The Nature of Righteousness

What the heck is righteousness anyway?

I have been reading a trilogy by Justin Cronin recently. The trilogy concerns what would happen if the United States began experimental treatments in an effort to achieve immortality. The treatments were successful, and the series then explores the experiences of various characters in various periods.

In the second book, it begins with a biblical King James Version spin to it. It goes into the what happened, where, when, and why and it calls the characters “righteous.”

The Bible does this as well and we often do not hear the struggles that many of the people who were righteous in the sight of God go through. We don’t really see their humanity and, even if we do, we ignore it and instead focus on their righteousness as we perceive it and give them divine qualities.

For instance, there was a girl that I once went to school with. She was Christian, as is expected, and one of her favorite people from the Bible was King David because he was righteous in the sight of God. She called him a true man of God and focused entirely on how David honored God. When I pointed out the failings of David, she became angry but could not account for them.

Often, in religions, we have these people that have these extraordinary experiences and we think that they are perfect or close to perfection. We also think that people that lead movements or are in places of authority have to be perfect or have to be completely our ideal of what they should be. This is why many churches split and why people get angry at pastors, youth pastors, deacons, leaders, and many others.

The nature of righteousness, in our minds, is often one where we think that the person has to be perfect and almost divine. We don’t say it and gasp if it is even introduced- and yet, when someone challenges the idea that they were so good and wonderful, then anger is brought about.

The nature of righteousness is one where mercy, grace, forgiveness, and love all come into play. The key one on that is grace. Grace covers so much, and it is what brings about righteousness.

Just because someone is brought about to righteousness of God or the Goddess or of Allah or of whichever god, does not mean they are perfect. It does mean that their humanity is recognized, and their freely made choices are seen and understood. It means that forgiveness is freely given and that mercy is shown. It means that righteousness is not perfection or divinity but a pure heart and soul- a person of honor and integrity. For righteousness we have to be willing to fight for those who cannot fight for themselves, we have to be willing to stand against oppression, and to reach out a helping hand to those who are unable to help themselves.

That is what will make us righteous. Not perfection- but a warm and loving heart.