Justice and Mercy

My Quaker Grandfather once told me when I was about 5 years old that there is no such thing as justice in this world. I had petitioned him for a redress of a great wrong that had been perpetrated against me after my father paddled my fanny for something my brother had done. My father after finding out that he had paddled the wrong fanny simply said—”tough luck, think about all the things you got away with and didn’t get paddled—it all evens out”.

Seems like justice cut both ways that day. Two weeks ago, I told a retired Federal Judge that my grandson had shown me his report card at the end of his first year of kindergarten and in the comments section the teacher wrote—”Brayden Seeks Justice”. The retired judge opined—”I hope he never tires of looking for it”, implying that we never actually find it.

Justice and its poor second cousin “fairness” are like sipping a slurpy through a straw. Sometimes the straw gets frozen, and nothing gets up the straw. Sometimes the slurpy gets to warm and we sip too fast, and we get a headache. Like Aristotle’s GOLDEN MEAN, we are always striving in our personal lives to find it, and we hope our courts of law also try and to be not only just, but merciful.

Aquinas opined there is no justice without mercy. He defined mercy as “compassion in our hearts for another’s misery but, more importantly, it must drive us to help him.”

There are two parts to mercy—affective and effective. “Affective” is the feeling of empathy or sympathy—neither of which are virtues themselves. When combined with the “effective act” they define mercy. President Obama once opined that mercy and justice stand opposed to each other. Aquinas believed differently that they complement—”complete” each other. True compassion is justice and mercy in action.

In the civil secular world of legal justice, strict constructionists believe that it is not the job of the court to administer justice, but rather the job of the court is to “apply the law”. The justice that a plaintiff seeks or that a defendant hopes for can only be found within the confines of the law. When one goes before a court or a judge seeking “justice” they must understand the limitations of human law and those humans that administer it. The system is human and therefore flawed. The legal standard is very different than the Biblical standard, even though the predicates for both were founded in the same books and traditions.

I was so very disappointed in the outcome of the civil case between St. Luke’s and Ammon Bundy and Diego Rodriquez. I do not understand the facts of the case, nor was I present at the trial that lasted 10 days. It had to have been a David vs Goliath encounter, but the defendants did themselves little good by not hiring legal counsel and not being present in court. Hubristic defiance is all one sees when nobody is sitting at the defense table—no matter the reality.

From afar there was a seafoam frothing of irony in the entire affair—aside from the legal proceedings themselves.

Corporatism vs the individual. A hospital company with over $2 billion a year in revenues against two individuals with their life savings and livelihoods on the line. It is hard for the justice system to defend someone who does not themselves have an attorney or who doesn’t show up in court. Bad call Mr.’s Bundy and Rodriquez. It was an away game, and you should have played by their rules and “Rendered unto Caeser….” With good legal counsel and your presence before the judge, no matter the verdict you would have been able to present your position in the best way possible.

Emotional and institutional reputational damage vs physical harm. There was no physical contact between individuals and words were few and soft. $50million—really! Can we all say VINDICTIVE—please.

There are a group of people in Idaho who can make a logical argument that far more moral and physical damage occurs when the rights of the unborn child are violated or when an underaged child is encouraged to undergo endocrine therapy for gender reassignment. They then point out that the very institution that facilitates such therapies and procedures says they are harmed by two men standing in front of a medical facility wanting to take possession of their grandchild!

Where was the human mercy at the scene—or later in the courtroom?

And finally, what about this Goliath medical facility demanding $50 million in damages? An institution that in 2018-19 according to IRS form 990 paid its former CEO $18 million over two years. Combine that with the legal fees from this case and one appreciates the costs of running an institution that receives over 50% of its revenues from fungible government transfer payments. By playing the Billion Dollar Goliath victim “virtue signaling card”, has proven them to be all that they believe Mr. Bundy to be. 

There is no question in my mind who the most virtuous party is in this dispute—Baby Cyrus and his family. The sad part about this story is the over 2000 people—Doctors, nurses, technicians, and support personnel who themselves are virtuous caregivers and who we should all hold in high esteem are not being led by worthy virtuous leaders. Their excellence in performing their duties is worthy of far better representation than they are receiving from senior administrators and their board of directors.

Two last thoughts from non-other than Judge Antonine Scala about the plight of Christians living in a litigious secular world:

“God assumed from the beginning that the wise of the world would view Christians as fools … and he has not been disappointed,” Scalia said.

“If I have brought any message today, it is this: Have the courage to have your wisdom regarded as stupidity,” he added. “Be fools for Christ. And have the courage to suffer the contempt of the sophisticated world.” Maybe it is time to take the “Saint(St.) out of Luke’s?