"Do you rulers indeed speak justly? Do you judge people with equity? No, in your heart you devise injustice, and your hands mete out violence on the earth." (Psalm 58:1-2 NIV)
I have just finished reading three different newspapers online and my response is "No, our rulers do not speak justly. No, the people are not judged with equity."
Discrimination, by officials, who have been called to lead our various countries is pretty rampant. I read an article regarding an official in Hungary who wanted all Jews to be screened for security risks. If that is not racial profiling, I don't know what is. The people, were rightly protesting this. It's not going anywhere (hopefully). But, the attitude is out there. Christians are profiled in some countries. Muslims in others. Where does it end? When will our world's leaders learn to speak justly and judge the people with equity?
Closer to home.... As civilized as the United States purportedly is, there is one travesty, that completely amazes me that still exists. It is the propensity for judges to discriminate against men when it comes to child custody cases. For some reason, a goodly number of people in this country, still think that mothers make the best parents. It takes a whole lot of fighting in court, a whole lot of money to get the best lawyers, for a father to get joint custody. Then the mothers complain that the case was won by the father because he had more money than she did. The reality is that if the fathers had not been willing to fight (sometimes taking loans out to procure an attorney) to protect their children and their childrens' futures; if they had not been willing to spend years in court to protect their own rights as a father and their children's rights to live in a safe and happy home, the courts (in many cases) would have arbitrarily favored the mother.
I am not saying that all fathers make the best parent. I am saying that our court systems could work a whole lot harder at judging between the parents with equity. Send those "Friends of the Court" into more homes to witness the interaction between each parent and the child. Send them in to see what the parents have in their refrigerators: milk or booz; to see if they are actually being supervised or is the parent still sleeping way into the afternoon, not because they worked the night before, but because they were busy partying.
The family courts have come a long way in the last few decades regarding this, but they have a ways to go yet. The best interest of the children should come first, not a mother and her imagined rights. When it comes to custody cases, men should be able to start out on the same level as the women. Children should have the right to be treated justly and that means not left in the custody of a parent based primarily on the parent's sex, but based on the ability to love, care for, and protect that child; to put that child's needs before their own.
God's Peace - Pr. J
P.S. I applaud those judges who do not discriminate against men in custody cases. They are probably a majority in this country; however, where discrimination does still sneak in, the children get hurt!
