“Obstacles to Accountability”

Abstract

ABSTRACT Zion Lutheran Church, (ELCA) is a racially mixed, middle class, well-educated, active congregation on the South side of Chicago. Sunday morning worship attendance averages approximately 100. “Obstacles to Accountability” came to me after attending a prayer vigil last October. The enigmatic images of King David as both a perpetrator of abuse, and as a frightened shepherd boy fit well with my experience of many men in batterer's treatment. The parable that Nathan told David calling him to accountability was one of the first passages I ever translated from Hebrew into English. It holds a special place in my personal history and in my work with men who have been violent in their intimate relationships. In this text, David comes to understand his behavior by understanding the feelings of a victim. A problematic aspect of this text for me is that the victim is not Bathsheba but Uriah. The abuse is the stealing of Uriah's exclusive property rights over Bathsheba as a sexual object, although it is clear from the parable that Uriah loves Bathsheba. Nonetheless, the text is an early and powerful model of accountability as it offers the offender the opportunity to understand how abusive his conduct actually is, through bold truth telling. The idea of judging another remains extremely problematic, perhaps even for the most faithful disciples of Jesus. Yet, there is no healing in silence. When we are called to speak the truth, we must do so. That requires some judgment on our part. It is for this reason that I chose to use an oft-quoted, and I think often misused text about judging along with Nathan's parable.