On Shelley Luther: Let Me Make All Y'all Mad

Updated: Thankfully, the Texas Supreme Court has ordered Shelley Luther released from jail.

Shelley Luther should not be in jail for opening her hair salon in Dallas, TX. It is a remarkable overreach against a woman struggling to get by and take care of her family.

Shelley Luther should also not have reopened her business.

Lots of people are rushing to take sides. I’m on both sides and somewhere in the middle.

For the past two months, I have been paying for haircuts that I would not get. I have sent extra money to my barbershop to help some of the younger barbers who do not have a lot of clients. My wife has done similarly with her salon. We have sent money to help a few restaurants struggling to hold on to employees. I tell you this not to brag, but to ask a question: where were Shelley Luther’s patrons? Why didn’t they take care of her? Not everyone is in a position to, but some are and they apparently did not.

I am afraid we have lost the ability to nuance in so much of this. Overbearing local officials need to show a level of restraint so people do not willfully ignore the law. But people need to respect the rule of law.

The argument used by Ms. Luther — that she needs to take care of her family — is the same argument used by many illegal aliens who cross into this country. They just want to work and send money home. But many of Ms. Luther’s defenders are undoubtedly opposed to illegal immigrants doing as she did. They can nuance on citizenship, but that only goes so far. Both are disrespecting the rule of law.

One can argue about the justice of the laws, but everyone can question any law they do not like, particularly when it impedes taking care of their families. And yes, the very same people happy that the government rounded up Ms. Luther will defend illegal aliens. The sides are still equally divided, they just reversed the roles.

Ultimately, scripture tells us to honor the law and to break any law is a sin unless the law itself violates God’s law. It was not sinful for Martin Luther King and civil rights activists to defy laws that treated people differently based on the color of their skin. God is colorblind. Justice must be.

But it is within the right of governments to say during a pandemic that some businesses are not essential and should close. Christians should honor those laws, including Ms. Luther whose business, like all other hair salons in the area, had to close.

Nuance and twist scripture all you like, but the government had the legitimate and lawful and just ability to do that to stop a virus spreading and people of faith must honor the law.

Likewise, let’s be outraged at the government for wanting to jail a woman during a pandemic whose only crime is trying to survive. There is a level of hypocrisy in the enforcement too. Fine her and close her shop, but putting her in jail is nuts. Couple justice with mercy. Let’s also be outraged at the government for not helping her while she was closed. The payroll protection program has been botched all around. The congress nor the state and local governments have spent so much time focused on the Fortune 500’s lobbyists they ignored the man and woman who had no lobbyist.

There have been failures all around and the situation on all sides is far more complicated requiring far more sympathy and empathy than too many people want to give. What we should give is grace — grace to a government trying to navigate a pandemic and grace to the small business owner trying to survive.

What we have in Dallas is a failure, but it is a failure on all sides and one increasingly politicized. The rule of law needs to be respected, even the ones you don’t like. But that does not mean the enforcers of the law need to be jackasses about enforcement. It also does not mean I need to cheer one side or the other when both have merit to their argument and both should have acted differently.

Ms. Luther should never have opened. Her customers should have supported her through tough times. The local government should never have carted her off to jail.