Evangelicals Now
<< June 2007 >>

Letter from America

'I am the Law'

‘I am the Law’

Rochelle and I have now lived in America for seven years. In that short space of time we have been sued twice. I’m not sure if this is a remarkable regularity for Americans, but given that in my entire existence in England previous to that I had never been sued at all, it does seem somewhat astonishing to us.

On one occasion, a driver, without a valid license or registration for his vehicle, was in an accident with ours and proceeded to sue us subsequently for damages to his jacket and tie. It was raining. We stood outside in the rain together. We actually sheltered under the same umbrella which had been kindly donated to us by a member of the church who happened to be passing. The legal procedure was dropped in the end. I know someone has sued for slipping on a back porch because it was wet when it was raining. I ask you: do people have nothing better to do with their time?

Common attitude

The attitude is astonishingly commonplace. One acquaintance remarked immediately after his wife had been in an accident that this was great because now they could sue the person. If you are in a car accident, however minor, you are advised to call the police and wait with the cars in their positions as they hit each other, so that the police can record the apparent angle of contact and so function as some kind of protection against invalid lawsuits.

Of course, this fits all sorts of English bias towards our transatlantic brethren, and caricatures of voracious lawyers and litigious culture. Apparently English medics can be insured to practise anywhere in the world when they travel, but their insurance does not cover them in America. ‘Go figure’, as they say here colloquially.

Joining some dots, it has astonished me in the last few days to hear some testimonies of previous detainees at Guantanamo Bay on Public Radio. Starved of proper legal procedure, one was finally initially allowed a release on condition that he sign a document stating that he could be re-arrested at any time and in any place by the United States. Bravely, he refused to sign, and subsequently has been released to ‘home sweet home’. How can a country that has more lawyers than people (to use an excusable hyperbole) also fail to recognise the importance of legal procedure in these matters? I still remember watching a news cast a short while after our first arrival, when the reporter referred to some poor individual, whose behaviour was currently publicly suspect that he was ‘innocent until charged’. Rochelle and I just looked at each other: ‘Isn’t it innocent until convicted?’ Or, even better, how about innocent until proven guilty?

All sue-able sinners

I have heard the feeling expressed that democratic America has never finally freed itself from the lynch mob mentality that ruined the Wild West. If enough people think someone’s in the wrong, surely he must be in the wrong, right? But (to get our wrongs and rights finally in a knot) that’s of course wrong. A lot of people thought Jesus was guilty, but that doesn’t mean he was. Truth stands beyond public opinion.

The English are not free from their own brand of self-righteousness. In fact, of course, none of us are. ‘You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgement on someone else, for at whatever point you judge the other, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things’ (Romans 2.1).

Now isn’t that a radical thought? We’re all sinners and we all need to be saved through Jesus. But, then again, what the heck, let’s sue everyone.

Josh Moody