What do the Stark County Treasurer’s and the Casey Anthony cases have in common? Both are about believing in the system of law and justice that we have in place. Alex Zumbar took the high road in stating that, even though the court’s judgment on his staying in the Treasurer’s job went against him, he believes in the system that decided it.
Many don’t trust the system that gave the final verdict in the Anthony case. (Ditto on Zumbar case too, from the reports I’ve read and the people I’ve talked to). But what we believe (or want to) isn’t really relevant here. No case can be decided by public opinion polls.
We weren’t in that courtroom listening to the arguments and evidence presented. Too often the media and the public come down in a different place than those actually involved precisely because they weren’t there, they don’t have all the facts, they allow “spin,” surface stuff and emotion to affect what they believe.
This is like those who want to live in a just world where wrongdoing and evil people are punished, but they don’t want God to be a just Judge. I know because I hear this as one of the big criticisms people use to attack Christianity and God: “How can you serve a God who condones so much killing in the Old Testament?”
Do you mean the times God told Israel to “totally destroy” (ten times just in Joshua 10) those nations who sacrificed their children to their gods, who ripped open pregnant women, and crushed the skulls of the infants of the peoples they conquered, who engaged in sexually depraved worship, who were into sorcery, witchcraft and the like (see Deuteronomy 18:9-13; 20:17-18; Psalm 137:8-9; Amos 1:13)? That’s the kind of folks God told Israel to “totally destroy.”
We either believe in our system of justice and a God who always punishes wrong fairly and eventually (Psalm 9:16), or we can live in a world without them--a dark, dangerous, chaotic and unjust place. We can’t have it both ways.
