If you’ve ever been the victim of gossip/slander, or if you’ve ever lost a friendship due to false accusations made about you, you’ll understand the importance of this article.
WHAT’S A GOOD NAME FOR THIS TOPIC?
The point of this article is to address what it means to be fair when accusations come up in our social circles. It seems “social justice” would be the perfect term for this, except that it is already being used for something else. So, I guess I’m going to go with “relational justice.”
LET’S START WITH A CATEGORY WE ARE ALREADY FAMILIAR WITH
I think that it will be easier to describe the importance of relational justice if I can first establish that we already recognize the importance of justice in other realms. And since “relational justice” isn’t written about very often, let me use “criminal justice” as a more familiar jumping off point.
In this country, we already have a system in place to ensure that those who are accused of crimes are treated fairly. While our system has its flaws, it is a lot better than a lot of the other ways this issue has been handled throughout history. In the United States, typically, someone cannot be sent to jail simply because someone else accuses them of something. This adds a lot of comfort and stability to our lives, even if we’ve never considered it before.
This was not always the case.
BIBLICAL HISTORY
I’ve noticed that during Bible times, there were plenty of occasions where people could be jailed (or even executed) without a trial, a judge, a jury, or the presentation of evidence. Acts 16 describes a time when magistrates had Paul and Silas beaten with rods without much of an investigation. Mark 6 describes John the Baptist’s beheading, and it clearly was unrelated to any crime he’d committed. Exodus 1 and Matthew 2both describe the massacre of numerous children simply because it was commanded by the monarch; no crime had been committed.
These are just a few examples of how punishments, historically, have been doled out without great care being taken to ensure innocent people weren’t punished unjustly.
OUR SYSTEM
Our system is different than that, and I think most would agree it is superior. In our society, there has to be sufficient evidence to arrest and charge someone with a crime, and usually there has to be even more evidence to convict someone of a crime. We also allow the accused an opportunity to defend themselves.
Additionally, we understand that we are supposed to consider accused persons to be innocent until they are proven guilty, rather than assuming guilt and forcing the accused person to prove their innocence.
WHERE DID THIS COME FROM?
Personally, I don’t think that this became our system by chance. The systemic fairness that has sprung up in this country had to come from somewhere. And if I had to guess, I would say that it’s probably because our country (at its founding and even now) has been greatly influenced by the Christian worldview.
Please notice that Deuteronomy 19:15 says that “one witness cannot establish any wrongdoing or sin against a person… a fact must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.”
Another helpful verse on this topic is Proverbs 18:17 which says, “The first to state his case seems right until another comes and cross-examines him.”
I believe that our criminal justice system, as flawed as it may be at times, owes its best characteristics to the fact that it overlaps with these Biblical principles. And we should be grateful for that; not all cultures have this beneficial feature.
BACK TO THE MAIN POINT
As I mentioned at the beginning of this essay, the topic I truly want to address is relational justice. So, here’s the connection between the two “justices” I’ve brought up so far. I am arguing that if biblical principles are good for the criminal justice system, they must also be good outside of the criminal justice system; they must matter for relational justice as well. Hearsay needs to be objected to, not only in the courtroom, but in our everyday lives.
In other words, we don’t merely want justice in our courts. We want it in our marriages, schools, churches, workplaces, and friendships, too.
IS THERE BIBLICAL PRECEDENT FOR THIS?
It turns out that the New Testament applies some of the Old Testament justice protocols to regular, non-government activity.
Jesus applied the “two witnesses” rule to church discipline cases in Matthew 18:16. Paul does the same thing in 1 Timothy 5:19 when talking about handling sins amongst the elders of a church. Neither of these passages are related to criminal justice. However, in both cases, we see that criminal justice principles are being applied to more ordinary church situations.
WHAT IS THE PRINCIPLE HERE?
My point is that it is not only true that someone shouldn’t go to jail merely because someone else accused them of something. It should also be true that someone shouldn’t be divorced, suspended, expelled, excommunicated, fired, or unfriended merely because someone accused them of something! If the justice principles within our criminal justice system are right and fair, then they ought to apply to schools, churches, and friendships as well.
If a wife hears a rumor that her husband is cheating on her, she is not to simply go down to an attorney’s office and immediately file for divorce; she would need to look into it more. If a school administration hears a bad report against some students, they shouldn’t jump straight to giving out suspensions without investigating. And if one of your friends is accused of doing something wrong… by all means, don’t just cross them off your friends list. See if there are multiple witnesses. Let them know about the accusations made against them. Give them a chance to defend themselves.
APPLICATION
I wrote this to help you think through how to best handle it the next time you hear someone say something bad about someone you know. Sometimes we can think that “justice” is a fine thing for lawyers and judges, while we have no obligation to follow those things in our own lives. We might think, “If I hear something disturbing about a friend of mine, I can simply stop speaking to them, without ever looking into it further.” Really? Is that how you would want to be treated?
It turns out justice isn’t just for the courtroom. If it is true and good, then it’s for all of life.
WHAT’S A GOOD NAME FOR THIS TOPIC?
The point of this article is to address what it means to be fair when accusations come up in our social circles. It seems “social justice” would be the perfect term for this, except that it is already being used for something else. So, I guess I’m going to go with “relational justice.”
LET’S START WITH A CATEGORY WE ARE ALREADY FAMILIAR WITH
I think that it will be easier to describe the importance of relational justice if I can first establish that we already recognize the importance of justice in other realms. And since “relational justice” isn’t written about very often, let me use “criminal justice” as a more familiar jumping off point.
In this country, we already have a system in place to ensure that those who are accused of crimes are treated fairly. While our system has its flaws, it is a lot better than a lot of the other ways this issue has been handled throughout history. In the United States, typically, someone cannot be sent to jail simply because someone else accuses them of something. This adds a lot of comfort and stability to our lives, even if we’ve never considered it before.
This was not always the case.
BIBLICAL HISTORY
I’ve noticed that during Bible times, there were plenty of occasions where people could be jailed (or even executed) without a trial, a judge, a jury, or the presentation of evidence. Acts 16 describes a time when magistrates had Paul and Silas beaten with rods without much of an investigation. Mark 6 describes John the Baptist’s beheading, and it clearly was unrelated to any crime he’d committed. Exodus 1 and Matthew 2both describe the massacre of numerous children simply because it was commanded by the monarch; no crime had been committed.
These are just a few examples of how punishments, historically, have been doled out without great care being taken to ensure innocent people weren’t punished unjustly.
OUR SYSTEM
Our system is different than that, and I think most would agree it is superior. In our society, there has to be sufficient evidence to arrest and charge someone with a crime, and usually there has to be even more evidence to convict someone of a crime. We also allow the accused an opportunity to defend themselves.
Additionally, we understand that we are supposed to consider accused persons to be innocent until they are proven guilty, rather than assuming guilt and forcing the accused person to prove their innocence.
WHERE DID THIS COME FROM?
Personally, I don’t think that this became our system by chance. The systemic fairness that has sprung up in this country had to come from somewhere. And if I had to guess, I would say that it’s probably because our country (at its founding and even now) has been greatly influenced by the Christian worldview.
Please notice that Deuteronomy 19:15 says that “one witness cannot establish any wrongdoing or sin against a person… a fact must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.”
Another helpful verse on this topic is Proverbs 18:17 which says, “The first to state his case seems right until another comes and cross-examines him.”
I believe that our criminal justice system, as flawed as it may be at times, owes its best characteristics to the fact that it overlaps with these Biblical principles. And we should be grateful for that; not all cultures have this beneficial feature.
BACK TO THE MAIN POINT
As I mentioned at the beginning of this essay, the topic I truly want to address is relational justice. So, here’s the connection between the two “justices” I’ve brought up so far. I am arguing that if biblical principles are good for the criminal justice system, they must also be good outside of the criminal justice system; they must matter for relational justice as well. Hearsay needs to be objected to, not only in the courtroom, but in our everyday lives.
In other words, we don’t merely want justice in our courts. We want it in our marriages, schools, churches, workplaces, and friendships, too.
IS THERE BIBLICAL PRECEDENT FOR THIS?
It turns out that the New Testament applies some of the Old Testament justice protocols to regular, non-government activity.
Jesus applied the “two witnesses” rule to church discipline cases in Matthew 18:16. Paul does the same thing in 1 Timothy 5:19 when talking about handling sins amongst the elders of a church. Neither of these passages are related to criminal justice. However, in both cases, we see that criminal justice principles are being applied to more ordinary church situations.
WHAT IS THE PRINCIPLE HERE?
My point is that it is not only true that someone shouldn’t go to jail merely because someone else accused them of something. It should also be true that someone shouldn’t be divorced, suspended, expelled, excommunicated, fired, or unfriended merely because someone accused them of something! If the justice principles within our criminal justice system are right and fair, then they ought to apply to schools, churches, and friendships as well.
If a wife hears a rumor that her husband is cheating on her, she is not to simply go down to an attorney’s office and immediately file for divorce; she would need to look into it more. If a school administration hears a bad report against some students, they shouldn’t jump straight to giving out suspensions without investigating. And if one of your friends is accused of doing something wrong… by all means, don’t just cross them off your friends list. See if there are multiple witnesses. Let them know about the accusations made against them. Give them a chance to defend themselves.
APPLICATION
I wrote this to help you think through how to best handle it the next time you hear someone say something bad about someone you know. Sometimes we can think that “justice” is a fine thing for lawyers and judges, while we have no obligation to follow those things in our own lives. We might think, “If I hear something disturbing about a friend of mine, I can simply stop speaking to them, without ever looking into it further.” Really? Is that how you would want to be treated?
It turns out justice isn’t just for the courtroom. If it is true and good, then it’s for all of life.
