Let he who is without sin?

By Johnny D. Symon

A curious occurrence took place last month when the Christian calendar reversed itself. Normally Easter would coincide with the Jewish Passover, meaning that while Christendom remembered and celebrated both the death then resurrection of Jesus, Judaism would fix it's thoughts on one particular night in the historic past when death's angel soared over the land of Egypt, thus removing the first-born who were unfortunate enough not to live in a house with the blood of a lamb or kid goat splashed on its doorpost.

By backtracking Easter a whole month this curious occurrence manifested itself, for as Christendom yet again remembered then celebrated the death and resurrection of Jesus in the usual way, it coincided this time with the Jewish festival of Purim. Therefore, as both festivals slid together, for me a strange lesson began to unfold, for Purim celebrates the demise of a xenophobic, evil dictator named Haman. His rise to power, fame, and fortune, then his sudden fall from grace, is suitably highlighted in the Book of Esther for all to see. Whereas, and meanwhile, Christendom remembered to both mourn and celebrate their Lord's death and resurrection.

Haman and Jesus were two sides of a coin, as regards both human nature and the life of the spirit, for Haman hated all Jews and Jesus was a Jew himself. Jesus said that he'd come for the lost sheep of the House of Israel, while Haman wished to slaughter each and every sheep in sight. And while Jesus did indeed make a distinction between Jews and gentiles, the distinction did not contain any trace or element of xenophobia. Two sides of a coin indeed; Good versus evil, or evil opposed to good and vice versa.

As I set about the task of scratching out my latest scribblings, I happened to turn on the TV to watch Wednesday's lunchtime installment of Ana Rosa Quintana's show on Telecinco, at this very moment a young mother was laying out her sad and sorry tale involving her 10-year old son's torment at being beaten and violated by four fellow schoolmates. Spanish TV is full of this content lately, due to the death of a little 5-year old girl named Mari Luz. Her presumed assassin, Santiago del Valle, had formerly received a jail sentence of 2 years and 9 months for sexually molesting one of his daughters, though somehow someone (or ones) in authority took pity on him and permitted him to stay free and easy ... free and easy to kill that is, or so it would appear, for shortly after his arrest in the Mari Luz case, he admitted that the girl had been in his house on the day of her disappearance, and that she accidentally fell and hurt herself. How Mari Luz subsequently turned up, floating around in a watery grave two months later, shall be determined in a future court of law.

Did I just say "court of law"? Isn't that the place where Mr Santiago del Valle had received his 2 years 9 months that he never served? I sometimes wonder if it's the law that's an ass or just me for believing in it!

Hey, did I also just say that I believed in the rule of law? Really? Well let's all regard my former declaration to be firmly and solidly in a tense of the past, because nowadays the rule of law and its application are worlds apart. Admittedly the death of our little innocent 5-year old friend named Mari Luz has sparked off a nationwide debate on life imprisonment and capital punishment, though this does not translate into some form of comfort and consolation to Mari Luz's mom, dad, family and friends.

Comfort and consolation, and indeed strength is already apparent, prevalent even, in the family of Mari Luz's father, Juan José Cortés. Juan José has, over the past three months or so, proven to be a light shining in the darkness of an evil situation. His strength, fortitude and restraint enabled those around him to remain calm. He told the press recently that he felt a responsibility to his wife and family to put on an appearance of strength, for he feared that if he did not do this others, weaker than himself, may break under the strain.

But Juan's amazing solidity and strength served yet another purpose, one that he was no doubt unaware of, for you see Juan José Cortés, his family and most of his neighborhood, are Spanish Gitano (Gypsies.) The Spanish media is historically a conduit for bad tidings concerning Gitanos, and most of those tidings contain elements of truth. But I constantly remind myself that there's good and bad in all of us, and good and bad in each of us, like two sides of a coin, good versus evil. Juan José presented, through his strength, fortitude, patience and calm, a prime example of a great Gitano, not just a great human being.

Most of us wage war on a daily basis with our evil side, and each daily war most likely sees the enemy diminished and weaker than the previous. For me this is one of the most important aspects of becoming a human being, which is to recognize our innermost evils, then repel them, and as we become more aware of the enemy within, and it's gradual defeat, we look out-with ourselves and with experience recognize a consolidated enemy that we most likely harbor within our communities, neighborhoods, States, and nations, and as with the weapons of war we utilized to weaken and defeat the evil enemy within us, those selfsame weapons are equally suited for the greater universal enemy ... evil, permeating and controlling our world.

Truth, Justice and the Rule of Law are applied firstly within ourselves, then afterwards we look towards their application elsewhere. Juan José Cortés failed to discover those vitally important aspects in his very own legal system, though alas, his discovery and enlightenment arrived too late to save little Mari Luz. And as he and his family read each and every newspaper's account of their loss, they also find terms used in respect of the judiciary and it's system, such as, "failings," "shortfalls," "oversights," or "overburdened," and none of it is true. The truth lies within the very persons of those responsible for keeping their daughter's presumed murderer free and easy, for it's not only little Mari Luz's murderer who's sick, but those who permitted him to prey on others. Their war against their innermost evil is yet to be waged, and for me they've also consented to be a criminal's accomplice.

There's an old rabbinical saying which states "it's better to be judged in this world than in the world to come." And this saying is a universal truth that must be recognized not only in Judaism but within anyone with a mind for Truth and Justice. The Bible states that the penalty for murder is death, and nowhere does it mention the penalty as a "deterrent," although undoubtedly those with sound minds and hearts would regard it as so, nonetheless, penalty is the sole used term, and penalty for such crimes therefore should only be expected. Sadly the opposite is the case.

When another wicked Haman received the penalty of death a little while back for waging war against his neighbors and killing groups of his own people in cold blood, many onlookers protested, though Saddam Hussein met his fate with little or no protest. But his demise is rare in our so-called enlightened age because it's more common to witness innocents receiving this penalty as the guilty go free, and as we all gaze at Mari Luz in this ed and realize how much life she had within her, and potentially so many years and so much love to expend on others, we may also see a resemblance, even if it's just that little twinkle in the eye, or the crooked smile, and ask ourselves, "Do we know this person?" and the answer is an affirmative, for that same sparkle and zest for life resembles most strongly the face of Terri Schindler on the right-hand column of this page.

And Terri is yet another prime example, especially in the realms of Governors and Presidents that the slogan "to protect and serve" has somehow become twisted and corrupted, and those most responsible for its proper action figured, in Terri's time of crisis, simply to protect and serve themselves.

The Spanish legal system is near to collapse, and a prime example of judicial anarchy. Laws are in place to protect and serve the innocent, but those responsible for their proper application care more for the guilty and serve the evil amongst us, to the detriment of even our innocent 5-year old kids. Americans therefore would be well advised to take note of Juan José Cortés' experience, for America is already on the road to Judicial Anarchy also.

"Man shall not live by bread alone" is an eternal truth that some would have us conveniently forget, because if we do, we unwittingly are going on hunger strike, and death is our subsequent portion. I remember the days when outside of each and every Town Hall stood a chuck wagon, and everything on it was free. No one need have starved in those days, for no one had to pay for that daily bread. Things are a little different now though, for amnesia has led to hunger and starvation, and most of us have forgotten that the Commandments were once a vital and integral part of our daily diet, come lunch, if we felt hungry, all we had to do was pass that Town Hall to see the chuck wagon, and that was all we needed to carry on with our working day, working life, and working world.

But Judicial and Political Anarchists are in control, and many times I've heard them misquote a section in the gospel of John to defend the bad guys. They say, "Well, Let he who is without sin cast the first stone!" It's a misquote because this section involves a woman about to be stoned for adultery, who appears to be one who can commit adultery alone. Worse still, she appears not to have been tried for this alleged crime. Let's all read this again;

"So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself,
and said unto them, He that is without sin among you,
let him first cast a stone at her.
And again he stooped down, and wrote on the ground.
And they which heard it, being convicted by their own
conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest,
even unto the last: and Jesus was left alone,
and the woman standing in the midst.
When Jesus had lifted up himself, and saw none
but the woman, he said unto her, Woman, where
are those thine accusers? Hath no man condemned thee?
She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her,
Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more."
- John 8:7-11

It's clear from the final verse that the lady had indeed sinned, but then again, she also appears not to have been tried, so for anyone to use "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone," in view of someone who has been tried and found guilty in a court of law, they're using the quote wrongly, for no one is without sin, but some sin more than others. It would be easy to use this quote against someone about to pull the lever on a convicted murderer in the chair, and easy to use it against a juror about to help convict a violent bank robber, if that juror had once lifted something from a shop.

But the truth shall always remain, that a just society requires strict Rule and Application of the Law, otherwise anarchy will shortly be its portion.

© Johnny D. Symon