UI Campus Christian Center hosts forum
The University of Idaho Campus Christian Center hosted a panel forum called “Defining Justice” Tuesday in the Menard Law Building courtroom where professionals discussed different notions of justice, including how different cultures interpret the term.
Nathan Romans | Argonaut
Larry Forney, left, and Ashley Kerr, participate in the “Defining Justice” forum Tuesday in the UI Menard Law Building courtroom. The panel
forum was presented by the Campus Christian Center and sought to explore the meaning of justice in various fields and cultures.
The forum featured five panelists, Larry Forney, microbiologist and biology ethics professor; Ashley Kerr, Latin American Studies professor; David Roon, natural resources professor; Karla Neumann Smiley, Lutheran Campus minister and Campus Christian Ministry director; and Dan Lebeau, Whitman County senior prosecutor.
Forney’s microbial ecology work on the vaginal microbiome has given him a unique perspective on biological diversity and justice. He said microbiota are different between races — individual and across time — and in biology, categories such as race are horrible and rarely useful.
Forney talked about the enigma of “normal and healthy” and said generalizations of what is healthy can hurt self-esteem.
“Respect for the individual — that constitutes justice,” Forney said.
Kerr talked about late 19th century historical injustice concerning native tribes in Argentina — the background of much of her academic work.
She said this history is relevant in justice studies because in Argentina, and in many parts of the world, native tribes are often not consulted about decisions made about them by modern nations. Kerr said it is unfortunate that many indigenous peoples are often made invisible.
“Justice needs to be participatory, it needs to be a dialogue,” she said.
Roon took the perspective of justice concerning conflicts over natural resources. He said debates on resource management are often too utilitarian for only a particular party and too short term, creating inequalities among different groups and between the present and the future.
He said many scholars in his field of study believe it is humanity’s duty to tend to nature and take care of it.
Smiley was quick to make her religious “bias” and denomination clear — Evangelical Christian. She talked about social justice in religious scriptures and about how religion can motivate people to help others.
She said crime committed out of need is a failure of society and said it is the duty of religious organizations to help people before situations get to that point.
For Lebeau, justice is something he deals with every day in the criminal justice system.
“My view of justice has always been focused on (law),” Lebeau said.
Lebeau said he doesn’t have to win every case he’s involved in, and said some of his greatest days were when a suspect was found innocent.
Lebeau said the purpose of justice is to prevent people from being stepped on in an unequal world. Concerning the difficulty of reaching equality in a world where people are born into different situations, Lebeau said he isn’t certain there’s a concrete way to do it.
“I don’t know if we’ll ever achieve equality,” he said. “And I don’t know if we should.”
Nishant Mohan can be reached at [email protected]