Billionaire George Soros’s name has often been bandied about in connection with the most unjust district attorneys across the United States. Soros supports their campaigns financially, but when these DAs are elected (usually in deep-blue cities), those cities descend into chaos. For his part, Soros has written an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal explaining his position and where his motivations lie.

The major underlying thesis of his piece is that if there is no justice, there is no safety; they are intrinsically intertwined. This seems like common ground between Soros and the rest of humanity. He says: “Our system is rife with injustices that make us all less safe. The idea that we need to choose between justice and safety is false. They reinforce each other: If people trust the justice system, it will work. And if the system works, public safety will improve.”

This is where the common ground seems to end, though. Justice, as defined by Soros, is entirely based on the idea that being a minority or being poor means that the system is set up to wrongfully incarcerate you. Basically, it is Critical Theory, a Marxism-based idea that pivots on the purview that there are the oppressed and there are the oppressors; that the ultimate goal is to create a utopia; and that justice can only be achieved if criminals are seen as victims of their circumstances.

This very first premise — the view that all criminals are simply the product of societal oppressions — shows a gaping understanding of the human heart. The Judeo-Christian worldview — that all men have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, and that it is by God’s grace that we do any good at all — is the actual truth. This can be seen by the fact that people who are rich and/or in the racial majority are just as likely to break the law and create injustice as those who are poor and/or in the racial minority. There is already a balancing of scales in the injustice department. All humans are able to commit crime.

Justice from a traditional, Judeo-Christian understanding hinges on the premise that we all are capable of breaking the law. The price of breaking the law is paying for the crimes that we have committed according to the law. Laws represent the boundaries that a society needs in order to function and get as close as we possibly can to ensuring justice. The laws are by no means perfect, but the place of a judge, district attorney, or state’s attorney isn’t to legislate but to uphold the law.

Soros also claims that according to his research, it is a lie that the reform-minded DAs he’s helped get into office are bringing the cities they preside over down. Unfortunately, he does not link to any of those studies.

Here is some research that says the exact opposite. Take Soros-backed Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx. During her tenure (two years in office), Cook County has seen a crime surge like no other. In Chicago alone, there has been a 30% jump in murders, a 6% jump in robberies, a 31% jump in theft, and a 51% increase in motor vehicle theft (this last one is increasing exponentially). The obvious lack of commitment to justice and upholding the law has driven Assistant Cook County State’s Attorney Jim Murphy to leave his position that he has held for 25 years in protest. Murphy said that Foxx is “more concerned with political narratives and agendas than with victims and prosecuting violent crime,” which “is why I can’t stay any longer.”

In Los Angeles, under DA George Gasćon, a murderous teen who intentionally hit a mother and her infant with his car was only sentenced to five months in a juvenile summer camp. Gasćon allowed for the release of a dangerous sexual predator who then proved to also be a murderer. Also under his watch, Union Pacific’s trains were routinely being robbed, gumming up an already precarious supply chain. In San Francisco, former DA Chesa Boudin was recalled for his refusal to uphold justice.

Perhaps the justice system could use reform through better laws. But there has to be a balance between the Inspector Javert approach to the law that allows for no grace, only justice, and the soft-on-crime approach of the Soros DAs who deny justice to victims and approve leniency on the perpetrators all in the name of reforming the system. That balance that these two approaches ignore is the Christian acknowledgement of wrong, repentance, and restoration. A person can still pay for their crimes but be redeemed through Christ Jesus.

Clearly, Soros’s reforming of the system and not the people is empowering bad people to become bolder and more vicious. The disregarding of the boundaries sets a precedent that gives license for criminals to consider the boundaries meaningless.