Dear Church Member,
Last week, a man who, as a Mississippi attorney, helped to prosecute a 30-year-old murder against a civil rights worker and thereby move civil rights forward in that state, started serving a jail sentence for obstruction of justice in an unrelated case. His sentencing reminds us that no one, no matter how good and faithful he or she has been, is immune to temptation to later to do wrong. It also reminds us of the importance of ongoing maintenance and growth in our spiritual lives.
So that will be the topic of this installment of our next lesson.
If you wish to start thinking about our topic in advance, below is some introductory material.
Civil Rights Hero Goes to Jail for Obstruction of Justice
The Wired Word for January 10, 2010
In the News
In 1994, Bobby DeLaughter, a Mississippi prosecutor, because famous for securing a conviction in the 30-year-old Medgar Evers murder case. Through his work, Ku Klux Klan member Byron De La Beckwith was sent to prison for the 1963 slaying of civil rights activist Evers. Subsequently DeLaughter's work helped to reopen several civil rights cold cases, and DeLaughter became a hero of the civil rights movement. Alec Baldwin portrayed DeLaughter in the 1996 movie Ghosts of Mississippi.
This month, DeLaughter was the one who went to prison, having pled guilty to obstruction of justice in an unrelated case. He is sentenced to 18 months at a prison in Kentucky.
In 2002, DeLaughter became a circuit court judge for Hinds County, Mississippi, and in that capacity, he eventually presided over a $15-million asbestos litigation case, where prosecutors said, DeLaughter was influenced by his legal mentor and onetime boss attorney Ed Peters in the case. Prosecutors alleged that Peters received $1 million from the plaintiff's attorney Dickie Scruggs to influence DeLaughter's ruling.
In the initial investigation, DeLaughter told FBI agents that he had two conversations with Peters about a lawsuit pending against Scruggs, but prosecutors said DeLaughter actually had dozens of conversations with Peters about the lawsuit. And DeLaughter later admitted that he lied to the FBI.
Although DeLaughter never received any money from Scruggs, he was accused of funneling information about the litigation to the Scruggs legal team in exchange for help trying to gain a seat on the federal bench. In July 2009, DeLaughter stepped down as judge and pled guilty to the obstruction of justice charge.
Peters surrendered his law license and returned much of the $1 million bribe he had received. In exchange for his testimony against DeLaughter, Peters was given immunity and no jail time.
DeLaughter's attorneys said that DeLaughter trusted Peters too much, and that Peters exploited their friendship and then turned on DeLaughter to avoid jail himself.
Scruggs was sentenced to seven years in prison on corruption charges.
Although we cannot make any assumptions about the current state of DeLaughter's faith, The Wired Word has located an article from 1997, just after the Ghosts of Mississippi movie appeared, in which DeLaughter tells the interviewer, Peter Chattaway, that while the movie depicted the murderer De La Beckwith as a Bible-quoting racist, he wished the movie had also shown the positive side of faith. DeLaughter told Chattaway that during the time of the trial, "there wasn't but one other alternative and that was to say a lot of prayers" (see the article on page 4 of this PDF file). We also located a comment from Chattaway where he says he included more quotes about the real-life faith of DeLaughter at that time for an article in a Christian newspaper that does not appear online (see the Chattaway comment at the end of this blog).
More on this story may be found at these links:
The Big Questions
Here are some of the questions we will discuss in class:
1. When a person who has done notable good things later falls into wrongdoing, how should that person's life and contributions to the common good be assessed by those who had considered that person an ally? By those who considered that person an opponent?2. How do you think God views your flaws? Your mistakes? Your deliberate sins?3. Is it possible for good people to "slide" into serious sin, without much forethought or intention? If so, how do we guard against such downfalls?4. Does doing wrong later make your motives for doing earlier good works suspect? Why or why not?
5. Are committed Christians as susceptible to temptation as are people who have not committed themselves to follow Jesus? Why or why not?
Confronting the News with Scripture
We will look at selected verses from these Scripture texts. You may wish to read these in advance for background:
2 Samuel 1:17-27Mark 4:32-421 Corinthians 10:1-131 Peter 5:6-11Matthew 12:43-45
In class, we will talk about these passages and look for some insight on the big questions, as well as talk about other questions you may have about this topic. Please join us.
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