Monday, July 18, 2011

Justice And Mercy In "12 Angry Men"

And what does the LORD require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
   and to walk humbly with your God.
   Micah 6:8

A Simple Requirement?
During a recent mission trip, I was reminded of this short passage from the book of Micah. It's the famous pronouncement that summarizes God's will for everyone. At first glance, it seems like a pretty simple and clear command. What does God want from you? Act justly. Love mercy. Walk humbly with God.

Still, I found myself a bit stuck on this verse. Justice and mercy are two nouns that are pretty opposite of each other. Seeking justice invokes thoughts of punishment and accountability, of preventing evil. Mercy, on the other hand, invokes thoughts of compassion and forgiveness. How is someone supposed to balance these very different commands in their efforts to do God's will?

Justice And Mercy In 12 Angry Men
I was recently inspired as I watched one of my favorite movies, the classic 1957 film, 12 Angry Men. It's a phenomenal morality tale that pits twelve jurors in a room to decide a verdict in the case of an 18-year-old boy accused of killing his father. The story's protagonist is Juror #8, expertly portrayed by Henry Fonda. He is the lone dissenting voice who attempts to persuade the eleven other jurors to fully examine their evidence before sending the boy to the electric chair. Henry Fonda's Juror #8 is one of the best examples of simultaneously acting justly and loving mercy that I've ever seen. He wants to find out the truth, but realizes that none of the jurors will know for sure who the guilty party is. At the same time, he wants to show compassion to an accused boy who has had a very hard life. He says, "Well, there were eleven votes for guilty. It's not easy to raise my hand and send a boy off to die without talking about it first." This is acting justly and loving mercy. It's seeking to prevent evil from happening again, but upholding mercy as something valuable in every situation.

At first the case seems to be very open and shut. The accused boy has a weak alibi and a knife he claimed to have lost is found at the scene of the murder. But as Juror #8 stands up for the boy, stating that, "I just think we owe him a few words, that's all," other jurors slowly begin to listen and think more deeply about the evidence presented. The idea of "justice" starts to become a serious and thoughtful endeavor, rather than a impulsive opinion.

While all the jurors at first seem to be reasonable men who are fully capable of deciding a verdict for a murder trial, personal prejudices are slowly revealed. While justice may have been the initial goal for each juror, eleven of them didn't bring any concern for mercy to that table. What they did bring to the table was a history. Some have a prejudice against the boy because he is a foreigner. Others simply want to wrap it up and get on to other stuff, outside of that courthouse. Some of them identify with the slum upbringing of the accused boy. Still others start to question the testimony of the two eyewitnesses. And so mercy and justice begin their delicate dance, each taking their proper steps. One by one, the jurors show signs of mercy as they seek a fair and just decision. And the ones who maintain that the boy is guilty—even after examining much questionable evidence—start to show an unmerciful side, one that has the façade of a concern for justice, but is really fueled by anger and hatred.

It's not easy to summarize how to act justly while also showing mercy, but 12 Angry Men is a profound example of how this biblical passage should be lived out. In the end, these men faced their personal prejudices and they sought the fair and just decision. For Juror #8, it was a concern for mercy that seemed to compel his actions in that deliberation room. The actions and words of the 'unmerciful' jurors shows us why mercy is equally as important as justice. Justice without a concern for mercy isn't truly just. When our attempts at ending injustice aren't balanced with mercy, emotions like anger and bitterness steer the wheel. And can any good come from that?

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0050083/plotsummary

Saturday, July 9, 2011

Guilt Offerings

I browsed through my mail yesterday, as I do most days—sifting through the junk and hoping for some Amazon package that I might have forgot I ordered. Then I came upon a World Vision packet. This is nothing new, really. I've made donations to World Vision a number of times, even sponsoring a child for a period. However, this packet struck me a bit differently. I'm not quite sure why.


What struck me about this packet was the pronounced use of guilt being marketed. The Bible verse on the packet is Matthew 25:37, a teaching about sheep and goats. Jesus was teaching his disciples about the kingdom of heaven, and how people who think they're righteous might be in for a surprise when confronted with the fact that they neglected the poor and needy on earth. The most well-known verse from this passage is, "whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me."

Without a doubt, these are powerful words. Jesus struck at the heart of 'lukewarm' faith, for sure. There are a number of organizations and statistics that can tell you if every Christian in the U.S. (around 138 million people) slightly increased their giving each year, then extreme poverty could be eradicated by the year 2035. And I applaud organizations such as World Vision for working to end extreme poverty.

Still, I'm not sure Jesus had a 'guilt marketing tactic' in mind when he spoke those words to his disciples. He was simply calling out hypocrisy. Is that what World Vision is doing? Maybe. 

The difference, in my estimation, is that World Vision is a company with employees...and payrolls. But it's hard to blame them for what they're doing. Tackling worldwide poverty and injustice is on a level that is unfathomable to me. Again, I truly commend their work.

But their marketing efforts also got me thinking about why people give, and why we should give. If using guilt is the only way to get a person to give, then so be it. Better to feed a starving child using a guilt marketing method than for that child not to be fed at all. But I wonder sometimes, if most donors give simply because they read a phrase such as, "Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you?" Are they trying to please God by giving money away? Or are they truly concerned for the poor?

I ask this of myself, as well. My wife and I sponsor a child through Compassion International. We sponsor a child because we have the resources to do so, and because it's the right thing to do. Yet we don't take the time to pray enough for our child. We read updates and send a letter to him every now and then, but do we really try to have a bond with this child?

Maybe giving money is enough. Maybe that's all that people can find the time to do. Writing a letter is simply out of the question. Praying for a child in another country might be asking too much when it is more than difficult to even pray for our own family.

Wouldn't it be nice, though, if people could give out of a deep concern for the well-being of others, rather than giving out of guilt?

Scott Todd, a senior adviser at Compassion International, spoke recently about charitable giving by Christians: “It begins with a new hunger—a felt, compelling force within us that desires that kids will not die of preventable causes, that sees the pain and feels it and is almost angry about it and wants it to stop." Scott Todd is the leader of "58" (based on Isaiah 58), an organization backed by ten major non-profit groups to highlight the causes of poverty and to fight against those causes—mostly through the financial assistance of donors.

And so I read Mr. Todd's quote, and then I look at World Vision's packet, and I think...somewhere we're off a little bit. Yes, there will always be poverty. But there still are effective means to save lives and help stop the extreme poverty stuff—lack of education, lack of clean water, lack of food and shelter. My hope is that, someday, organizations like World Vision won't have to use the guilt marketing anymore. I hope that Christians—and everyone else—will give to charities that fight poverty because it's the right thing to do. Salvation isn't based on works or how you spend you're money. If that's the case, then we're all headed to hell. Guilt shouldn't motivate us to do good. God and justice should be our motivators.