Who is worthy of casting the first stone?

“The motive behind criticism often determines its validity. Those who care criticize where necessary. Those who envy criticize the moment they think that they have found a weak spot” – Criss Jami (American poet, philosopher).

In John 8:7, we are told of a drama. The Pharisees dragged a woman whom they accused of committing adultery to Jesus Christ. They said according to their law (constitution), the woman had to be stoned to death. In an attempt to either trick or trap Jesus to establish the fact that Jesus did not believe in the “law”, they wanted to know His (Jesus’) view/opinion on the case. In fact they persisted, pestered, pushed and pressed Jesus to comment on the issue. Finally, Jesus told them “He, who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her”. Interestingly, the woman’s accusers left one after the other without a single one of them stoning the woman. Of course, Jesus admonished the woman to go and sin no more.

We live in a world where we are very quick to criticize, accuse and crucify others. It is not an exaggeration to say that some people have criticism in their genes. In fact they are born critics. They criticize everybody and everything. No matter how best somebody does something, they would criticize. They see themselves as perfect, always right and every other person is wrong. The interesting thing about such people is that they hardly make any alternative suggestions as to how they would have done things differently.

I attended an international workshop two years ago and I would never forget the way a lady participant, who was in my discussion group behaved. She criticized the venue for the programme, the facilitators, the food and whatever contribution anybody made. At a point the rest of us were fed up with her behavior and became upset when she again criticized the organizers of the program for not providing us with a more comfortable bus to convey us to and from our hotel.

Nobody should get me wrong. I am not advocating for condoning evil. We should be able to point out people’s wrongs to them but like the 1860 born American politician, Frank A. Clarke once said “criticism, like rain, should be gentle enough to nourish a man’s growth without destroying his roots”. The one, who is being criticized, should also know that it is for his/her good that his mistakes/wrongs/shortcomings are being pointed out to him.

Back in Middle School form one; I remember our class teacher disciplined one of our colleagues for gross disrespect, truancy and pilfering. Instead of the parents of the boy to commend the teacher, they rather held an “insult vigil” for him. In fact, the teacher did not know his peace for two good weeks. The boy’s mother even came to the school and verbally abused the teacher in the full glare of us the students and other teachers. The boy was not sacked from the school anyway but he was tortured psychologically. Our teacher never asked him any questions in class; he marked his exercises alright without making any detailed corrections. Whenever he did something wrong, he was not disciplined. In fact he was made to feel very uncomfortable and finally had to be transferred from the school. The point I want to make is that criticisms, especially, “good intended” ones are for our own good. We shun them at our own downfall. This brings us back to the question whether we really criticize people these days to correct or we do so to destroy and demonize them

The just ended 2014 world cup football match in Brazil was the mother of all criticisms I have ever witnessed. I agree that the players, the technical team, the sports ministry, etc might have made some mistakes. But the question is: Were our criticisms meant to correct them or they were deliberately made to ruin, embarrass and portray them as “good for nothing people”? In what way(s) could the criticisms help us, as a nation, to perform better in future tournaments? Could we not have criticized without insulting and maligning the people involved? Interestingly, some of the very people who were the loudest in criticizing the players and the football administrators never touched football in their lives nor ever held any managerial positions.

There are some subordinates who never see anything good in whatever their bosses do and vice versa. In the church, some elders, together with some other members have become “shadow leaders” and unjustifiably criticize everything that the church leadership does without giving any alternative suggestions.

I have tried very hard not to comment on the issue of corruption but considering the alarming rate at which the social cancer is spreading, I can’t just resist the temptation not to do so. The sad thing is that the virus that causes this social disease is so contagious that almost everybody is infected except a few, who are immune to it. Unfortunately, we are quick to point accusing fingers at others as being corrupt. I am not by any means trying to justify whatever corrupt practices that somebody indulged in; but the truth is that one way or the other, like the accusers of that adulterous woman, many of us, who are loudest when we hear about somebody being corrupt also have skeletons in our cupboards. It is unacceptable for anybody to use his/her position or influence to siphon public funds. But how different is that person from the one who “ steals” his/ her employer’s time by either reporting late to work or leaving work before the official time of closing to do his/her private business? Do some men in high positions not have affairs with some ladies, (sometimes even married ones) before offering them jobs? What about the pilfering of company items such as stationery? I don’t want to believe that there is anything like big or small corruption. Corruption is corruption. It does not matter the form that it takes. For now, I don’t think it is necessary to list or give a litany of corrupt practices. As humans, we all have conscience and I believe we are perfectly aware of whatever corrupt practices we may be involved in. Unfortunately, we are not prepared to remove the logs in our eyes but we are more than ready to remove the specks in others’ eyes.

We should criticize but let us be mindful of the motive-Whether it is meant to embarrass or disgrace the one we criticize or the intention is to help bring about a positive change. Whoever is being criticized should also accept the good intended criticism in good faith and be ready to do the right thing.

Writer’s e-mail :wofasammy4@yahoo.com

The writer is an archivist