You all pretty much know the Bible Story. “The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him. But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” (John 8, 3-7)

It’s amazing that over the past 2 days we have witnessed the modern version of this story. Just like the woman in the story, Ray Rice is as guilty as sin. We’ve all seen the tape of him dragging his then fiancé out of the elevator and flopping her on the ground like a wet rag doll. He admitted he hit her, he went in front of multiple press conferences to confess his sin, and his contrition has been on display for everybody to see. He received his punishment, light as it may have been, and we moved on……….or so we thought.

Now the video is out, a video that shows us absolutely nothing that we already didn’t know. A video that does nothing more that show us exactly what the Police, the Baltimore Ravens, the NFL, and Ray Rice himself reported. Nevertheless the modern American Pharisees such as Keith Olbermann, Jeffrey Toobin, and countless other pundits had their proverbial day to drag Ray Rice into the middle of the square and scream for all of us to stone such a horrible man. Oh and let’s throw Roger Goodell in there for good measure just so we can crucify him for admitting the poor judgment he had in making this decision. Needless to say none of us would have been so stupid as to only suspend Rice for two games since we are all so much smarter than the NFL Commissioner. 

Let’s be clear, I’m not absolving Ray Rice of his crime. It was brutal, reprehensible and deserving of much harsher punishment than what he got. So let’s ask ourselves this: “Is Ray Rice nothing more than a thug that deserves no redemption and only eternal NFL Banishment as so many others demand?” By all accounts Ray Rice has been an exemplary citizen well liked by his coach and teammates, and has had no issues with the law. How many of you men out there have lived similar exemplary lives and in a moment in time did something really stupid? “Oh but I’d never hit my wife or girlfriend, I’m above that,” and yet how many of you have cheated on them and got away with it? Perhaps you’ve watched hours upon hours of porno and hid it from them? Maybe you’ve driven drunk and never got pulled over? Perhaps you’ve cheated your boss or coworkers out of thousands of dollars and they’ve never found out? Are those stones you’re getting ready to throw starting to feel a bit heavy now?

Maybe it’s time for us to collectively look at ourselves, examine our own self-righteousness, and look at people like Ray Rice and Roger Goodell and tell them “Then neither do I condemn you, “Go now and sin no more.”