设立宗教法庭的必要性 （中英文版）

教会法庭融于世俗法庭原本也是应该的事，因为新教改革之后出现了众多的教派，教会法庭由哪个教派来组织负责，确实是个难题。但是如今美国的法律，已经走向另外一个极端，已经成为一个与正义无关的律师帝国，法律条文浩如烟海、汗牛充栋，即使律师也必须分成无数的专业律师，更不用说一般人了。很明显这种法律体系，已经走进了死胡同，根本不符合常理，越来越脱离现实，只能成为律师帝国的圈钱工具，穷人根本不敢打官司，因为无法承担昂贵的律师费用，更不会说与富人打官司了。这时候重提教会法庭，就有非常现实的意义，也许我们可以不用教会法庭这个名词，以免给人以精神迫害之感，我们可以称它为教会法律调解室。这个方面伊斯兰教就做得非常好，它们有许多由基层阿訇主持的调解室，化解许多邻里纠纷等小案件，用最小成本缓和社会矛盾，维持社会秩序。在教会的法律调解室，原告被告双方共同面对上帝，面对圣经，共同发誓以上帝的名义，以自己的良心行事，对一些邻里纠纷、经济摩擦等小案件，大家尽量妥协退让，使事情简化处理，无需耗费大量的人力、物力，特别是律师费用。如果教会调解不成，才交给世俗法庭处理，我想这是每一个虔诚的，有着兄弟之爱的基督徒乐于接受的事，在教会的调解室大家坦诚相待，各诉缘由，许多问题应该都能很好地解决，不至于像在世俗法庭上，大家费尽心机、相关算尽，使事情越弄越复杂，费用越来越昂贵，一场官司下来，即使胜方也所得无几，更不用说败方了。

It should have been proper for the church court to merge into the secular court. After Protestant reform, there were many sects. Which is responsible for the church court is a problem? But now, the law system of the United States has gone to the other extreme. It has become an empire of lawyers that bear no relation to justice. The law is voluminous. Even lawyers have been divided into countless professional lawyers, let alone ordinary people. Obviously, this kind of legal system has reached a dead end, which is alien to common sense. It is becoming more and more out of touch with reality. It can only become a tool for the lawyer to make a fast buck. The poor dare not fight a lawsuit because they can’t afford the expensive lawyer fees, let alone fight with the rich. It is very realistic to mention the church court again at this time. Perhaps we can avoid the term “church court” not to give a sense of spiritual persecution. We can call it the church legal mediation room. Islam has done very well in this respect. They have many mediation rooms chaired by imams at the grassroots level, which resolve many small cases such as neighborhood disputes, ease social contradictions, and maintain social order with minimum cost. In the legal mediation room of the church, the plaintiff and the defendant face up to God and the Bible together and vow to act in the name of God with their own conscience as a guide. As for some small cases, such as neighborhood disputes and economic frictions, people try their best to compromise and give way to each other to simplify the matters, saving a lot of human resources and material resources, especially lawyers’ fees. If the church fails to mediate, it should be handed over to the secular court. I think that every devout Christian with brotherly love is willing to accept the church’s legal mediation room, where everyone can be the mutual honest treatment for the case, disputes should be solved well. Unlike in the secular court, everyone racks brains, making things more and more complicated; the cost is more and more expensive. Even the winner will get little after a lawsuit, let alone the loser.