Who is worthy of casting the first stone?

In John 8:7, we are told of a drama. The Pharisees dragged a woman whom they accused of committing adultery to Jesus Christ. They said according to their law (constitution), the woman had to be stoned to death.

In an attempt to either trick or trap Jesus to establish the fact that Jesus did not believe in the “law”, they wanted to know His (Jesus’) opinion on the case. In fact, they persisted, pestered, pushed and pressed Jesus to comment on the issue. 

Finally, Jesus told them: “He, who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her”. Interestingly, the woman’s accusers left one after the other without a single one of them stoning the woman. Of course, Jesus admonished the woman to go and sin no more.

We live in a world where we are very quick to criticise, accuse and crucify others. It is not an exaggeration to say that some people have criticism in their genes. In fact, they are born critics. They criticise everybody and everything. No matter how best somebody does something, they would criticise. They see themselves as perfect, always right and every other person is wrong. 

The interesting thing about such people is,  they hardly make any alternative suggestions as to how they would have done things differently.

I attended an international workshop two years ago and I would never forget the way a lady participant who was in my discussion group behaved. She criticised the venue for the programme,  the facilitators, the food and whatever contribution anybody made.  At a point, the rest of us were fed up with her behaviour and became upset when she criticised the organisers of the programme for not providing us with a more comfortable bus to convey us to and from our hotel.

Nobody should get me wrong. I am not advocating that we  condone evil. We should be able to point out people’s wrongs to them, but as the 1860– born American politician, Frank A. Clarke once said, “criticism, like rain, should be gentle enough to nourish a man’s growth without destroying his roots”. The one who is being criticised should also know that it is for his/her good that his mistakes/wrongs/shortcomings are being pointed out to him.

Intention of criticism

Back in the middle school Form One, I remember our class teacher disciplined one of our colleagues for gross disrespect, truancy and pilfering. 

Instead of the parents of the boy   commending the teacher, they rather held an “insult vigil” for him. In fact, the teacher did not know his peace for two good weeks. The boy’s mother even came to the school and verbally abused the teacher in the full glare of the students and other teachers. The boy was not sacked from the school anyway but he was tortured psychologically. 

Our teacher never asked him any questions in class; he marked his exercises alright without making any detailed corrections. Whenever he did something wrong, he was not disciplined. In fact, he was made to feel very uncomfortable and finally had to be transferred from the school. 

The point I want to make is  criticisms, especially “good intended” ones, are for our own good. We shun them at our own peril. This brings us back to the question whether we really criticise people these days to correct or we do so to destroy and demonise them ?        

The just-ended 2014 World Cup   in Brazil was the mother of all criticisms I have ever witnessed. I agree that the players, the technical team, the sports ministry, etc might have made some mistakes. But the question is: Were our criticisms meant to correct them or they were deliberately made to ruin, embarrass and portray them as “good for nothing people?” In what way(s) could the criticisms help us, as a nation, to perform better in future tournaments? Could we not have criticised without insulting and maligning the people involved? 

Interestingly, some of the very people who were the loudest in criticising the players and the football administrators have never touched football in their lives nor ever held any managerial positions.

There are some subordinates who never see anything good in whatever their bosses do and vice versa. In the church, some elders, together with some other members ,have become “shadow leaders” unjustifiably criticise everything that the church leadership does without giving any alternative suggestions.   

Corruption

I have tried very hard not to comment on the issue of corruption but considering the alarming rate at which the social cancer is spreading, I can’t just resist the temptation not to do so. The sad thing is, the virus that causes this social disease is so contagious that almost everybody is infected except a few, who are immune to it.

Unfortunately, we are quick to point accusing fingers at others as being corrupt. I am not by any means trying to justify whatever corrupt practices that somebody indulges in; but the truth is   one way or the other, like the accusers of that adulterous woman, many of us, who are loudest when we hear about somebody being corrupt, also have skeletons in our cupboards. 

It is unacceptable for anybody to use his/her position or influence to siphon public funds. But how different is that person from the one who “ steals”  his/ her employer’s time by either reporting late to work or leaving work before the official time of closing to do his/her private business? 

Do some men in high positions not have affairs with some ladies (sometimes even married ones) before offering them jobs? What about the pilfering of company items such as stationery? 

I don’t want to believe there is anything like big or small corruption. Corruption is corruption. It does not matter the form that it takes.  

For now, I don’t think it is necessary to list or give a litany of corrupt practices. As humans, we all have conscience and I believe we are perfectly aware of whatever corrupt practices we may be involved in. 

Unfortunately, we are not prepared to remove the logs in our eyes but we are more than ready to remove the specks in others eyes.

 We should criticise but let us be mindful of the motive- whether it is meant to embarrass or disgrace the one we criticise or the intention is to help bring about a positive change. Whoever is being criticised should also accept the good intended criticism in good faith and be ready to do the right thing.

Writer’s e-mail :wofasammy4@yahoo.com

The writer is an archivist