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Week Sixteen, Day Four

Acts 16: 35-40

The next day, the magistrates decide that they had been a bit harsh and hasty, so they sent word to the jailer to let the missionaries go. The trouble was Paul refused. He said, “Absolutely not. They had us beaten in public and thrown in jail and now they want to release us in secret?” As a result, Paul extracted an apology from them for the injustice that had been committed.

While that may sound silly, it restored their integrity, and the integrity of the church they would leave behind. There is a great need today for the spirit that filled Paul. Too many of us are simply silent or compliant in the face of inequity and injustice.

I regularly embarrass my family by speaking up and confronting businesses that take advantage of people. Recently, I closed a bank account, but I first demanded to see the manager. In the lobby, in front of witnesses, I explained—using my preacher's voice, of course—that I was ashamed that his bank was practicing usury. When he made the mistake of asking what I meant, I lectured him on the immorality of manipulating accounts to assure that, if someone was overdrawn, they bounced the maximum number of checks and charged the greatest amount of penalty. By clearing the largest check, they may be able to bounce half a dozen small checks, when they could have chosen to honor the small checks and bounce only the largest. The result of this deliberate manipulation further impoverishes the very poorest.

Now, I haven't bounced a check in my life, but that didn't excuse me from using my voice to speak up on behalf of those who have no voice. Most people in Paul's shoes would have left prison as quickly as possible, just glad to have the matter behind them. Not Paul, though. He wasn't leaving until those in power recognized they had committed an injustice. Left unchallenged, practices like this continue to crush those who cannot defend themselves.

When we are silent about injustice we are co-conspirators of injustice.

Blessings,

Michael Piazza
President, Hope for Peace & Justice

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