Maybe it’s not only Christian habits of thought but the difficulty we all have in growing up that makes us insist justice must favor the good. After all, “Let the best man win” doesn’t mean the good man will win. It means, “This will be a fair fight, no prejudice, no interference—so the best fighter will win it.” If the treacherous bully fairly defeats the nice guy, the treacherous bully is declared champion. This is justice. But it’s the kind of justice that children can’t bear. They rage against it. It’s not fair! But if children never learn to bear it, they can’t go on to learn that a
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