Welcome to our Wednesday “Ask Beau” post. The purpose of this weekly feature is to provide you, our readers, with biblical responses to questions you have about practical issues that you face.
As always, you may submit questions for future “Ask Beau” posts by contacting us at beau.stanley@gracebrethren.org or viewfromthepugh@yahoo.comor by leaving a comment on this post.
On Tuesday the 5th, Chris B. asked me if I would comment on the Casey Anthony trial in light of some of the angry responses to Anthony’s acquittal. While I didn’t follow the story closely, I’m happy to suggest some thoughts on how Christians should react to this verdict.
As much as it may seem that Casey Anthony murdered her daughter Caylee, I do not think that we should say that the justice system failed in this case. Del Tackett, an insightful Christian thinker, argued this point better than I could in a post published on his blog last Thursday (thanks, Jim A.). Our legal system rightly has a high standard of proof in criminal cases, and, as Tackett notes, the Bible places a high value on the testimony of witnesses. Apparently there were no sufficiently clear witnesses in this case, whether human or physical.
We need to have realistic expectations about what human legal systems can accomplish. It’s helpful to think of a distinction that Chris B. made in his email: the distinction between God’s justice and man’s. God’s justice is perfect; man’s justice is imperfect. Human legal systems will never catch every criminal, nor can they, because we humans are limited in knowledge and inherently biased. God, on the other hand, is omniscient (1 John 3:20) and unbiased (Acts 10:34). Because He is completely good (1 John 1:5), He will not be mocked by evil, but will punish the guilty (Nahum 1:3), whether or not human legal systems are able to punish the guilty.
We also need to expect unfairness and not be surprised by it. Even if Casey Anthony didn’t murder Caylee, someone apparently did, and it’s just not fair that a little child should be treated as Caylee was. But as long as sin exists in this world, unfairness will exist. It is absolutely a good thing for us to seek fairness, but for us to demand fairness is neither realistic nor biblical.
We learn from Jesus Himself that our primary business as Christians is not to demand fairness, but to dispense love. If Jesus had demanded that He be treated fairly, no one would be able to spend eternity with God. Instead, Jesus endured unfairness in order to love people in the ultimate way (John 15:13). My suspicion is that if Christians were as adamant about loving people as we are about justice and fairness, the world would be very different.
I’m sure many of you followed the Casey Anthony trial. What are your thoughts on the trial, the verdict, or the reactions to the verdict?
—Beau Stanley
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I was shocked. Felt like the OJ trial all over again. I think the fact that a “loving” mother didn’t bother to notify anyone about her only daughter’s disappearance for a whole month says just about all I need to hear. She was unwilling to take the stand in her own defense…if I were innocent of the charges, you’d better believe that jury would hear me state plainly, “I did NOT kill my daughter.”
Jared,
Thanks for sharing your thoughts. As to taking the stand in one’s own defense, the trick is that you don’t just get to say what you want to say – you have to answer questions from the opposing lawyer as well! I’m not sure her testimony would have helped her very much anyway since she already had credibility issues and likely would not have presented herself in a very convincing manner. I would not have put her on the stand if I had been her lawyer.
The first commenter in the Del Tackett post quotes Juror #14 as saying, “Just because she was not guilty doesn’t mean she was innocent.” Agreed. There are reasons to be very suspicious of Casey Anthony, but reasons for suspicion may not add up to sufficient grounds for conviction.
Excellent thoughts Beau. Thank you for your wisdom in this. I think it is important to understand that our justice system is set up in a way that you are Innocent until proven guilty. Not, guilty until proven innocent. The jurors make their verdict based on facts that are proven, not on common sense or feelings towards a person. It is also important to realize that most of our facts are coming from short video clips that the news channel is portraying to us. Basically, if the news wants to think that Casey is guilty, then they are only going to show us video clips that lean towards her being guilty. What I am saying is that unless we are watching a live 24 hr camera of the courtroom, then we are pretty much going to be pursuaded by what the local news anchor’s personal thoughts are on the trial. One last thing to consider is that we should be putting our time and attention on the question, “who killed Caylee Anthony”, verses, “How can we prove that Casey killed her daughter”. In closing, I feel that the only justice for evil will come when Satan himself is cast into the Lake of Fire for eternity. My prayer in this situation is that the murderer of Caylee Anthony, whether it is Casey or someone else, will confess to the police of their mistakes and that when they are in prison that they will (if not already) open their hearts to Jesus Christ and accept Him as their Lord and Savior.
Thanks for the comment, Nate. I’m glad that you raised the issue of media bias and editorial choices, and that you are praying for the eternal salvation of Caylee’s murderer.
Dear Beau, I appreciated your insight above. I was truly upset with the verdict and felt over 100 x’s if she was truly innocent she would of screamed out many times in court asking to find the real killer of her child and she would sit there as long as they needed her to (as if she didn’t have a choice) but if it was me locked up over my child’s death and the State was going after me denying me bond after finding concrete evidence they were searching for a deceased child – findings related to the trunk of her vehicle — if I was truly innocent, I would of never been able to maintain composure, and her reactions have no merit on anything I understand, but I know I would of been removed from Court more than once for Contempt. As you summarized very well, this has been and will be in God’s hands and I know where Caylee is, and that is the only solace and comfort I have in this most unusual and strange case that happened here in the United States. Now for the media outlets to want to pay huge monies to interview a mother that showed no remorse and those 31 days and all the lies she spun and we are hearing offers to Ms. Anthony in the ranges of 1 – 5 million USD. This is truly indicative of our moral state of decay that is happening.