Chris’s Column: “A Miscarriage of Justice”?

Chris Wright
October 2024

The inquiry into the Great British Post Office Scandal is still ongoing amidst public outcry against the breadth and depth of the injustice perpetrated and demands for some kind of justice to be done. But what is justice?

The ITV series in January 2024, Mr Bates vs the Post Office, brought the matter to glaring public attention, causing extensive commercial and political embarrassment. But many of us thought, “And about time too.” The flawed accusations against subpostmasters (of having falsified accounts and defrauded the Post Office of large sums of money, based on a bugs-prone IT system), started 25 years ago in 1999. The matter was exposed 15 years ago in 2009, the same year Alan Bates began his group’s campaign for justice. A forensic investigation, commissioned by the Post Office itself, concluded 10 years ago in 2013 that there were indeed serious flaws in both the software and hardware (thousands of them), but the investigation was terminated and its results denied: “The investigation,” reported the Post Office, “has confirmed that there are no system-wide problems with our computer system and associated processes.” Nothing to see here, folks. They lied.

As the cover-up went on, so did the prosecutions. And on and on. The sheer numbers are staggering. Between 1999 and 2015, some 4,000 subpostmasters were accused of financial wrongdoing, some 900 were prosecuted and 236 ended up in prison. Mere statistics cannot grasp the scale of suffering and loss inflicted, especially when the accused and isolated individuals were being told “You’re the only one,” by agents who knew there were hundreds of others being pursued. Many were financially ruined, with bankruptcies and evictions for some. Many lost their reputation and trust in their local community; most lost their jobs; some lost their freedom; some lost their marriages; most lost mental and physical health; at least four took their own lives, and others have died before receiving compensation. Hundreds and hundreds of ordinary men and women.

“This is one of the greatest miscarriages of justice in our nation’s history,” said Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. He’s right, of course; and yet even the word “miscarriage” – a tragic event that brings profound grief and pain to any woman for the child she carried – seems somehow an inadequate metaphor when we think of a thousand and more people (including families) whose lives have been devastated or robbed altogether, through egregious corporate malfeasance. Massacre of justice sounds more fitting.

What then is “justice,” and what does the Bible say? Inevitably we must think first about God himself. We easily and rightly say that “God is love.” But if you’d asked an Old Testament Israelite (who also knew plenty about God’s love), what they most associated with Yahweh their God, they would likely have uttered two words – “salvation” (Yahweh is the only God who saves, Isa 45:21–22), and “justice” (Yahweh loves justice, Isa 61:8).

Justice as God’s character

The conviction that God is characterised by justice comes early in the Bible. Abraham was sure of it, “Shall not the Judge of all the earth do justice?” he asks (Gen 18:25). Yes of course he will! – so you can pray even for Sodom and Gomorrah.

Since human kings were supposed to do justice, how much more will the King of the universe reign with justice. Justice defines the government of God.

Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne. (Ps 89:14; Ps 97:2)

Justice is what this God loves and delights in.

The LORD loves righteousness and justice;
the earth is full of his unfailing love. (Ps 33:5)
I am the LORD, who exercises kindness,
justice and righteousness on earth,
for in these I delight,”
declares the LORD. (Jer 9:24)

Justice as God’s demand

“… on earth.” Did you notice that in the last quote? God’s justice rules in heaven of course, but it is on earth that God wants it to be done – “on earth as in heaven,” as we pray about God’s will. And how does that happen? Well, doing justice is what God requires from everyone, at one level, according to Micah’s definitive statement about how we should live.

What does the LORD require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
and to walk humbly with your God. (Mic 6:8)

But, again and again the Bible insists that God, the supreme Judge, holds accountable to himself especially those who exercise any kind of political or judicial authority, and God demands that they should ensure that justice is being done in society. This goes right back to the instructions God gave to Moses.

Appoint judges and officials for each of your tribes in every town the LORD your God is giving you, and they shall judge the people fairly. Do not pervert justice or show partiality …. Follow justice and justice alone … (Deut 16:18–20)

It was above all the duty of kings, as Psalm 72 prays for David’s descendants on the throne.

Endow the king with your justice, O God,
the royal son with your righteousness.
May he judge your people in righteousness,
your afflicted ones with justice.
(Ps 72:1–2; also Prov 31:8–9)

Paul and Peter both agree that this is the prime duty of civil authorities – even in the Roman empire (Rom 13:4–6; 1 Pet 2:13–14). And Daniel courageously made it his advice to the pagan king Nebuchadnezzar (Dan 4:27).

Injustice, then, and especially when it inflicts pain and suffering on its victims by leaving them poor and needy, turns God’s love and delight to anger and judgement. Many of the Psalms express this very powerfully. (Why do we never hear them prayed in church, if we want God to put things right “on earth”?).

Do you rulers indeed speak justly?
Do you judge people with equity?
No, in your heart you devise injustice,
and your hands mete out violence on the earth.
(Ps 58:1–2; 82)

Isaiah points out that some injustice is the result of government legislation – that is, not just by people who break the laws, but those who make them, for their own damaging self-interest.

Woe to those who make unjust laws,
to those who issue oppressive decrees,
to deprive the poor of their rights
and withhold justice from the oppressed of my people,
making widows their prey
and robbing the fatherless. (Isa 10:1–2)
There are those who hate the one
who upholds justice in court
and detest the one who tells the truth.
(Amos 5:10)

The scale of lying (or suppressing the truth) in the Post Office over many years would fall foul of the Old Testament’s severely deterrent law against perjury. According to Deuteronomy 19:16–21, anyone found guilty of lying in court was to be punished by whatever punishment would have been suffered by the one they falsely accused. That would stop frivolous and malicious lies.

But this also raises the question of punishment as a dimension of justice. After all, the Post Office can fairly claim that it has paid millions in compensation and some wrongful convictions are being overturned in the courts. But would even blanket exoneration of the victims satisfy “justice”? There is still the question of accountability, of not just “getting away with it.” One compensated subpostmaster said that she couldn’t rest until at least some of those who had wronged her were behind bars, rightly imprisoned as she had wrongly been. This is not nasty vengeance. It is a deep human instinct, embedded in our laws, that wrongdoers should face some proportionate penalty for the suffering they have caused others.

But will they? Ever? Cynicism and history don’t give much hope that the complex web of guilty parties in the Post Office scandal will be untangled into successful convictions and penalties. Justice is so often cheated in this life, we say. But then, the Bible is clear: this life is not all there is. There is a higher throne and a supreme court. For ultimate justice is God’s prerogative and God’s promise.

Justice as God’s promise

Abraham’s rhetorical question (Gen 18:25) gets an answer from an unexpected source, the otherwise very cynical voice of Ecclesiastes. He observes exactly what we’ve described,

In the place of judgement – wickedness was there,
in the place of justice – wickedness was there.

But then he goes on with this bold affirmation:

I said to myself,
“God will bring into judgement
both the righteous and the wicked,
for there will be a time for every activity,
a time to judge every deed.” (Eccl 3:16–17)

And that constitutes part of the gospel. For it is good news that evil will not have the last word in God’s universe, nor will evil-doers get away with it forever. God’s final judgement, his utterly just rectification, will put all things right (Rev 19–20) before he makes all things new (Rev 21–22). God will do justice. Promise. It will be accomplished through the Messiah, Son of David (Isa 9:7; 11:4–5), who turns out also to be God’s Servant with the same mission (Isa 42:1–4), and will inaugurate the Spirit-filled reality of justice and peace (Isa 32:1, 15–17).

Meanwhile, there is no contradiction between wanting justice to be done, such that those who have done terrible wrong should be justly punished, while also praying for them (and their victims) – like all sinners – to come to repentance and faith and eternal salvation in Christ. Such double hope was modelled by Maureen Greaves, whose organist husband Alan was murdered on his way to church in 2012. She was thankful that justice was done when his two murderers were convicted and imprisoned, but she also said, “My prayer is that they will come to understand and experience the love and kindness of the God who made them in his own image, and that God’s great mercy will inspire both of them to true repentance.” Amen to that.

Chris Wright is the Global Ambassador of the Langham Partnership (www.langham.org) and is a Senior Research Fellow of the KLC. This article was first published in Transform, the magazine of Langham Partnership UK and Ireland, in April 2024.