Judging Others on Justice at 'Justice Sunday'
As a Baptist preacher, I don't like to see anyone do violence to the gospel or use the pulpit as platform to manipulate the public. Sunday is supposed to be about pointing people toward the liberating truth of God's Word, not telling lies to promote a selfish political agenda.
Justice is not served when prominent clergy are willing to sacrifice truth to achieve a political goal.The preachers and political leaders who organized “Justice Sunday� obviously had not read Jesus’ words in the Sermon on the Mount, “Do not judge or you will be judged. For in the same way that you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.� (Matthew 7:1) Unfortunately the conveners of “Justice Sunday� could not see past the plank in their own eye to see the hundreds of clergy who appealed to them last week to stop misusing religion and manipulating people of faith.
They kept repeating the same lies – telling people that Senate filibusters were being used to keep Christians off the federal courts because of their faith. In reality, more than 200 of President Bush’s judicial nominees have been approved. Senate Democrats have used the filibuster to block less than five percent – those whose records showed that they would undermine Americans’ rights and legal protections.
Justice in America is not served by removing the last check on complete domination of our courts by the Republican Party. Justice is not served by eliminating any effective way to oppose the appointment of judges who would weaken civil rights protections and undermine the social justice progress we fought for decades to achieve.
And Justice is not served when prominent clergy are willing to sacrifice truth to achieve a political goal.