A few weeks ago I was a juror in an assault and battery case. After hearing questioning from the prosecution and from the defense attorney and hearing testimony from the parties involved and from witnesses and hearing closing arguments we got instructions from the judge and went to the jury room where we deliberated. After much discussion we decided on innocent or guilty verdicts on each charge. We reported our decisions to the court and our job was done. That is the system we have and I certainly cannot think of a better system. Our job was to find innocence or guilt and we did.

Matthew 7, verses 1 and 2 address the issue of judging others:  Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged; and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again. (KJV)

I don’t believe this passage argues against serving on a jury or being part of the court system. I believe this passage is telling us to examine ourselves…to examine our own conduct and our own motives. In this self-examination we will realize that we each fall short of perfection in all parts of our lives and that is something we have control over and should try to fix. Doing this first will put us in a position where we can lovingly try to help others.

Frequently during the trial where I was a juror I reflected on the men I met in the jail in my years of Bible Study there. Many of them opened up about the abuse they endured as they were growing up. Some talked about hearing their father beat up their mother after they went to bed. Many didn’t know their father. Very few seemed to have a parent who taught them any job skills. Though the subject did not come up in the trial I was involved with a few weeks ago, I suspect the defendant grew up in unfortunate circumstances such as these.

C.S. Lewis expressed some thoughts on judging others in his book “Mere Chrisitianity”. “Human beings judge one another by their external actions. God judges them by their moral choices. When a neurotic who has a pathological horror of cats forces himself to pick up a cat for some good reason, it is quite possible that in God’s eyes he has shown more courage than a healthy man may have shown in winning the Victoria Cross. When a man has been perverted from his youth and taught that cruelty is the right thing, does some tiny little kindness, or refrains from some cruelty he might have committed, and thereby, perhaps, risks being sneered at by his companions, he may, in God’s eyes, be doing more than you and I would do if we gave up life itself for a friend.”

Civilized societies need laws and enforcement of laws in order to function. And sometimes we as citizens are called upon to become part of that process by deciding whether someone accused of breaking a law actually broke that law. When it becomes “our turn” to serve on a jury the right thing to do is to serve on that jury and determine innocence or guilt.

But, as C.S. Lewis indicated, our eyes are not God’s eyes. When we consider our fellow human beings in our daily lives and outside courtroom situations, perhaps we should try to have some understanding of people who were raised in harmful environments. I was fortunate enough to be raised by parents who tried to teach me right from wrong, tried to teach me useful job skills, tried to teach me how to get along with others and who took me to church where I would proclaim Christ as my Lord and Savior. I really do not know where I would be today if I had been raised in the environments where some of those inmates had been raised. Perhaps we should all consider how fortunate we are before we react harshly to unexpected interactions with others in our daily lives. 

-N.D. Harrison, Elder