Let us collectively pray for a standard of justice where we will all find safety

The recent events of the confirmation process of Brett Kavanaugh, now a U.S. Supreme Court justice, went beyond judicial philosophy or political opinion — for me. The issue that deeply affected me was the way some protesters were calling for his guilt on unconfirmed allegations. They were claiming that, in spite of Judge Kavanaugh’s vehement denials, he should be considered guilty and disqualified strictly because he had been accused of misconduct 36 years ago when he was in high school.

I suppose I felt keenly about this debate because I once was the target of false accusations, and lost my teaching position because of them. It was impossible for me to prove a negative — that I did not do or was not what my accusers claimed.

The foundation of our culture and system of jurisprudence has always been based on the principle that an accused individual should always be considered innocent unless they were proven guilty. When that principle is no longer respected, then it seems to me the fabric of justice is undermined and the culture descends into chaos. Justice should be the protection of safety for everyone.

As the prophet Isaiah watched the Jewish culture of his day slowly disintegrate, he poetically described it in this fashion: “Justice is turned back ... for truth is fallen in the street” (Isaiah 59:14). Earlier in this 59th chapter, he described the consequences of the people’s neglect and ignorance of the law of Moses, a detailed set of statutes that established a standard of justice that had served their society for about 750 years. Their sins separated them from the God who gave them this law (v. 2); they groped around like the blind trying to find their way (v. 10); and there was no justice (v. 11). They had abandoned the world of absolute truth for the relativism of the chaos of everyone doing what they thought was right (Judges 21:25).

In Deuteronomy 17:6-7 and 19:15-21, the Law of Moses stated that no one could be convicted of a crime unless there were two or three witnesses to give firsthand testimony of each purported incident. The testimony of a lone witness could be true, or unreliable for a number of reasons. The witness could have ulterior motives for bringing the charge, or just have misidentified the perpetrator. There is such a phenomenon as “projection,” where someone who has suffered a traumatic moral injury could project some innocent person into the situation by mistake. Law enforcement has experienced this occurrence in their investigations.

Jesus would not convict and punish a woman publicly shamed as being caught in the act of adultery (John 8:1-11). When her accusers did not stay around for scrutiny, he spoke those liberating words to her, “Neither do I condemn you, go and sin no more.” While he forgave her sins, we don’t know if she was guilty of this particular charge. She could have refused someone’s proposition, or just been pulled from the crowd. His sense of justice was her protection.

In 1 Timothy 5:19, Paul told his young protege Timothy not to even entertain a charge against an elder unless there were two or three first-hand witnesses in the matter. Years of an honorable life would not be destroyed by one accusation. Justice would protect the innocent, but also punish the guilty.

Has the moral and spiritual condition in our culture led us away from the presumption of innocence and into the chaos of relativism? If so, then no one is safe from any and all accusations.

Regardless of politics, let us collectively pray for a standard of justice where we will all find safety.