Refusing to Use Our Tongue to Get Revenge     (June 19, 2016)

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"He committed no sin and no deceit was found in his mouth.’ When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly.”  

(1 Peter 2:22-23)

 

        The cell phone of accused teacher Ron Mayfield, Jr. continued to ring over and over again as his wife tried in vain to contact him. He, of course, would not answer. Ron Mayfield, Jr. was dead—drowned in the waters of the Roanoke River that now ran quietly 200 feet below the two-lane bridge from which he had jumped. He had considered killing himself several months before, in early October, but, after revealing his plan to his family, they convinced him not to do it. Still, at that time, he had written a three-page suicide note explaining his thoughts: how he just couldn’t bear the idea of having his face posted all over the local newspapers or displayed on nightly news; how he could not live with the constant anxiety of waiting for the police to knock on his door and arrest him—even though he knew he had committed no crime! In fact, the final tragic irony in this story occurred when police, the day before he took his life, notified the school where he worked [and the source of the accusation against him] of his innocence and the person responsible for passing the news along...didn’t. They “dropped the ball.”

        You see, Mr. Mayfield had been accused of assault by a disgruntled student, a student whose own parents told the school they believed and sided with the teacher rather than their own son. It is unfortunate but true that today many children know how to “game the system,” says attorney Greg Lawler. “They know how to get an unpopular teacher fired by making false accusations, and...some of them try to do just that.” Another recent case had a ten-year old girl, along with some classmates she paid a dollar apiece, accuse her substitute teacher (whom she happened not to like) of “inappropriate touching” in an attempt not only to ruin his reputation but keep him from being able to make a living!

        The problem here is obvious and some of us see tremendous trouble brewing when society entrusts immature children with the power to run things according to their likes and dislikes. What many of us cannot see is that often, as we criticize these undisciplined children and decry their influence on culture, we too are engaging in the same kind of behavior—gossiping and slandering those we do not like, ruining their reputations, acting as Judge and jury when we should know all too well it is not our place! As the author of James said, “There is only one Lawgiver and Judge...But you—who are you to judge your neighbor?” (James 4:11-12)