There is a time for mercy and a time for judgment. In NZ, the courts are currently being challenged vigorously because our judiciary basically has no checks and balances apart from a jury: and juries are only used in serious matters. Which leads to this:
Gambling mother says she wants to be a social worker, so judge rejects police objection.
The mother who left her five children in a van in a SkyCity Casino carpark while she and her partner gambled for two hours has escaped conviction partly because she hopes to become a social worker.
Well, wrong. There is something called fitness to practice, and it includes the ability to care for others. The woman left the kids in the car to go gambling, For hours. We cannot name her (NZ law states that if kids are involved, name suppression is automatic) but this kind of thing is not uncommon and most institutions of learning try to ease these people out. Because they are basically disasters when the start working, taking responsibility for the health and welfare of others. Because they lack empathy.
So we should judge. We should protect our society. And at times that judgment will be that you should not continue in this work, this position…
Because social workers, in my nation, can remove children from parents’ care… we should judge. We should not delegate it to some unelected lawyers who have been appointed to that position.
And within the church, we should judge our own.
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