About Casey Anthony and Our Attitudes...

There's a lot of talk in the social media circles currently about the Casey Anthony "not guilty" verdict from this past Tuesday.  Most of the talk centers on shock and disgust.  The talk that concerns me most is the talk coming from the Christian community.  We simply don't know how to deal with this subject and waiver between two extremes.  One of hatred and one of veneration of a celebrity.  I care what our Christian community has to say on the topic of much debate because whether we want it to or not, it directly reflects who the world sees Christ to be.  And right now we're not making Him look that great.

A lot of the Facebook comments I see deal with the outrage that Casey Anthony "got off" for murdering her daughter.  Most comments run the gambit of "she may have gotten off now, but God's going to get her for sure!" Or, "She'll get what's coming to her in Hell!"  We're even distributing pictures of her and O.J. Simpson together as our own punch lines. I even saw a couple of posts from "Christians" were profanity was used and implied to refer to this "witch" that shouldn't be allowed to live another second.  On the other side I've  read articles from Christian publications that seem so weak and pacifistic that it doesn't seem the editors would lift a limp wrist to defend their own families if an intruder broke into their homes and tried to harm them.

Everyone, for the most part, has assumed her guilt, largely because of her lies to authorities, her party-girl life style, the various circumstantial evidence, and for not reporting her daughter missing for 31 days among other things.  All of these things point to a guilty, or at best, unfit, shady mother in the person of Casey Anthony.  However, despite her lies and party-girl lifestyle the bottom line is that we don't really know who killed this poor little girl.  This being the case, as a Christian community, we should be very careful in pronouncing God's judgment on a person for a sin we don't know who clearly committed it.  This attitude shows clear hatred for someone we don't know is guilty for sure and has now been proven, or tried and found "not guilty" by a jury of her peers in our court system.  Has justice been served?  Only God and the killer and possible family members know for sure.  We the public do NOT.

I typically cry "foul" when Christians quote Matthew 7:1-6 when a Christian wants to deal with or call someones actions sinful.  It nearly never fails that someone will quote a part of this text and say, "judge not so that you won't be judged!"  I usually point out that they're taking that scripture out of it's intended context.  The scripture says that we shouldn't judge someone hypocritically and that we should remove the log from our eye so we can see clearly enough to help our brother with the spec in theirs.  We are to help  keep people accountable for their sins as well as our own.  In light of this verdict, and in regards to the attitudes of a lot of believers on Facebook and other social media, I would say that this scripture would bear some weight in the issue of Casey Anthony.  If we have hate for her and what we think she did - by the way, wanting God's judgment to fall on anyone would certainly constitute a level of hatred given the fierce and eternal nature of His wrath - makes us just as guilty of what we presume she did.  If we hate anyone in our heart, then we have committed the same sin of murder in God's eyes (1 John 4:20).

The Christian communities' position should come from one of love and understanding that God does bring ultimate justice, even if we perceive that it has been missed here on earth.  We should pray for this family because we've seen significant issues and evidence that suggests their lives are not surrendered to Christ and are in need of His forgiveness in a number of areas, much like our own.

Is the murderer off the hook then?  Of course not.  Should we lament the child abuse that took place?  Of course we are.  Should we remove the beam that in sin our eye so that we can rightly remove the speck in others' eyes?  Yes, of course... if there's a beam there, then remove away!  Should we exhibit grace and mercy?  Of course.  Should we tolerate sin and crime and immorality in our lives and nation?  Aboslutely not!  This is why we need to be led by His Spirit in all of our dealings.  We shouldn't give sin a passing wink, nor should our motives be to want any to perish.  God doesn't want any to perish either (2 Peter 3:9)!

This attitude show how ineptly we understand eternal punishment in Hell.  We are so quick to resign people there, but we should note that Christ wsan't.  The most cruel, deserving-of-Hell-people that I can think of are those who mishandled and crucified Christ.  They took the greatest gift ever given to humankind and they trashed Him like garbage.  Yet His response was, "Father please forve them, they don't know what they are doing."  Even then under excruciating pain He cared for them and didn't want to see God's wrath poured out on any of them, deserving as they were.  This doesn't mean that it wasn't, it means that he didn't want it to be if at all possible.  That's why He was on the cross taking the sins of us all on Himself and being punished for them for us.
 
We aren't much like Christ when we become wrath-mongers.  Do not mistake that statement for a liberal, bleeding heart, let's-not-punish-anyone-for their-crimes kind of an attitude. Take it for what it is.  An understanding that we can't possibly know how terrifying and devastating the wrath of God is and that we shouldn't wish it on any person.  Christ has this understanding, and wanted none of us sinners to be apart of it.  Let us stive for a deeper love for the dregs of humanity than our current flippant "cast them all into Hell" attitude that some of us carry.  Let us hunger for justice for this little girl.  Let us pray for justice to come to the murderer as well as their repentance and salvation.  But let us not pray with so much venom in our breath.  Let our hearts long for what is right, even when what is right becomes difficult to live out.  It's not wrong to want justice.  It is wrong for us to hate.

One last point I wish to make... in all of our outcry and rage, let us remember to cry out daily to God on behalf of all abused children who are being taken advantage of presently in our world, and not just when they become celebrities on television.  Let's cry out to God on their behalf daily.  Do we even realize that right now as we read this there is a little girl or boy who is being violently abused by the ones who are supposed to love them the most?  Do we realize somewhere in Thai Land there are little boys and girls who are being systemically raped by wicked, evil men for money and to fulfill a sinful lust, some as young as 18 months of age?  In Eastern Europe, right now, there are young women who are being sexually exploited and trafficked by ruthless thugs who care nothing for these poor girls who are being crushed and lost to prostitution and drugs forever.  Don't our hearts break for these that receive no media attention as well? Or is it just our care to get involved emotionally when our day time television soaps are interrupted and we're forced to finally look and see the evil that's going on in our society every day?