I have long wondered what it would be like to have an order (obviously preferably religious, but not by necessity) of people devoted to justice. Not social justice, because goodness knows there are enough people fanatically devoted to that particular heresy-turned-death-cult, but the actual rationally-understandable workings of justice.

What would it be like, for instance, to have a group in society devoted by an open solemn oath to not defeating not just one objectively immoral behavior (e.g. porn, other forms of prostitution, trafficking, drug sale and use, usurious student loans, credit cards), but all of them. Justice is, after all, simply treating all people (including the self) according to the manner in which they should be treated. A society of catechists of the natural law, crusaders for the rational good of all societies, lobbyists of. I think it would be interesting (delightful, beautiful, amusing) to see the effects of such a thing in action, but the real question is how such a thing would even work.

Who would fund such a thing? Who among the powerful really wants to see the people uplifted out of the mud of immorality, to the detriment of their own power? Who among the influential would willing decrease the attention their antics garnered? How would justice be administered within the society?

All of these and more are questions I find interesting to think about, particularly from a world-building perspective (what other reason is there, for a writer?) In various ways, I have tried working such a group into various projects; the Knights of the Lion of Judah, from the project of the same name (now on the backburner) are one such example, though they focus more on justice between nations. The internal (undeclared) factionalism between those wanting to focus on the founding ideals of the Knights (the Traditionalists) and those wanting to focus on building the temporal power of the Knights in order to make the societies of the states around them more just (the Imperialists) is just one articulation of how I see such a society working in the real world. When I get back to it (KotLoJ), I would like to work into the plot little hints as to why the faction that has more natural influence in such a society (the Imperialists) has not succeeded so far.

Ultimately, we are all called to be catechists of both the natural and the divine laws–and as much as I would love a “Knights Justiciar” to take shape, I do not see it happening in our current climate of glorifying human degradation. But I find it to an idea that recurs in my thinking.

What about y’all? Are there any order of knights you would like to see in the modern world (or in future ones?) Any societies you wish someone would found?