Kavanaugh, Ford, & The Senate Judiciary Committee

The eyes, and ears, of our nation have been on the testimony of Christine Blasey Ford before the Senate Judiciary Committee and will be on the testimony of Brett Kavanaugh later today. The questions, comments, and testimonies heard during these hours are important both in steering the outcome of the Kavanaugh nomination and in worldview significance.

Here are some (incomplete) observations on the hearings (thus far):

1. • The hearings are clearly politically charged, as revealed in the line of questioning from the two parties. The Democrats used their time to validate Ford’s trauma and victimhood, to celebrate her courage, and to accuse the Republicans (and Trump in particular) for failing to handle the situation with adequate care and due process. The Republicans, on the other hand, used their time to ask questions to either validate or invalidate Ford’s testimony, to defend their actions, and to accuse the Democrats of sitting on the accusation in order to delay the confirmation of Judge Kavanaugh’s appointment to the Supreme Court.

 

1. • The hearings cannot really expand beyond merely “he said/she said” evidence. Regardless of the FBI’s involvement in investigating Ford’s claims, there is no incontrovertible evidence that can be presented by either Kavanaugh or Ford.

 

1. • As a result, the questioning serves more to cultivate belief than to expose the truth. The Democrats will certainly seek to portray Ford as believable and Kavanaugh as unbelievable, while the Republicans seek to do the opposite. This is of worldview significance in that “belief” is given preeminence over “truth.” The hearings elevate “belief” as the greatest good rather than “truth”.The questioning is not aimed directly at the people in the hearings, as one might assume. Instead, it is framed in a specific way, to be heard by a specific person, and that person is you. This is readily apparent particularly when the Democrats address Ford with lengthy affirmations of her bravery and the way that sexual abuse victims should be treated. Without a doubt, Ford is thinking, “Are they even talking to me? Or are they just saying this for the sake of the media?” There is a larger audience that each senator is speaking to than the audience in the room; they are making public speeches for a national audience.

 

1. • If one disbelieves Ford, then that individual’s vote on Kavanaugh’s confirmation should remain untouched by these allegations.

 

1. • If one believes Ford, then that individual must determine whether or not the allegations against Kavanaugh ought to have an impact on his confirmation. Further, should that impact be relegated merely to Kavanaugh’s denial (assumed to be lies if Ford is believed) of the accusation, or does it extend to the accusation itself?

 

1. • It is here that the worldview implications are most evident. Can people change? How can people prove that they have changed? Does a sin in the past necessarily disqualify a person in the present? How long must an individual’s character be marred by failures in the past?

 

• Next, we must recognize that the hearings don’t serve merely as an attempt to keep Kavanaugh off the bench, though that would be desirable (from the Democrats perspective). The larger goal is to win the battle of moral posturing such that anyone who votes in favor of Kavanaugh is portrayed as voting against women who have suffered sexual abuse.Of course, the political party that endorses Kavanaugh will be villainized as enabling a sexual predator, building a greater resistance to the Republican party and their candidates in upcoming elections.

 

• One of the senators stated that “boys being boys” is too low of a standard for boys and men in America, and I completely agree with his sentiment. There is no excuse for sexual assault, whether the attacker is 17 or 70.However, as long as we live in a country that worships the idol of sex, expressive individualism, and personal autonomy, we will live in a country where the excuse of “boys being boys” is denied in words but embraced in actions.

We will likely never know what really happened to Christine Blasey Ford or Brett Kavanaugh’s involvement in her experience. But we do know that we haven’t heard the end of this situation, or of this kind of situation.

Christians must process the issues that have risen during Kavanaugh’s nomination to think more deeply and more broadly about the nature of truth, the nature of change, the application of justice, the validity of victimhood, and the great chasm between our culture and the commands of the Scripture to live in sexual purity, to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with God.