Sherry Chandler

And another view of justice

Here is a poem from Whitman.

I’m not quite sure I can reach this degree of inclusiveness. There are people operating today who are doing things so twisted I don’t even want to hear about them — especially in a juror’s chair — much less identify with them.

Yet they are human. And my Christian raisings would have me believe it is these people I should try to love more than the righteous man or the judge.

I don’t think that would make me a bad juror — except in cases where the death penalty is the sentence. Nothing says a juror can’t be compassionate. But it does mean I wouldn’t use the law for revenge.

You Felons on Trial in Courts

YOU felons on trial in courts;
You convicts in prison-cells—you sentenced assassins, chain’d and hand-cuff’d with iron;
Who am I, too, that I am not on trial, or in prison?
Me, ruthless and devilish as any, that my wrists are not chain’d with iron, or my ankles with iron?

You prostitutes flaunting over the trottoirs, or obscene in your rooms,
Who am I, that I should call you more obscene than myself?

O culpable!
I acknowledge—I exposé!
(O admirers! praise not me! compliment not me! you make me wince,
I see what you do not—I know what you do not.)

Inside these breast-bones I lie smutch’d and choked;
Beneath this face that appears so impassive, hell’s tides continually run;
Lusts and wickedness are acceptable to me;
I walk with delinquents with passionate love;
I feel I am of them—I belong to those convicts and prostitutes myself,
And henceforth I will not deny them—for how can I deny myself?

—Walt Whitman. Leaves of Grass. Philadelphia: David McKay, [c1900]; Bartleby.com, 1999.

While I’m in the pulpit, I’d like to draw your attention to this column from the Lexington Herald-Leader‘s religion writer, Paul Prather. Prather addresses the issue of mixing Christianity with politics. You should read all of his column but here’s what I guess I’d call the money quote:

Christians, whatever our political leanings, ought to be awfully careful when we venture into the public square waving our Bibles and presuming to speak for God.

Our ideas about biblical and divine truth seem to shift with the whims of popular opinion and party platforms — not to mention talk radio.

If we’re not careful, we might claim we’re speaking for God when really we’re only reflecting the ideas of our own circle of preachers and churchgoers and pundits. We can rationalize almost anything. We’re easily led down almost any path.

. . .

I’m not lobbying here for or against legalized abortion or for or against capital punishment. I’m not even speaking here in favor of church-state separation.

I’m arguing in favor of humility by Christians in the political arena.

That seems to be the virtue most lacking in our public discussions these days.