Can Justice Be Served In A Secular Society?

Word-Of-The-Day: ‘<King Jehoshaphat> told <those he appointed as judges in Judah>, “Consider carefully what you do, because you are not judging for mere mortals but for the Lord, who is with you whenever you give a verdict.’ (2 Chronicles 19:6)

‘Jumpin’ Jehoshaphat’ was one of Judah’s more distinguished kings discussed in 2 Chronicles; he was one who tried to rule in line with God, having several idols and poles of false gods (but not all) removed within Judah that had been erected.  He also tried to re-establish the concept of judges within Judah to settle disputes between the people.  In 2 Chronicles 19:6, Jehoshaphat provides a high standard for those who were being selected to serve as judges, that while their decisions would affect people the decision that they rendered should be in line with the Lord’s will. 

The Lord is the one who renders His judgement upon the people, while the judges who were appointed are to be God’s instrument in applying that judgement.  A verdict upon a defendant should not come from an individual (or in the case of a jury a group of people), but from God.  It is assumed in the case of the current jury system at its beginnings, 6 or 12 people comprising a jury would come to a unanimous conclusion through the leading of the Holy Spirit, and not through personal bias. 

The issues that face our jury system today is that the people are becoming secular, and thus are rendering verdicts not of God’s will but the will of ‘society’, or of the mob mentality.  The Post-Constitutional America of today is becoming a nation led by ‘feelings’, not facts.   We wonder why some jury verdicts can get it wrong; it is those juries (or judges) that are led by feelings that often let those who have broken the law to be exonerated, not out of mercy but due to alleviating some feeling of injustice against the wrongdoer, or to exact a form of justice against an otherwise innocent person due to a social pique. 

Earlier this year I served on a jury and saw some of this first hand. While I was fortunate to have most folks on the jury I served with being grounded by the facts, there were a couple of folks who were slightly into the ‘I feel’ mode of rendering a verdict.  Fortunately, when ‘feelings’ are involved, it often doesn’t take much to provide the evidence that the facts overcome those feelings. 

One fellow juror had the ‘right verdict’ for the ‘wrong reason’; the reasoning because it was a woman who was victimized the man had to be guilty.  However, it wasn’t a gender issue but that one person had assaulted the other, it wasn’t that it was due the defendant was a man.  The majority of men do not assault women.  In this case a man assaulted a woman, but if the roles had been reversed the woman would have been guilty. 

Fortunately, God was with us, the feelings were overcome with the facts within the evidence, and His verdict was reached.  In whatever we do, in whatever judgements we make (whether in the court of law or the court of public opinion, or the court of food in the mall), we need to make our decisions based on the will of God, for God, based on the facts we are presented.