Is Equality A Worthy Pursuit? challenges the virtue of equality, citing C.S. Lewis to distinguish it from love or courage while asserting eternal hierarchies in heaven. The argument rejects equality of outcome as inherently unjust, positing instead that justice mandates equality of opportunity and under law through a divinely instituted state focused on vengeance rather than mercy. Ultimately, this framework suggests true righteousness requires separating governmental justice from familial compassion to avoid enforcing unvirtuous uniformity. [Automatically generated summary]
Transcriber: CohereLabs/cohere-transcribe-03-2026, WAV2VEC2_ASR_BASE_960H, sat-12l-sm, script v26.04.01, and large-v3-turbo
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Justice vs Equality of Outcome00:05:29
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Is equality, kind of with your talk, even something to be strived after as a virtue?
Clearly, it is not something to be achieved via government.
But even in the new heaven and new earth, will there be equality or will hierarchies among humans continue into eternity?
All right.
I don't think equality is a virtue.
So that's number one.
And there's not saying I endorse all of C.S. Lewis's theology.
He has an interesting essay where he talks about this.
And I can't remember all his arguments in the essay, but I think it comes down to it's a state of being and it could be beneficial in certain circumstances, but it's not a virtue in like love or these intangibles that we.
Like courage, we were just talking about.
Like, these are virtues that can really, like, you don't, you don't, like, watch Bob going down this, like, Bob, he's so equal, like, right?
But Bob, Bob is, Bob, yeah, Bob can be, like, charitable.
Bob can be compassionate.
Bob can't be equal.
So, equal is not really a virtue.
But as far as hierarchies in heaven, I mean, there's always going to be a hierarchy between God and, right, creation and, so that's, like, the Peter Jones, like, twoism, oneism, twoism thing, right?
So, yeah, I think so.
But, So here's the question, and this is probably, I would assume AD probably agrees with this, and I think you'd agree with this too, Joel, that people that are egalitarian, they're usually looking for verses that can somehow forward their agenda.
So when they say, like, oh, every tribe, tongue, nation, around the throne, like, all there, like, equally, no, they're all the same.
We should just diversify your church.
That's what that means.
Or we're all one in Christ.
There's no slave.
There's no, you know, there's all these distinctions that exist in the temporal world.
Like, they don't apply in heaven or something.
I think they're just trying to grab something that might fit into what they already believe most of the time.
And so, and probably misinterpreting it for the most part, because we do keep some of those distinctions, otherwise, there wouldn't be tribes, tongues, and nations in heaven.
There's still some distinction there when you get to heaven.
So, I don't know.
Yeah, I want you to expand on that.
So, my thought is yeah, so equality is not a virtue.
Justices.
Justices.
And as you all know, there's a difference between equality and equity.
And so, equality of opportunity versus equality of outcome.
Those are two different things.
And so, first, you have to define terms.
What do you mean by equal?
And often what they mean is equality of outcome, which is really the heart of egalitarianism equality of outcome.
And here's why that's not a virtue.
It's not a virtue, not simply because it's abstract or because it's lacking in virtue, but it actually has a presence of sin.
The opposite it's not just non virtuous, it's unvirtuous.
Equality of outcome is injustice.
It requires equality of outcome, it requires injustice.
So equality is not a virtue, but justice is.
And justice, I believe, under the law in a judicial system does it mandate equality of opportunity, equal under the law, equal justice, equal weights and measures, two or three witnesses, not just, you know, me too.
I said it, believe all women.
You know, the first person who runs into the room is not always the victim.
Sometimes they're lying, which actually means the person they're lying about is the true victim, right?
So it's not equity, it's equality.
And when we say equality, equality in and of itself is not a virtue, but equality of opportunity and equality under the law.
If we're speaking of equality in those terms, then what we're actually talking about is justice, and justice is a virtue.
So, justice produces equality, not of outcome, but equality of opportunity.
And in that sense, justice is a virtue.
And I believe that that can be achieved in physical ways, tangible, practical, temporal ways, through government.
So, the question says clearly it's not something to be achieved via government, but I would argue that actually is the role of government.
And God assigned it to government.
So, we have sovereign spheres, they each have their jurisdiction, they each have their roles and responsibilities.
And one of the roles of the civil sphere is equality of opportunity, equality under the law.
So, I would say that.
Insofar as we're speaking of equality in that sense, we're speaking of justice, and justice is the chief ministry of the state.
Whereas the church is a ministry of word and sacrament, it's a ministry of mercy, it's gospel.
Whereas the state, it's not a ministry of, you know, so people are like, well, don't we want to have compassion and get rid of the death penalty?
Shouldn't we be compassionate?
The state is not called to compassion, it's called to justice.
They're God's avengers, vengeance, right?
That's why we don't take vengeance into our own hands.
We're not vigilantes because we haven't been given vengeance as a ministry by God.
As families, Individuals or churches.
The state, though, has.
That is their chief ministry, a ministry of vengeance, justice.
And because of that, I think the state actually is, in terms of society as a whole, the chief institute, divinely instituted by God Himself, that should be enacting justice.
And if we have a righteous state, they actually can achieve, through justice and just laws, equality, so long as we're speaking of equality of opportunity, equality under the law, and not equality of outcome.
God's Ministry of Vengeance00:00:19
Do you have any?
No, you guys got rid of it.
Good job.
Great.
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