Not mocked

“I use the rules to frustrate the law. But I didn't set up the ground rules.” ~ F. Lee Bailey

“Destiny is no matter of chance. It is a matter of choice.” ~ William Jennings Bryan

A couple of the extracurricular activities my children have taken advantage of during their high school years are the Forensics and Mock Trial teams. Some of the activities that are a part of Forensics include public policy debate and Lincoln-Douglas debate as well as storytelling and extemporaneous speaking. This is an excellent opportunity for teens to develop logic and reason skills as well as sharpening their ability to clearly and concisely articulate a thought or idea. Mock Trial is the act or imitation of a trial where students are assigned the roles of attorneys and witnesses, and they must prepare to compete in a court room as either the defense or the plaintiff. These trials are rehearsed and it allows them to learn the rules of the legal system and take that knowledge to compete against other schools in regional, state and national competitions. I have written about this in the past, and it has prompted some thoughts and themes that point to faith in Christ.

This past weekend my oldest son participated in our state Mock Trial competition, and I drove to the state capitol to observe the proceeding. It is truly amazing to see these fine young minds memorize the details of the case and also the legal language and various articles of the law. They must think on their feet very quickly to raise an objection and respond to an actual serving judge to convince him or her to overrule or sustain the objection. They need to know legal terms like hearsay. They need to know if an out of court statement is allowable, if an attorney is leading a witness, if a question is argumentative, if the facts are relevant to the case, or if testimony is prejudicial, speculative or out of scope. The challenge for these young adults is that unlike an actual courtroom they have a time limit. Their opening statements, their testimony, cross-examination and closing arguments must be completed in a predetermined and fixed amount of time. If you dwell too long on a certain aspect you put yourself and your entire team at risk.

My son’s team is very well prepared and has excellent coaching. They spend literally hundreds of hours preparing for these competitions. These cases are purposely ambiguous; that is the facts of the cases are open for interpretation and does not favor the defense or the plaintiff. The cases are civil in nature and not a criminal matter so the goal is not to determine innocence or guilt, but to test theories from the provided materials. Scoring and winning is not based on the merits of the case, but on the overall effectiveness of their given role.

During the recent competition it came time for the final round to determine which team would represent our state at the national competition. The team they faced was well prepared and quite a formidable challenger. As a parent of a competitor it is difficult to be impartial but I was struck by that the impression the other team was focused more on gamesmanship rather than litigation, and they were using tactics to win on a technicality rather than on the merits of their presentation. They seemed to be parsing words or looking for nuances in the case transcript to get points deducted through a rules violation. When their witnesses were on the stand they appeared to purposely waste time by giving a monologue rather than testifying. They monopolized the allotted time by long-winded testimony and constant objections when the opposing attorney attempted to move the case along. Like the quote from F. Lee Bailey, they used the rules to frustrate the law and the contest. In the end their tactics worked to their advantage and by a mere one point they advanced to the national competition.

Throughout the Bible God is pictured as a righteous judge. The word righteous means acting in accord with divine or moral law. God’s very attributes are wrapped up in righteousness and gives Him both the authority and the right to judge; He is free from guilt or sin and this sets the precedence that His decision is final. David acknowledges this in the Psalms and in chapter 9 he rightly states; “But the LORD sits enthroned forever; he has established his throne for justice, and he judges the world with righteousness; he judges the peoples with uprightness.” God the Father shares this authority with His Son, Jesus Christ and we see this in the gospel of John in chapter 8 when Jesus states; “Yet even if I do judge, my judgment is true, for it is not I alone who judge, but I and the Father who sent me.” We can rest assured that God’s judgment is right, true, pure and unbiased. There is no higher court.

The writer of the book of Hebrews warns all mankind in chapter 9 when he states; it is appointed for man to die once, after that comes judgment. We know God’s judgment is sure and that should truly be a sobering thought for us all. We will not be able to stand before God hoping that the case against us is purposely ambiguous. We will not be allowed to monologue or avoid giving a direct and concise answer. There will be no objections about the evidence being inadmissible, prejudicial, and circumstantial or hearsay. We cannot hope to win on rules violation and we cannot rely on a special circumstance to save us. We cannot attempt to “poke holes” in the prosecution’s case, rather than making a case on our own behalf. We cannot present or spin the facts to our advantage or tell the Righteous presiding Judge that the facts are open for interpretation. We will be held accountable and the Bible is very clear about this in Galatians 6:7; “Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap.” Eternity will not be won or lost on a technicality.

One of my favorite words in the entire English language is “propitiation” which means to gain or regain favor or goodwill; to appease. When we stand before God our one and only hope is placing our complete faith and trust in the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross. His death propitiates or appeases God’s judgment on us. This is no mere technicality but the sole means of a favorable decision in God’s final court. Jesus Christ is the only undefeated litigator in history. He covered the “billable hours” with His blood on the cross to represent you and I before the Father. He will be our advocate "pro bono" if we will only humbly seek Him and ask.

“My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.” ~ I John 2:1-2

“For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.” ~ Romans 5:10