Do not follow the crowd in doing wrong. When you give testimony in a lawsuit, do not pervert justice by siding with the crowd… - Exodus 23:2

Today’s Scripture Reading (June 11, 2012): Exodus 23

We do not seem to like dissenting voices. We want the unanimous decision. It is as if a unanimous decision makes the decision the right one. But what we sometimes fail to realize is that justice requires dissenting voices. That thought is the basis for our confrontational criminal justice system. The question in times of obvious moral failure is often ‘how can you defend someone like that?’ How can that be justice? But the answer has to be that real justice is impossible without someone standing on the other side of the table asking questions about the morality of the events taking place – even in defense of the ones that, in our opinion, are obviously in the wrong.

A unanimous decision often presents a problem because it is an indication that the people involved are not really after justice. It is relatively easy to coerce a vote to go in a certain direction. Unanimous decisions in history have happened because people have been bribed or bullied into conforming to the majority opinion. It is the plot of our fictional crime stories about the jury that comes to the needed unanimous decision because the few dissenting voices were belittled or bored. But due diligence means making sure that we are asking the appropriate questions about the situation – it means we are not silencing the dissenter.

The existence of protest lines in our culture is a symptom of true justice. They represent the questions that are being asked by a segment of society. Dissenting questions and protests seldom happen in a totalitarian society – and when they do the military immediately silences the questions.

God’s word to Moses was not to create a society where questions could not be asked - that dissenting opinions were a valuable avenue to justice. Even if it was only one voice standing alone and  that voice needs to be listened to and honored. Because without the questions that that voice is asking, justice is ultimately impossible. 

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Exodus 24