Leadership Thought: Balancing Justice with Mercy in Minneapolis and Here at Home.

Dear Friends

Please! Can we please have some balance? The events that have happened in the last week and a half have left me with a lot of emotions. I have experienced sadness, anger, disillusionment and embarrassment to name just a few of my feelings. I detest what happened to George Floyd. It was a heinous response to a petty crime, and there is no way I could ever condone the actions of those policemen. They were wrong, and they deserve justice. However, to paint all policeman with the broad brush or racism is equally as wrong. To talk about disbanding and defunding the work of law enforcement is also wrong, and in my mind a knee jerk reaction to the tragic events that have taken place.

My hope would be that everyone would take a deep breath, calm down, and try to react to our present situation with some balance and common sense. There are good cops and bad cops, just as there are good people and bad people, so to arrive at the conclusion that we need to get rid of law enforcement makes no sense at all.

We are called as Christians to “submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human authority” (1 Peter 2:13). However, Scripture also reminds us that when Peter and apostles were confronted by the authorities and told to stop preaching, their response was, “We must obey God and not man”  (Acts 5:29). Both positions are scriptural, and both provide balance for each another. They guide and direct and keep us from going to one extreme or the other. Micah states the same principle  when he says we are “to act justly, (and) love mercy.” The prophet Zechariah echoes these words when he exhorts us to “Execute true justice, show mercy and compassion Everyone to his brother (Zech 7:9).

We cannot balance mercy and justice unless we look at the whole set of circumstances involved. What the policemen did was wrong, no question. But what the violent protesters did to the policeman was wrong, and what they did to their city was wrong.

Christ reminds us “Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment” John 7:24. Both sides would be well to keep this truth in mind.

I read an article on the internet titled "Balancing Justice and Mercy." In it the writer comments on the familiar picture we see of Lady Justice. We have seen pictures of her holding a sword in one hand and a balance scale in the other. The sword represents punishment and the balance scale represents fairness in the justice dispensed. If one looks closely at these respective presentations, we discern Lady Justice wearing a blindfold, symbolic of total impartiality in her judgement.

Balance and impartiality are desperately needed today. Whether in government, or law enforcement, or in our own personal, social and political intercourse these days. As believers we must seek these qualities. But we must always do so keeping in mind the words of James who writes “For judgement is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment” (James 2:13)

So, let’s take off our blindfolds of justice and mercy and ask God to give us both balance and impartiality to guide us so that He would be honored and glorified by our responses. 

Yours in faith and friendship,
Tom