Should a Christian serve on jury duty?

I got the notice in the mail a few days ago.  There was a little box at the bottom giving me 3 lines to explain to the judicial system why I think I should be exempt from jury duty.

I casually mentioned it to the pater familias, who recently retired from the bench.  "Oh, just wear you full clerical outfit", he said, "one of the sides is sure to dismiss you from duty."   That in itself is worthy of thought...

The state calls upon me to participate in its mechanisms of justice, and I trust that there are folks who might say this situation is:

a] not participating in 'justice' at all;  the system is corrupt
b] a chance to display grace
c] participating in 'judging' another human being, contrary to "what Jesus told us to do".

At a basic level the state has called me to bring myself into the arena of public discernment, in a way that will affect the lives of others.  After all, isn't that what so many Christians are trying to do?  I'm going to think about this a bit more.

Comments

[CPM]

Joseph,

It would be wonderful if the judicial system were desirous of clerical involvement. That they actually desired people who have studied and considered justice, law and grace. However you know as well as I do, that when you see an Anglican Priest, it is going to be a wildcard.

Since, they don't want to take a chance, practically, it is easy. Your pater familias is quite right, I wore my collar and was dismissed pretty quickly.

Later Consecrater,

cpm

[steve the z]

do you rent out the collar?

is that a bad question?

[joseph]

steve - I've got the whole outfit, and the practice of renting out/ selling things to do with the church has a long and proud tradition, going well back into the middle ages...

if you need some gear I'll rent it out to you at variable rates and for various purposes. For example, if you wear the outfit in your car with a little "exorcist" bag, you can speed all you want and just tell the police that it's an "emergency call"; also, you can bring in extra revenue doing weddings/funerals for your friends (I'll take a 20% cut of the proceeds)... the sky is the limit!