Today I was selected for jury duty. I am not supposed to discuss the case with anyone, so I am not going to give any sort of particulars. But I do want to remark briefly on what I was thinking sitting with the other potential jurors.
The day started with about a hundred potential jurors gathered into a large room. We all had to watch what looked like an early nineties version of what goes on in a trial, what the purpose is of the jury, and how things are supposed to go. It was actually very inspiring, and it connected the importance of jurors to the judicial process and how this is grounded in the "We the people" of the Constitution. While there are some unavoidable cases of injustice, I am grateful for the framework and process of justice that we have in our country.
We got separated into groups of twelve, and we went in to do "voir dire" in which the two sides of the case examine the potential jurors to decide if they want them excluded because of some sort of bias. They ask questions like: Are you related to the defendant? Do you feel you can listen to the case impartially? Has anyone in your family had run-ins with the law? Do you tend to think someone is guilty just because they have been arrested? Are you related to an officer? What is your profession? There are some others.
What got me are the answers to two specific questions. The first was asked of each individual. Where do you work? And where does your wife work? Out of our group of twelve, I think three people said they were formerly of some company and had been laid off. My heart went out to them upon hearing this. I suppose I am insulated from the unemployment situation because I do not run into too many people naturally for whom this is the case. And while statistically, I know in a sample of twelve it is possible to be a little off, it was still a shock to hear this multiple times from men sitting next to me.
The next question, asked to everyone at once, was, Have you or a close friend or family member ever been charged with a non-minor offense? Literally, three quarters of the people had to raise their hands and explain that they had done something or maybe a family member had gotten a DUI. This was a bit staggering to me. Again, I felt the grace of God upon my family that over the years we have escaped joblessness and legal trouble. My father and grandfathers have walked steadily in paths of righteousness from which our family has benefited greatly. And of course, I can't leave out my Mom and loving grandmothers either!
The process of getting jurors names is randomized. No one should know when a juror is going to be called until it happens. And generally, jurors come from pools of people like registered voters. This means that the group of people I was sitting with was, for the most part, a representative sample of my county. And how broken this county is! I feel like I am in a bubble world most of the time, and I work on becoming better, theologically smarter, holier, so that one day I will feel competent to minister to broken people in some other place in the world. Yet where I am right now there is such a need for the Kingdom of God. There is a need for reconciliation. There is a need for forgiveness. There is a need for healing from addiction. There is a need for the name of God to be hallowed.
If my group of friends and acquaintances does not somewhat resemble this representative sample, maybe I am insulating myself, living in a bubble, going to work and church. Maybe my circles don't include the brokenness. But probably the people I am around are also broken in different ways, maybe more subtle, and they don't know it or are good at hiding it. Who knows? All I know is I received a bit of conviction and humility this morning at the courthouse, and I wanted to pass it along.
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