Slippery Slopes

Proverbs 18:17 New King James Version (NKJV)

17 The first one to plead his cause seems right,
Until his neighbor comes and examines him.

Does the fact that I’m happy and grateful for what I have imply that I am too comfortable and therefore socially indifferent to those who are materially disadvantaged? Or those who face ( or imagine they face) prejudice or declare that they are deprived of basic human rights? Do others see slippery slopes in society to which I turn a blind eye? Has the Lord healed me completely of cancer because he wants me to stand up and be counted?

I watched with disbelief and sadness the testimonies of Dr (Prof) Christine Blasey Ford and Judge Brett Kavanagh and what the Senators and reporters and people on TV and social media said. I listened to people refer to Dr Ford as a survivor and passionately defend her right not just to be heard but to be believed. In a country which aspires to justice for all, I believe that everyone has a right to be heard. But do they have the right to be believed when they cannot specify ( much less prove) when the event took place, where it took place and when the people they name as eye witnesses all either do not remember the incident or say outright that they were not at the party at which the incident is alleged to have occurred ? I do not understand how a person can be described as a survivor of an incident when the incident is not proved and when there are so many crucial facts that are not proved even on a balance of probabilities. In this case the facts are not even specified. Yet many many people sound as if or actually say outright that Judge Kavanagh is not to be believed.

I find some people very very gracious and kind and bending over backwards to say that they believe Dr Ford had experienced a sexual assault but not with Judge Brett Kavanagh. 

I might have gone along with that if not for the fact that she, through her lawyers , wanted Judge Kavanagh to testify first. I couldn’t wrap my mind around that. How was the Judge to answer allegations that are not made? How was he to offer defence as to date, time and place if these were not specified?  What possible reason could Dr Ford have to demand that the person she accused should testify first unless she wanted to mould her accusations to destroy whatever Judge Kavanagh might have said in his defence. For me that was the first factor which convinced me she was lying. 

The second factor was that we are told she wanted to remain anonymous.  Any person who accuses another of a serious offence and expects to be believed when she does not have the courage or decency to be questioned should be subject to the strongest of cross-examination. There are many other discrepancies which are so obvious that the only possible reason that people do not see them is because they do not want to see them or they do see them but deliberately ignore, downplay or twist them to suit the “ victim/survivor” story. 

I do not know if Judge Kavanagh is telling the truth. He appears credible but Ps 18:17 applies to him too. I do think however that he should not even have been obliged to say a single word in his defence until and unless the accuser proved her case at least on a balance of probabilities. I do not think she would have been able to do that. There was so much sympathy for an alleged “survivor” who would have crumbled under cross examination.

I am sad for America. There is freedom of speech but I observed people freely speaking ill of a person just on the say-so of another person whose memory, witnesses, and circumstances would have not withstood scrutiny. I am concerned that this is the road that Singapore may take in the mistaken demand for more freedom without the corresponding more responsibility element.

We must never ape the West so much that we disregard respect and due process. Never take the first step down a slippery slope.