By : Richard Lawton So David Hicks will soon return to Australia. Stupid mishandling of his case ensured that he became a cause celebre. Had he been dealt with swiftly, fairly and effectively, he’d have had his day in court, done his time, and few of us would even remember his name.

Instead, Hicks, the person for whom few people had sympathy after being apprehended, has drawn the attention of the whole country and beyond. People have been concerned that he would not get justice, that he was being held for something that was not even an offence in Australia, that the justice process took far, far too long, that he might have been ill-treated and even tortured, that he was held incommunicado from his family and his lawyers.

His plea of guilty is under suspicion: was it just so that he could get home, and to dodge a crushing sentence? Some people fear that his nine-month sentence is letting him off the hook, forgetting the five years he has already served in near isolation.

His ex father-in-law has been reported as threatening to kill him if he tries to contact his own children. Columnists say, Yeah, it’s ok for him to be released eventually, but I don’t want him living next door to me.

Setting aside the political carry-on, what’s in it for us?

Terrorism is wrong. Even if we all thought that a cause was good, Christians cannot support the use of violence, especially willy-nilly violence, murder and mayhem for the sake of that cause.

We might ponder whether Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s part in a plot to assassinate Hitler was an exception to the rule, or what is the best way to free Zimbabwe from the clutches of Robert Mugabe? In no way can David Hicks be seen as a hero, unless to the terror-totin’ Taliban. But things change: even the Taliban had the support of the Americans when they were fighting against Russia! Why do some of us become cynical?

The evolution of the rule of law and democracy seem to fit squarely with the Christian understanding of justice. We can’t lightly set these principles aside just because a person is seen as dangerous or as a crackpot. The furore around David Hicks arose because he was seen as not getting the fair go of which Australians are proud.

Once he has returned and done his time, the authorities may believe they need to keep a close eye on him, but the power they have to do that should be very closely watched. A friend who is currently working in Fiji wrote this week: In practice, life for most of us goes on as normal, but everyone seems conscious of not speaking out too much. Zimbabwe is another current example.

Whatever his background or activity, David Hicks is still a person whom God loves. Remember, God loves you, and so do I.

My other concern is the readiness of many of us to judge and condemn without knowing the facts. Stupid (there’s that word again) polls ask the public what they think about his guilt and the appropriate sentence. How on earth can we be judges of that when we know only the smidgen the newspapers tell us? Yet we assume we know enough to make those judgments, whether it’s Hicks, Lindy Chamberlain or whomever. Jesus’ Judge not is wise counsel.

(Australian Churches of Christ webmagazine, April 6th, 2007)