By Faye M. Brown
Guest Writer
From Kjos Ministries website
Personal note from Berit Kjos: This article was written by a Christian friend who was troubled by the unmerited rejection of
Christian jurors in a local court. It raised some sobering questions:
Why would moral and honest Christians be banned from the jury? Would their Bible-based conscience cause them to take a contrary or unwanted view of the accused and his plight? Is it fair to eliminate Christian jurors who judge according to Biblical morality — the traditional view of right and wrong — rather than their own subjective personal feelings?
It is a sad to see how far this nation has drifted away from our Christian heritage. Today, in a trial by peers, a defendant can ban our God-given values with a preemptory demand to keep “Christians off the jury panel.”
“If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you…. If they persecuted Me they will persecute you… for they do not know the One who sent Me.” John 15:19-21
Faye Brown:
I recently received a jury summons, so I dutifully appeared along with 50 or so others in a Palo Alto courtroom, waiting and watching while the attorneys followed the Process of choosing the jurors who would be called upon to render a verdict in this criminal case.
The judge explained that the accused would be representing himself, and that he had been fully advised of his rights according to the law.
We learned that he had been accused of an instance of abuse involving his spouse/significant other, and that there was a secondary accusation of having violated an order to refrain from contacting children related to the accuser.
As the attorney/accused questioned prospective jurors, it became evident that this was an interracial relationship.
Each attorney is permitted 10 peremptory dismissals, plus further dismissals “for cause,” such as admitted bias or strong emotional reaction to some aspect of the case.
Both attorneys explored the possibility that jurors had either personally suffered abuse or were in a close relationship with someone who had. The number of prospective jurors who fit this description was startling. Click here to continue reading.