The Supreme Court and Jesus: What Christians Can Learn About Submitting to a Document

So I’ve been living within walking distance of the Supreme Court for six months now. I pass by it every other morning when I walk my dog to the local coffee shop. Lucy literally poops on their back lawn. I pick it up, of course. Dogs don’t know.

Since I moved into the neighborhood (I’m only here another couple weeks), I’ve paid more attention to the goings on over there. When a Justice is interviewed on C-Span, I stop to watch. And the whole thing amazes me.

What I love about the court is that, at least in principle, each Justice is more committed to the truth than they are to their opinions. And the checks and balances that keep their personal views in check are immense. Each must defend their decision in precedent and opinion. Activist Judges would be marginalized quickly.

Of course, even at that level, personal bias and opinion seeps in, and yet, like no other man-made institution, they are committed to objective interpretation.

I trust them more than any other body of government. And I’m convinced we, as Christians, have much to learn from how they do business. If we can learn from them, the whole liberal vs. conservative and reformed vs. postmodern nonsense that is absurd (and strategically manipulates ignorant masses to buy books and join the tribes of control-freak leaders) can end.

The job of the court is not for them to do what’s right or what’s moral. The job of the court is to uphold what they deem as Constitutional, meaning that many times they have to make decisions, not according to their conscious, but according to what they deem as upholding the Constitution.

For instance, you recently had conservative judges voting down DOMA and liberal judges siding against the Voters Rights Act. In other words, you had people crossing philosophical lines. Amazing. Imagine a world in which people checked their identities and egos at the door to honor what they see as truth?

To be honest, I love this. I love that a group of intellectuals have to submit themselves to a document that they may or may not believe is infallible. I certainly don’t think it’s infallible at all and yet I completely respect they let go of their egos and submit all the same. Part of standing up for truth is admitting you might not know the truth fully yourself.

The church should be such a world but it isn’t.

This, of course, reminds me of a Christian’s relationship with scripture. Like the court, you’ve got activist preachers who only support some of scripture, say, the more conservative aspects, while only giving lip-service to the stuff about poverty and justice and so forth, and some more liberal preachers who speak out for justice but ignore hardline morality.

As much as we may love or hate the court, we’ve got a lot to learn from them. And that is this: Honoring truth is not about our opinion. It’s about interpreting the document of Scripture as fairly and honestly as possible, and, to be honest, pissing off some of our own tribe when we believe they are interpreting the document wrongly.

If your preacher is towing a hard line and unwilling to admit their “enemies” are sometimes right, find a new church. You’re being lied to by a self-deceived manipulator who is using you to build a tribe.

In my opinion, the court is doing a much more objective job seeking the “truth” than the church is. We act more like Congress — we take our sides and bend truth to defend our tribe. It’s ridiculous. In today’s culture, a truth-teller won’t have a tribe.

Jesus wasn’t crucified by the church or the government, he was crucified by both. So goes the life of a truth teller. They will never please a people group, because people are often right and often wrong.

The Supreme Court and Jesus: What Christians Can Learn About Submitting to a Document is a post from: Storyline Blog