Ramblings About My Day in Court

Earlier this week I spent two hours at Family Court doing a required court observation. It was an eye-opening experience. I watched a divorce hearing, which was pretty much as expected. I also watched a former husband and wife dispute over back child support due. Again, though ugly, it was not that surprising. But then I watched a motion for termination, which is basically one parent having the other parent's legal rights as a parent taken away. I watched a biological father lose his legal right to be a father. He had it coming. His life was realy (I mean really) messed up, and he had completely igonored his three-year-old kid for the kid's entire life. It was still sad.

I left realizing how broken our world is. For this guy, who made a feable last-minute attempt to get his life together to avoid losing all rights to his son, and then deservedly lost them anyway, there was probably nothing left for this guy to "try for" in life. I fully expect him to fall back into his cycle of despair. His absolutely only hope is the kingdom. I prayed that somehow he would stumble across the kingdom in a real way.

I also left feeling very glad that law school is so hard, and that becoming a judge is even harder. I mean, do you want somebody who isn't really a responsible person making decision about whether a drug-addict man gets to be a kid's father or not? These are major issues. I know judges get a bad rap, especially in Christian circles. The Christian media loves to bash the Supreme Court. Sometimes the Christian media is correct. Other times they don't really understand the complexity of the issues. Even when they are correct, we have to remember that the Supreme Court is less than ten people. Other judges are working every day to make sure that drug-addicted dads don't get to keep their three-year-olds overnight.

One last rant. For those who still belive that our culture is dong just fine, and it just needs a little Christian tweak to be a terrific place, please wake up. This place is messed up. And deeply so. By all human efforts, it's beyond repair. It's time to live in a counter-cultural kingdom that declares a totally different reality than the one we've been given. If I sound too extreme or too fatalistic, please spend a day at Family Court. For me it was a reality check.