Not simply black and white.
One of my thoughts that relaxed me into slumber the other night was contemplating the world of black and white vs. shades of grey.
Yes, it is a comforting subject likely to lull anyone to sleep (note my sarcasm).
My husband sees the world as black and white. To him, a sin is a sin. Likewise, an act of love is an act of love. There is no measure of the intensity or extremes of any act. It simply is or it isn’t.
In contrast, I see the world as many shades of grey.
There are degrees of sinning. For example, stealing a loaf of bread, while technically illegal and to some a sin, does not carry the same magnitude of wrong as murder. Especially if you are broke and stealing a loaf of bread to feed your family.
One would believe that our criminal justice system would view crimes in this way, too. However, some crimes are inexplicably given more weight than others. Certain people who commit rape don’t seem to be punished as severely as, say, someone who is found in possession of drugs. Wouldn’t forcefully taking over someone’s body be worse than being caught with drugs for personal use?
Ask any lawyer, and they will say that it depends. Multiple factors contribute to the degree of punishment, and not all are exactly fair, as most of us are aware.
But who gets to decide this value system of crimes? Who assigns the punishments for the egregious sins of humanity?
Is it a higher power? Possibly.
Is it society in general? Certainly.
Is it our government? Of course.
Legislative bodies create laws to assign protocols for punishment for crimes. But the final call on the degree of lawlessness is typically up to the judge trying a case.
In many instances, the burden for proof of a crime lies with the victim, and that victim is the one who turns out to be on trial. This is readily seen in cases of rape, where the woman is framed to look like she was asking for it, and sometimes even based on a litany of choices she may have made in the past. As if having sex at some other time in her life leaves the door open for any man to take what he wants after that. And all this in the rare instance that sexual assault is reported.
And if the accused is a “man of God,” watch how quickly those charges get reduced. Or in the tradition of religious authorities, the problem pastor gets punted to another church, never facing punishment for his crimes. With all of the pastoral abuse stories coming to light recently, it seems epidemic.
We all know that terrible laws exist. I mean, Jim Crow laws were legal at one time, but that didn’t make these morally correct. And then it seems that there is an entirely separate code for interpretation of the law depending on factors of race and socioeconomic status. That’s how our world works.
Are we supposed to accept this?
Some would say that laws that include fines as punishment are only punitive for the poor. And if you can’t pay the fine? Into jail, you go. It’s almost as if someone is making money off incarcerating as many people as they can…
Oh, wait. That assumption is actually true.
How can we trust a criminal justice system created to benefit (wealthy) white men and profit off of everyone else? The simple answer is that we can’t.
And although the world should be seen as shades of grey, for many, it is black and white, both figuratively and literally. And that’s still our reality, even with as much progress as we appear to have made. And it’s wrong.
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My opinions are my own.
As always, I hope you all are safe and healthy.
Anne the Vegan 