Betrayal is an old story. It is the story in Sunday’s Gospel in which a woman has betrayed a marriage. She is caught in the act of adultery, and, without her male partner, is forced into the street. Jesus does something unusual by how he relates with the woman. He humanizes her and frees her from punishment. It is the lethal punishment of stoning awaiting her from Pharisaical rulers. More importantly, Jesus does something unusual when relating with the rulers who intend to harm her. Jesus inspires conscience from the rulers by having them collectively acknowledge, in front of the woman, that they too commit sins. “Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” “And in response, they went away one by one.”
The rulers had devised and were operating a relationship system that prevented or certainly hindered conscientious acknowledgement of their own sin. They could force others, such as the woman, to be faithful to a system they themselves incessantly betrayed. Or are we being naïve in thinking rulers betray their system? Do not they, in truth, operate their system faithfully, as intended, for their benefit? The system benefits their rule, their judgment, their abuse over others. It does not, however, benefit their conscience. It betrays their conscience. It is a system of betrayal still operating today. This is apparent in the case of Jeffrey Epstein. Jeffrey Epstein is a billionaire financier whose wealth is said to be derived from being a trader on Wall Street. In truth, Jeffrey Epstein is a modern-day slave trader forcing girls into prostitution. Using his wealth and position, Epstein is known to have forced sex upon upwards of 80 girls, some as young as 13 in an international sex trafficking ring. His betrayal of humanity could have incurred federal charges putting him in jail for life. Instead, then U.S. Attorney and current Trump Labor Secretary, Alexander Acosta, betrayed our collective conscience by giving the pedophile a mere 13-month sentence in a daily work release prison while concealing all witness testimony – proof of the system benefiting rulers. An additional element of Epstein’s betrayal of conscience was his ‘lending’ of the trafficked victims to his ruler friends. In part, it was to ingratiate himself with the rulers. But he also took photos or made videos of the sex acts and used them for extortion. Epstein’s ruler friends include others who benefit from the system at a betrayal of their conscience; among them Prince Andrew, Bill Clinton, Fox News Trump supporter Alan Dershowitz, and Donald Trump himself.
Will humanity always be betrayed by a ruling class that intends harm? Some political and social scientists think we will. They accept the ‘Iron Law of Oligarchy.’ It contends all organizations, even self-proclaimed radical ones, inevitably succumb to rule by an elite few with elite abilities, for example superior knowledge and organizing, that coerces/forces a domination system over others who lack those abilities. This is a present concern with Trump and his supporters. Yet Trump is friends with 5 pedophiles and his cohort show a lack of knowledge and average organizing skills. More problematic about what they lack is conscience. Conscience is our human ability to know and act for goodness, specifically to ensure our relationships are based in communion. Too few people are calling the pedophile plenteous Trump cohort to conscience. The moral core remains. We can challenge conscience from ourselves, family and friends, and the pedophile supporting Trumpsters we know. In all areas of our lives, we can refuse to rule and refuse to be ruled. In conscience we melt the ‘Iron Law of Oligarchy,’ so that rulers in our personal lives and in our social lives melt “away one by one.”
Prayer: Spirit, we vow to be active and innovative in exercising conscience socially.
Question: In what ways have I allowed my conscience to atrophy and in what ways do I strengthen it?
April 07, 2019 Gospel John 8:1-11 Fifth Sunday of Lent