10 Unequal weights and unequal measure are both alike an abomination to the LORD.

Proverbs 20:10 (ESV) 

 In 1880, San Francisco passed an ordinance requiring laundry operators in wooden buildings to gain permits from the board of supervisors, even though they had prior clearance from the fire department. This affected over 300 laundries, two thirds of which were run by Chinese immigrants. Unfortunately, though the decree was racially neutral, enforcement was racist. None of the Chinese applications was approved; all but one of the nearly 80 non-Chinese requests were granted. This was blatant discrimination, and the U.S. Supreme Court condemned it in their 1886 ruling on the case, Yick Wo v. Hopkins.1 They determined that no matter how just the written law may be, officials corrupt it when they apply the law unevenly.

Of course, the weights and measures mentioned in the verse above were literal, the sort used on metal scales and in bags of grain. Marketplace fraud was rampant, and God addressed it repeatedly in each of the three traditional sections of the Old Testament – the Torah (Law), the Writings, and the Prophets, as, for example, in Leviticus 19:35-36, Proverbs 20:10, and Micah 6:11. But there is a deeper principle at work in these verses: In the administration of public policy, men and women as well as food and material are put in the balance, and any deceit in calibrating human worth is “an abomination to the Lord.”

In the San Francisco case, the “scale” was properly constructed; the ordinance, indeed, applied to “any person or persons,” regardless of race or creed. But when officials used that good scale, they employed different “stones” to weigh the Chinese and non-Chinese applicants. Their enforcement was unjust, as it is whenever prejudice robs citizens of their rights.

In America, the National Institute of Standards and Technology regulates the use of physical weights and measures (e.g., milligrams and milliliters) as well as instruments that determine precise time, acidity, temperature, and tonality. Similarly, the courts are an institute of standards, in that they are charged with measuring the just application of law to citizens of every background.

As powerful as the government may be, the strength of the nation relies ultimately upon the hearts of the people, who will either insist on social righteousness or exhibit a callous indifference toward their neighbors. Certainly, the cruelty San Francisco once showed its Chinese residents is an ever-present temptation, whatever the city and century; fallen man is frighteningly capable of skewing and erasing standards of decency and fair play.  
 
Footnotes:
 
1  118 U.S. 356 (1886)

article adopted from Karios Journal

First Baptist Church is located in Perryville, across from the Principio Health Center on Rt. 40