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By Rev. MICHAEL BRESCIANI

Everyone knows that in America we cannot honestly convict a person for a crime as long as there is a ‘reasonable doubt’ that they are innocent. It is a facet of our system of jurisprudence that is unique to America and was born out of repulsion for past tyrannies.

In spite of living in a land that thinks positive thinking is the only kind of thought that is PC legal, doubt can be and always will be a good thing. It is not only what can free the innocent, but it can also keep us from falling headlong to our own demise.

Unfortunately today we live in a fast paced world where sometimes we are willing to accept applause as the proof that something is true or worthy.

‘Everybody’s doing it’ or ‘all that is hot’ become substitutes for the truth. A crowd chanting ‘string ‘em up’ can hardly be expected to pause and wait for a court of law to decide a person’s guilt or innocence. Certainly no one in a lynch mob would dare ask the mob to pause and listen to this verse from the Bible. “Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil; neither shalt thou speak in a cause to decline after many to wrest judgment.” (Ex 23:2)

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