Justice: What Christians Should Know About Justice and the Law
I’ve worked with victims of sexual assault for many years. When a victim tells me she wants justice, I ask her, “what does that look like to you? What would be justice for you?” Oftentimes, I was told I was the only person who had ever asked them that question. It sounds like a simple question and one that would be easy to answer for a victim of a horrendous assault. However, it’s not always that easy to answer. And what the victim generally wanted was something that a legal system couldn’t provide. She can never be made whole again. The awful crime perpetrated against her cannot be undone. Even if – and that’s often a huge “IF” – the perpetrator acknowledges committing an offense, he will never fully understand how he hurt her physically, emotionally, and psychologically. Even if he gets raped in prison, it’s not likely he will ever completely understand and come to full remorse and repentance. It’s not likely she will ever get a truly sincere apology, and even if she does, the memory and psychological effects of the violation against her body remains as a constant reminder of what he did to her. She has to live with that violent act the rest of her life. The perpetrator may get labeled a sex offender and have to serve time in prison, but she has been given a life sentence that only she, and other similar victims, fully understand.
This is the third blog in my “Justice” series.
What Christians Should Know About Justice and the Law
I stopped using “justice” as a reference to our judicial system in 2005. I learned the hard way, through a personal situation, that the system is a legal system, not a justice system. We are a nation of laws. We have a system – an institution – of laws governed by very flawed humans. Our law enforcement, attorneys, and judges are all humans with different biases, motivations, and aspirations. As a Christian, I should have understood this. Of all people, I should have known that an institution of humans, of sinners, of imperfect people, would not be a perfect institution. To be a Christian requires me to accept that everyone, including members of our law enforcement, prosecution offices, criminal defense offices, and judges are imperfect people who make decisions (consciously or subconsciously) based on extrinsic influences and not necessarily by the letter of the law. Yes, there are bad cops, bad attorneys, and bad judges. People in those professions are not exempt from bad actions and bad people. The Bible doesn’t exclude anyone from the “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God”. To acknowledge that we are all sinners is to acknowledge that “all” includes the people of our legal system.
To be clear, I have the greatest respect for those men and women who have chosen a profession that puts them in harm’s way every single day. In these turbulent times in America, their jobs are particularly difficult. I have friends in law enforcement and friends who are spouses of law enforcement officers. Having great respect for them, I can also call out those in that valiant profession who are behaving badly, abusing their authority, and bringing disrepute to the entire profession, thus causing more problems and more harm to the vast majority who serve honorably. This is also true for pastors, preachers, priests, reverends, or whatever you call your religious leader.
We Fear the Questions
No one on this earth is perfect. No one is infallible. Everyone makes mistakes, everyone has biases whether conscious or subconscious. We can support a group of people, like law enforcement, pastors, community leaders, and so forth, while also holding accountable those who cross the line with their actions. We can and should ask questions about misconduct and abuse of authority. In his book, Faith Seeking Understanding: An Introduction to Christian Theology, Daniel L. Migliore addressed the issue of not questioning Scripture, doctrine, and the things that are wrapped up in “Christianity” and theology. I think what he wrote is applicable to other areas of our lives. He wrote the following,
“We fear questions that might lead us down roads we have not traveled before. We fear the disruption in our thinking, believing, and living that might come from inquiring too deeply into God and God’s purposes. We fear that if we do not find answers to our questions we will be left in utter despair. As a result of these fears, we imprison our faith, allow it to become boring and stultifying, rather than releasing it to seek deeper understanding.”
This applies to asking questions about the Bible as well as asking questions about our beloved institutions and professions. We have long held beliefs that certain professions and groups of people are beyond reproach - law enforcement, pastors, and others we consider “heroes” and we thus put them on a pedestal. How dare we question those we idolize? We have put our preachers and church institutions on a pedestal, and in some cases, honor them above God. Though many would never acknowledge that, I’ve personally seen churches divide when a pastor was ousted for wrongdoing, with many choosing to follow that pastor as the celebrity, rather than the Word of God. These are institutions in which we have placed tremendous trust. People within those institutions traditionally enjoyed automatic respect simply because they are in those professions. Only the good and honorable would enter those professions, right? That’s not necessarily the case and some – particularly law enforcement – don’t get the automatic respect they once enjoyed. Society has changed, and the bad actions of the few have overshadowed the good of the overwhelming majority.
What if Justice Fails?
I think, though, some of us are afraid to ask questions for fear of what the answers may mean. We immediately get defensive when there is a police officer under scrutiny for shooting a black man. If we acknowledge there are issues within our law enforcement and start asking questions about how to address them, what does that mean for the overwhelming majority of good men and women who put on the uniform every day? What does that mean for a safe society? We want to be safe in our homes and communities. There are some in our community who believe they are not safe in their homes and communities from the police. How do we heal that divide? And, what does that mean for our ability to pick good and honorable people? Did Jesus really mean what He said about turning the other cheek? Do we really trust God with our lives, families, possessions, and communities? Are we really supposed to not repay evil with evil, or snarky tweet with snarky tweet?
We immediately get defensive when our pastor is accused of sexual harassment or assault. “Other” pastors and clergy have certainly done that, but not “OUR” pastor. We see him every Sunday. He preaches a good Word and has grown our church. He’s done good things. We “know” him because we’ve been at that church for years – no way he’d ever do anything bad. That’s our tribe – we wouldn’t identify with that tribe if all the actors were not honorable. Right? If we start asking questions, though, what would we find out? Do we really want to know? What would it mean for us in the church pews if we celebrated this pastor week after week all the while he’s sexually harassing a woman in the church. Or, has been the case in some churches, raping one of the teens in the congregation?
What about our lawyers and judges? Of course, lawyers have always had a bad reputation, but what about judges? If we start questioning if judges are politically motivated, what could the answers mean for the judiciary? I recently heard someone say (sorry, I didn’t catch the name) that the law is “politics by another means.” If that is true, what does that mean for our legal system? Again, asking questions may lead us to answers we don’t like and roads we haven’t traveled before.
Fear Imprisons our Faith and Quest for Justice
The fact there are bad people is the very reason we have three branches of government and the governmental structure that the Framers of the Constitution put in place. They understood that people are self-interested. They understood, because they were already seeing within the Colonies, the abuses of power. They were witness to the corruption of leaders by the power they wielded. Several of them were also astute students of human nature and the belief that power corrupts. As a Christian, I would phrase it as they believed in the “fall of man” and the sinful nature that resulted from that Fall as told in Genesis 3.
Your thoughts?
This is the third blog in the “Justice” series. We are rumbling with some tough concepts and ideas through this series. What are your thoughts? What is your idea of justice? Connect with me here to discuss more about this topic.