He is not given a hearing

Ecclesiasticus 13:22 If the rich person slips, many come to the rescue; he speaks unseemly words, but they justify him. If the humble person slips, they even criticize him; he talks sense, but is not given a hearing.

How often do we hold different standards for different groups of people? When the privileged and powerful commit acts of betrayal, corruption or immorality, there is often a wave of sympathy for that person, and their acts are contextualized and balanced by other acts that are viewed as more moral and full of integrity. But when poor people, or other marginalized groups, commit similar acts it is often taken as emblematic of the whole group, and no one comes to their defense. Think "welfare queens" vs. kings of industry who commit fraud. Yes, Bernie Madoff got a very long, well deserved sentence, but that is not true of everyone of his ilk that commits such crimes. And very few receive the kind of vitriolic hatred that has been wreaked upon those at the bottom of the ladder who are actually hurting far fewer people. I don't excuse fraud wherever it shows up, but what happened to mercy and justice extended to the least of these?

Here's another example. When the massacre at Columbine happened, it was taken as a symptom of something going terribly wrong with our youth. But when a 55 year old white man slaughters innocent children, or shoots up the post office, no one wonders what is going wrong with middle aged white men; he is seen as an aberration, someone mentally ill deserving our pity more than our censure. Our political parties are apt to behave this way, also. Adultery is worse when it's committed by someone of the other political party; people call for solutions they are not ready to take themselves when they fall into the same behavior.

What is the point? Jesus told us to forgive, up to 70 times 7 times. The prophets call us to extend mercy and justice to all of those in our society, especially those at the margins. It is easy to get carried away by our emotions, and to have different responses to the same behavior in someone we know, love or feel akin to than to someone who feels "different" from us in some substantial way. Bias grows out of the specificities of our lives; none of us can escape it. But if we are aware of our own context, and how it may color our reactions, we can stretch ourselves to see beyond our biases, and extend the same understanding and justice to those unlike ourselves, as we do to those who feel familiar. Bias is not the problem, but our lack of awareness of our bias which can than trip us up without our knowing it. Like a bunch of white men who are convinced of their own objectivity interviewing a Latina supreme court nominee about her supposed "racism."

Prayer: Dear God, I know that I am host to many biases and wrong judgments about others. Let me see others with Your eyes, eyes that can hold people to account for their actions, and yet extend mercy to those who see the nature of their own wrongdoing. Amen.