Expert Testimony

When Cameron Todd Willingham was executed in 2004 at the age of thirty-six, there were serious misgivings regarding his alleged guilt.

No one could identify a motive for torching his home and murdering his three young daughters. He had prior run-ins with the law, and prosecutors suggested that the tattoo on his arm and a poster of a heavy-metal rock band on the wall of his home indicated he was a psychopath. But it was expert testimony that convinced a jury Willingham had intentionally taken the lives of his little girls.

Arson investigators pointed to patterns found in the charred ruins of the Willingham home that they claimed proved accelerants were used to deliberately start the deadly blaze. However, just weeks before Willingham was scheduled to be executed, a renowned scientist and fire investigator reviewed the scientific evidence used to secure the condemned man’s conviction. Dr. Gerald Hurst concluded that the fire was accidental and that the report that had placed a man on death row was based on “junk science.” Dr. Hurst and others were convinced the expert testimony that had convicted Mr. Willingham was not so expert after all.* It isn’t always easy to know who to believe, and both sides in a court trial have a vested interest in the outcome.

It might appear that in religious matters, little is different.

Many people say they are confused by the multiplicity of voices within Christianity and do not know how to determine which opinion is right.

A similar situation may exist within the church, where people can struggle to find the truth on an issue over which two or more viewpoints are proffered. The only truly reliable voice in matters of faith is the voice of God. Jesus once answered a question with this question: “What is written in the law? What is your reading of it?” (Luke 10:26). Paul wrote that “all Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness” (2 Timothy 3:16).

Opinions are as varied as are the people that hold to them.

The follower of Jesus looks to the Bible as the foundation of faith.

God’s Word is true expert testimony.