The Lord instructs mankind to look at the government as a means of preserving
justice and restraining evil in the earth (cf. Rom. 13; 1 Peter 2). From a biblical
perspective, a government is to encourage righteousness and punish wickedness
in order to drive evil out of the borders of a given nation. The complicating factor
which each government must deal with is the fallenness and depravity of the
heart of men. This reality corrupts the application of justice as well as the
upholding of righteousness on the parts of the governors and the citizens. The
government upholds justice and righteousness through the passing and enforcing
of laws within the borders of the particular nation. Each country and nation sets a
code for what will and will not be tolerated from a legal standpoint in any society,
as such, certain things will be made illegal and other things will be encouraged.
One important distinction to make, however, is that the government does not get
to set the definition of what is sin and what is not, the government only decides
what
it
will allow, which may or may not be in line with the absolute truth of the
moral code of Yahweh. McQuilkin and Copan point out that, “Crime and sin are
not synonymous.”[1] God sets the ultimate standards and anything outside of that
is mere opinion, however noble the intention.
e e e e e e e e e e Much has been made in America recently over the way in which the law
is kept and applied across the citizenry. Motives are constantly maligned and
efforts to keep law, order, and peace are subjected to relentless scrutiny. This
author, along with many others, have heard the assertion time and time again that
the environment and culture one is raised in has led to criminality and
recalcitrance. McQuilkin and Copan explain, “Blaming society means abdicating
personal responsibility for the direction of one’s life. And this refusal to own up to
one’s wrongdoing shuts the door to the possibility of salvation by God’s grace.”[2]
Passages such as Ezekiel 18 explain that each person is responsible for their
actions, and everyone who lives will eventually stand before the Lord and be
judged according to their deeds (Ro. 2:6). There can be little doubt that the single
greatest contributing factor to the incarceration rate and the criminality rate in the
United States are due to, as McQuilkin and Copan point out, “We believe the
breakdown of the family is the leading negative environmental influence.”[3]
e e e e e e e e e e As referenced in the prompt, people such as Michelle Alexander and
others have claimed that minorities are targeted for imprisonment and the law is
applied unequally, leading to claims of the motivations as racism or white
supremacy. Tragically, there are cases where the law is applied unequally in a
fallen world, at the same time however, America has also suffered from a move
towards attempting to “rehabilitate” those who commit crimes to the neglect of a
consequence for the crime or the making right of what was wrong. For instance,
there has been an increase in states moving to ban Capital Punishment for any
crime, with a hope of rehabilitating the alleged murderer through life in prison.
Such penalties, in the opinion of this author, neglect to deter future instances of
major crimes. What can happen in such situations is the languishing of the
convicted felon in prison for decades, without making anything right for the life
that was taken leading to the imprisonment in the first place. Kevin Vanhoozer
remarks on the loss of faith in our institutions in part as, “As we read
contemporary culture, we can perceive that this ideological cancer has progressed
to the point of regarding all institutions and authority with systemic distrust and
cynicism.”[4]
e e e e e e e e e e This author agrees in part with McQuilkin and Copan that there should be
an effort in the justice system to protect the innocent, rehabilitate the criminal,
and uphold justice. The rehabilitation should be sought, but not at the expense of
swift justice, as noted in Ecc. 8:11. A helpful strategy for curbing criminality is an
equal application, with swift timing (allowed due process), and strict punishments,
for crimes that are not to be tolerated within society. Just because a crime is non-
violent does not mean that it is not dangerous for the offender or for those
around them. Even in the cases where Capital Punishment should be applied,
there should be an attempt to reach the offender for Christ and lead to a heart
change, but this does not mean that the convicted felon should be released back
into society or allowed to keep their lives when an innocent life has been taken
irrevocably. The place for showing mercy is in the seeking of salvation of the soul
of the offender, making some sort of restitution for the family of the victim, and
the application of appropriate punishment so as to dissuade others from
considering the same actions as a viable option for conduct within society.
[1] Robertson McQuilkin and Paul Copan,
Introduction to Biblical Ethics: Walking in
the Way of Wisdom
, 3rd edition
(Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2014). 429.
[2] Ibid., 431.
[3] Ibid., 431.
[4] Kevin J. Vanhoozer, “In the Evangelical Mood: The Purpose of the Pastor-
Theologian,” in
The Pastor as Public Theologian: Reclaiming a Lost Vision
by
Kevin J. Vanhoozer and Owen Strachan (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2015).
Kindle.
