Jury
Doubtless it’s a thought tinged with selfishness, but I think that if I were accused of a crime, I would want people like me on my jury. So when the summons comes, I don’t try to weasel out of it. On the other hand, by virtue of random draw or elements of my personality that others don’t find so attractive, I have never been chosen to be one of the Twelve.
On one occasion I was a prospective juror for a criminal trial. The defendant was a young man who, if found guilty, would spend a big chunk of his life behind bars. As is appropriate, he was present but said nothing. He was Everyman, innocent “unless and until” proven guilty. But while the proof of guilt would be attempted by the prosecution, the judgment that proof had actually been achieved “beyond a reasonable doubt” would be made by the jury. And so, for a few hours, I was facing the possibility of being a judge of that.
Authority has long interested me. It is a form of power, lying somewhere between mere reason and brute force; in the political realm it comes with the power of coercion. Here it loomed as the power to take away a man’s freedom, to incarcerate as punishment for crime. I believe it is right for political authority to have this power, that it exists for our good. The good is that when judgment is made and punishment meted out, the reality of the harm committed is both named and dealt with. Punishment helps society by naming what has happened and by establishing the ground for moving forward.
I say, I have written a lot about these things. But as a prospective juror, it was something the execution of which was, for the first time in my life, close to coming into my hands. I prayed a bit over a silent lunch. I did not want to be on this jury. And yet, I found I was willing to assume that responsibility if it came to me.
Although I had forgotten it at the moment, Saint Augustine famously taught that Christians should not shirk political responsibilities. It is what we owe to our political community in this world. Augustine observes, surely rightly, that Christian virtues would make a positive difference in the work of lawmakers and judges, and that the world would be a worse place if Christians refused to participate in its institutions of governance and judgment. On the other hand, he says, it is a horrible thing to have to pass judgment on another human being. We are not God. We can never know with complete assurance the truth of things.
That day I went home relieved that I had not been chosen, yet also with a prayer for those who were.
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Out & About. This Sunday, the last one in meterological summer, I'm to teach a class on "Service" in the Book of Common Prayer, and also lead a seminar on J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit. The morning class is at 10:20 a.m.; the evening seminar begins at 5 p.m. Visitors welcome to either: in the education building of Church of the Incarnation, 3996 McKinney Ave., Dallas.
Sunday evening, October 9, at 5 p.m., also at Incarnation, I will give the fall theology lecture: “Theology of Walking,” in the Ascension Chapel.
On the Web. On the Human Life Review’s website, I have a reflection on technology. No matter how she or he comes about, the child is real, and the important question is not about her or his humanity but about ours.