will cease to function the way God designed it, and in fact it will become the enemy of the divine design. It will turn everything upside down. It will become the punisher of those who do good, like putting James Coates in prison for preaching but letting rioters go free. J Mac from When Government Rewards Evil and Punishes Good
Some final Scriptures relating to equity, and as a Christian you should want to pay fairly just as much as you do not want to be taken advantage of. I have been on the bad side of that before, where I paid a lot of money and the person did inferior work, and even claimed to be a Christian. I would ask that those people quit saying that, and at the same time, if they do good, then I would like to reward them even above what we agreed. To me, equity comes down to treating others as equal to you and desiring that they do well. Think about what equity really is, what are you actually seeking? What are you wanting to make the deciding factor of who gets what? If it's your melanin levels, that has nothing to do with equity, you're just asking for another type of racism. If you want your sex to open the door for you then that's just sexist, but if you want to do what's right and just in God's eyes, even loving and praying for your enemies, that's divine.
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