Blind Justice
Much as we try to be unprejudiced when applying justice, we must be careful not to tip the scales too far in an opposite direction, writes the Rev. Jerry Eckert
My friend and I are in agreement. Much of the leadership of our denomination lacks integrity. We have both watched people in leadership positions overreach their authority and cause great harm to pastors and their churches. They have done it by violating the Discipline. But since they are the ones who get to judge whether or not they have broken church law, it is no surprise that they are never found guilty. My friend and I hate that, and shout from the rooftops about the lack of integrity involved.
But once in awhile, we disagree over specific issues in which integrity is also involved.
I was not surprised that my friend was upset when the Judicial Council and a jurisdictional appellate committee both overturned the defrocking of a minister who admitted he was guilty of conducting a same-sex marriage. My friend believed that the minister obviously broke church law and should have been removed from ministry. Further, he violated the integrity of the covenant of clergy when he said he could not obey the Discipline in its entirety. According to my friend, with that attitude, the pastor should have withdrawn.
My friend and I wish those leaders abusing pastors and churches should also withdraw from the denomination because they are unwilling to follow church law. But I do not draw that same “line in the sand” over the gay marriage issue.
Here is why: No one is perfect in obedience to the Discipline.
We all violate it – from cutting corners on processes we handle, to modifying some numbers that we need to make our argument, to not always being fair with one another in repeating gossip or even shunning others in the covenant. In one way or another, we violate Bible and Discipline, sometimes to the point of not even recognizing it any more.
Our covenantal body of church law is not always easy to understand and is not always followed perfectly, but its intent is to provide fairness for everyone. My friend and I hate it when that law is ignored by church leaders. But we have to be sure we are willing to follow it ourselves or we are as bad as the church leaders we decry.
We all violate church law. Why then should we expect everyone else who does to leave the covenant when we do not expect that of ourselves?
In the eighth chapter of the Gospel of John, we get the story of the woman taken in adultery and brought to Jesus to test his integrity under Jewish law. Should she be stoned or not?
Rather than immediately answering their question, Jesus scribbles in the sand. Maybe he’s buying time. Maybe he has something on each of the leaders. Then he says, “You who are without sin may cast the first stone.”
Jesus sees that the crowd is made up of the Scribes and Pharisees, his own Disciples, and followers from many different places, and hardly anyone from the community of the woman in question.
Anyone who was with Jesus knew he preached forgiveness because we are all in need of God’s grace, having not yet become perfect as our Father in Heaven is perfect. His followers were not likely to start throwing stones.
The amazing thing is that among the ones most ready to stone her, once they stop and think about it, they realize they are not without sin – some more heinous than the woman’s were they to be known.
I expect my friend to understand that. Maybe he will temper his views about where integrity lies.
It lies with all of us. Wrong or not, our covenant is where we belong. Fuss over differences? By all means. Disagree about the degree of harm of our respective transgressions? Of course. Hold one another accountable to not again do the most harmful violations? Certainly. But like the statue of Justice that wears a blindfold to avoid prejudice, we must weigh carefully the harm done with each law broken and not do more harm by tilting the scales.
Imperfect as we each are in obedience to the religious covenant we hold, we must always be humble and remind ourselves of the Golden Rule, because we could be the one being judged for our own breaking of a church law. Or, as Jesus warned, “we may be judged by the same judgment by which we judged!”
My friend and I agree on much about integrity. I hope we come closer to seeing it in ourselves as well.
The Rev. Jerry Eckert of Port Charlotte, Fla., is a retired clergy member of the Wisconsin Annual Conference and a member of Associates in Advocacy, a group of clergy volunteers who serve to represent other clergy in "fair process" proceedings.