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Church Courts, Hate Crimes and Moral Decay

by Phillip Ross  
8/05/2009 / Bible Studies

1 Corinthians 6 calls attention to a long lost social function of the church -- church courts. First, some history. Before Rome fell it was choked with a backlog of civil disputes in the Roman legal system. It could take years before a particular case came before a Roman judge. The Roman legal system was choking on the rampant immorality and illegality that contributes to the rot of empires by generating social conflict. Great nations are more often destroyed from within by moral decay long before they fall victim to invading armies. And Rome had been rotting for hundreds of years before it was sacked by the Visigoths in 410 A.D.

At the same time, Christianity had inherited the elder rule system from the Old Testament, in which the local court overlapped the ecclesiastical court. We must remember that, while Rome had a great and powerful legal system, it pales in comparison to the Modern Western legal system in terms of its effectiveness and bureaucratization. Yet, even on the Western Frontier in early American history, civil courts were often few and far between. And in that context necessity required another way to solve disputes between people.

The structure of the Christian church, until the Modern era, had a system of courts to adjudicate matters between Christians, precisely because of Paul's admonition to avoid civil courts run by unbelievers. In the Modern era these church courts have, for the most part, fallen into neglect. As unbelievers (or non church members) began to outnumber believers in a given area, the unbelievers were hesitant to use church courts to solve their problems. Unbelievers usually think that church courts are biased against them. And often it was true, but it should not be true on the basis of personalities. We should not be biased against unbelievers because we don't like them. It doesn't matter whether or not we like them. Justice is not a function of personal preferences.

All courts are subject to jurisdiction, the territory in which they are able to operate. We often understand jurisdictions as regional -- city, county state and national. Church jurisdiction is completely separate, and includes only church members. Thus, the first issue is that church courts only have jurisdiction over church members. And when a member is an unbeliever, someone who is backslidden or unregenerate, Christians are commonly biased against such a person in a variety of ways and for a variety of reasons, some of which may be biblical and some of which are most certainly not. We are cautioned in Scripture against holding a bias with regard to personalities.

Deuteronomy 1:17 reads, "You shall not respect persons in judgment. You shall hear the small as well as the great. You shall not be afraid of the face of man, for the judgment is God's. And the cause that is too hard for you, bring to me, and I will hear it." This was Moses speaking to the recently freed Israelites. Does this apply to Christians? Peter said, "Truly I see that God is no respecter of persons" (Acts 10:34). Paul said, "your Master also is in Heaven. There is no respect of persons with Him" (Ephesians 6:9). Paul also said, "whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men; knowing that from the Lord you shall receive the reward of the inheritance. For you serve the Lord Christ. But he who does wrong shall receive justice for the wrong which he did, and there is no respect of persons" (Colossians 3:23-25). James said, "But if you have respect to persons, you commit sin and are convicted by the Law as transgressors" (James 2:9).

What does it mean to have no respect to persons? It means that we should not judge or evaluate people on the basis of their personalities or circumstances, which is exactly what we are always tempted to do. We make all sorts of judgments and evaluations about other people all the time. It cannot be avoided. It is part and parcel of ordinary living. Nowhere does Scripture advise people to suspend all judgment. Rather, Scripture advises people to avoid judgments that are based on personalities and circumstances, that are based on personal preferences or the circumstances of providence. Personal preferences are our likes and dislikes. Circumstances of providence are the social attributes of birth -- money, social position, health, geography, nationality. None of these things enter into God's judgment, and neither should they enter into ours.

Church courts are charged with keeping the peace and purity of the church. And that is no easy job because the very things that contribute to the purity of the church often disturb its peace, and those things that contribute to the peace of the church often contribute to its impurity. An emphasis upon right doctrine disturbs many Christians. And an emphasis on "going along to get along" often pollutes right practice.

Most of the things that church courts deal with are matters of doctrine and morality (or life style). But moral concerns can easily degenerate into civil matters rather quickly. The point is that morality and illegality are related, but not always matters of the same jurisdiction. Some things are immoral, but not illegal, and that is the way it should be. The converse of this is that some things that are legal are immoral. The point is that church courts are to adjudicate cases that pertain to doctrinal and moral concerns of church members, with the hope that dealing with them as moral issues will keep them out of civil courts as legal issues.

But over the last hundred years or so church courts have fallen into utter disregard, except for a few small (usually) Presbyterian denominations. At least this is the case in principle.

Civil courts make an effort to deal only with breaches of civil law -- criminal activity. However, current American jurisprudence has been creeping into the area of what are called "hate crimes." Legislation has been enacted that adds additional punishments for crimes that are motivated by hate. The problem with hate crime legislation is that it is encroaching into areas of morality rather than illegality. It is not illegal to hate because any law against hate in and of itself cannot be adequately defined or effectively enforced. Laws that cannot be defined or enforced are not laws at all, but only moral injunctions. And, indeed, hate is a moral issue. Nonetheless, such law requires the correct identification of personal motivation. And a person's real motivation is privy only to God. Let me say only that hate crime legislation has the potential to undermine the genius of the American legal system, in my opinion.

Paul's point in these verses is to encourage and legitimize church courts by recommending that church members abide by them, and avoid civil courts. Christians should make every effort to avoid civil courts, period. Paul even goes so far as to say that it is preferable to be wronged and defrauded by a church court than to appeal to a civil court. And that's a strong statement!
While it is true, in the litigious mania that has captured Modern Western people this sentiment has decimated all semblance of church courts, as those less concerned with biblical faithfulness took advantage of those who believed and acted upon Paul's admonition. Often those who are willing to be wronged and defrauded as a testimony of obedience to Jesus Christ, are taken advantage of in this fallen world. Like so many things biblical, Paul's admonition only works when those involved are faithful. In the wake of unfaithfulness biblical morality and the social structures it engenders tend to break down.

Phillip A. Ross founded http://www.Pilgrim-Platform.org in 1998, which documents the church's fall from historic Christianity. Demonstrating the Apostle Paul's opposition to worldly Christianity, he published an exposition First Corinthians in 2008. Ross's book, Arsy Varsy -- Reclaiming the Gospel i

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