One thing I have experienced my first couple of years as a young lawyer and a young minister is that you have to go a little over board at the start on issues of fairness and on your willingness to challenge authority and the way things are or else you will never amount to much at all. After 20 years as a minister and 16 years as a lawyer, I can usually find a milder, gentler way to get where I need to go, but in the early days, you don't know the territory as well, and if you are going to seek what is just, you have to stir the flames a little.
Ministers who come to their first church ready to compromise on every issue, and who appear "to be wise beyond their years" are usually gutless and don't do much good for church or society. Lawyers are the same way. If you don't get a little out of hand as a young criminal defense lawyer and get a judge mad at you or get into a flat out battle with the D.A. or get some law enforcement guy to really hate your guts . . . well, if none of these happen in your early practice, it is probably because you don't have the guts to really push for justice. Because, judges and established attorneys get pissed off when new attorneys come forward and challenge them. Law enforcement officers, though sometimes a little more level-headed about the challenge, can be the same way. And, then at church, it can be ever more pronounced, because feelings run high about the relationship of religion to matters of social justice.
I am really worried about the young ministers and young lawyers I see coming into our churches and into our courts these days. But, then I have also seen some young lawyers come into the Public Defender's Office who really have a deep commitment to justice and will "go to the mat" for their clients. So many other young lawyers I am running into - well, they are not going to rock the boat. Apparently they have learned that the number one goal is to keep everybody in authority happy in the church and the courthouse, not to seek justice for your clients or in the community.
In many ways, I think it is up to us older lawyers and ministers to stir things up in our day. But, most of us are getting a little tired, and the younger generation is just a little too smooth and well-adjusted to cause much trouble. The middle aged lawyers and ministers and doctors and probably all kinds of other service professionals need the inspiration of a new generation coming along and reminding them why they became lawyers, ministers and doctors in the first place.
Of course, I do have two children coming along in professional fields that serve the needs of others. And, that gives me some hope. I think they both have enough of me and my Dad and their own individual rebellion to make conformity an impossibility. Thank God. I wish there were more young people like them. Our professions are dying out because of a lack of guts and independence and true commitment. Now, we have so many ministers/lawyers/doctors who are savy in business and politics, but not committed to caring for their fellow human beings. I remain grateful to those committed doctors, lawyers, and ministers who continue to give their hearts and minds in devotion to guiding their patients, clients and parishioners towards health, justice and wholeness.
What really lifts my heart is seeing a young minister or young lawyer get so upset they are ready to explode over one poor person getting treated badly or over one injustice or another in church or society, and sitting down and resolving: "not on my watch . . . this is not going to happen on my watch!" Resolutions like that might be hard to keep, but they sure do make life worth living.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment