Own Your Opinion

“The hands of the witnesses shall be first upon him to put him to death, and afterward the hands of all the people. So thou shalt put the evil away from among you.” (De 17:7 AV)

It’s easy to make an accusation or condemn one as guilty.  However, if the one making the accusation must live with the consequences of his judgment, he might not be so quick to judge.  In our passage above, if a person was found guilty of a capital offense, those who found him guilty had to be the first ones to cast stones upon the condemned as do so until he expired.  The purpose might be multifaceted here.  It could be for closure.  If the judges, who most certainly would have contained the victimized, could execute the guilty, it would relieve the grief they felt at the innocent death of a loved one.  Another purpose is stated above.  One must own their opinions.  They cannot render judgment and then walk away from the consequences of that judgment.

Sorry, but another illustration from my days as a juror.  In the jury selection phase, there were many questions asked of the pool.  Some were generic questions that would apply no matter the case at hand.  Other questions were geared more towards the nature of the case.  Our defendant was accused of violating his parole agreement sixteen times.  If I had to guess what those violations were, I think they would have been violating an order not to contact the victim and the violations were text messages sent by the accused.  We will never know because a plea was reached.  Anyway, a question was asked if we could render a fair verdict even though the defendant had twenty-something charged leveled against him, or if we thought the sheer number of counts meant he was guilty of something.  Two ladies vigorously stated the defendant was guilty of something if he had twenty-something charges leveled against him.  They rendered a verdict without hearing all the evidence.  Why was that important to the rest of us?  It revealed the severity of what we were asked to do.  We were asked to render a judgment that would forever alter someone’s life.  If we were not people of conscience, then we could not serve.  In other words, the defense counselor was manifesting this truth in the question he posed.  Our judgment of guilty would forever alter this defendant’s life.  More importantly, we would have to live with our opinion and know that a man was behind bars for a very long time because of our judgment of guilty.

One would wonder if we would forebear our judgments if we had to live with the consequences of those judgments.  Especially if they involve the character of another.  If we spread vicious opinions of another, it will forever affect his or her life.  The opinions of others will change.  Their interaction with the individual will change.  I cannot imagine what it would feel like to participate in the execution of another.  Even if that person took someone close to me.  I think it would forever alter my life.  A talebearer rarely must suffer the consequences of freely shared opinion.  But a talebearer should.  Those who would lend an ear must hold the talebearer accountable for words ill-spoken.  If we are required to render a judgment, let us remember that judgments have consequences.  These consequences are not in a vacuum.  They will affect us whether we like it or not.  Be prepared to cast the first stone and stay with it until that judgment is complete.  Otherwise, leave it to someone with a conscience.