Jury Duty

I couldn't watch the debates in real time last night because I had to do the carpool thing for my daughter (youth group, dontcha know). So after I got home, I watched the reruns on CNN. Then I tumbled into bed after midnight.

I had jury duty this morning, which meant this freelance-writer nightowl had to get up and dressed to leave before 7:15, which totally cramped my style. It also meant braving rush hour and spending literally 30 minutes circling in downtown Dallas seeking a parking space. One garage said "jail only," so I knew that was a bad idea. The next garage said "public," but when I got close to the entrance, I saw "employees only." I discovered the hard way that our GPS system works lousy when streets lie only about 300 feet apart. Oh? When your smarmy British accent said "Turn right" you meant at the NEXT street, not the one right in front of me? Oh-h-h. That meant circling around on yet more one-way streets to get going the right direction (are you picking up on my frustration here?). I burned my per diem (six bucks) on gas alone--which I (thankfully) bought today for only $2.69/gallon.

But I digress.

Once inside the jury room, I watched the video, got sworn in, and was promptly told to take a "break" for 30 minutes. Eventually mid-morning I got sent upstairs with 35 others to go through jury de-selection.

Here's what struck me as odd. Two pastors in the jury pew said they could not serve because the Bible says "judge not that ye be not judged." Therefore, they reasoned, they could not stand in judgment over another human being in a court of law.

Huh?

Okay, that same passage also says shortly thereafter to take the log out of your own eye so you can see straight to remove the speck from your brother's. Now how are we supposed to remove the speck, figuratively speaking, if we say it's not our place? Also, how are we supposed to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with our God (Micah 6:8) if we can't do justice? And how are we going to do church discipline according to Matthew 18 if we can't take the requisite two witnesses? How are we going to make sure the innocent aren't oppressed if we won't call their victimizers' behavior bad, wicked, evil, immoral, wrong?

BTW, I didn't get selected. I wonder if it's because I'm too opinionated?

The court called out the jurors from among us by about 1 PM, and after they all left the pews, Judge Carlos Cortez gave an eloquent speech about the justice system that was worth the hassle. He included this quote from another pastor: "The end of our lives begins the day we become silent about things that matter" (MLK). Amen. Preach it!