8^th February 2016

Accusation, blame and fault-finding  increasingly blotch our social relationships.

A Christian leader recently shared with me the devastation of being falsely accused before the public. In his country well-known men of integrity and influence  have been falsely accused or ‘alleged’ by media and police to have ‘possible links’ to scandals. It takes strong intellectual discipline to disassociate the innocent accused from the accusations.

The law in the UK has been changed to embolden accusers. A person can accuse without corroboration and a citizen arrested.  Worse ,the police can issue a public request for any-one to come forward to substantiate accusations often with promise of compensation. I know of several cases of false accusation, later shown to be so, in my own state, devastating the lives of innocent people. Sadly, most of these heinous accusations have been from women.

A serious judicial  deficiency is that false accusers are not punished. They should suffer the same punishment the falsely accused would have received.

And what of Senator Xenophon’s naming a priest  under parliamentary privilege who after an enquiry was totally exonerated, though left devastated and numbed for a long time? This ought to have brought the senator's resignation from parliament. 

Unhappily we can expect more of this as the love of many grows cold, wickedness increases and with it the persecution of the righteous who are warned and blessed with the promise “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me”.

What should we do? Number one, let us work for high levels of discipline in daily speech refusing to agree with anything in conversation about another who is absent, if their presence would alter our comments. Hard but necessary. Accusation is the opposite of unity.

Second, in legal cases we should prefer the good integrity of the accused above the accuser, the police investigation and even the judicial outcome if there are flaws of process.

Finally, recognise that Satan is The Accuser with his finger prints over all false accusation, denigration, slander and simple gossip. Jesus is our interceder. Satan is our indicter. Ascended Lord Jesus  full of grace and truth only speaks well of us of us before the Father glorying in those deeds and words that flow from our faith. He exalts in his saints, speaking of us in love. We shall do likewise, injecting unity and joy into our community.

Rev Ian Clarkson is the Minister for Hope Network in the SA Uniting Church.

(Ian's column is published in ACCatalyst. This piece is from the March 2016 edition of ACCatalyst)