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*itwill 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.
*********** 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]
*********** 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]
*********** 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
Visionby Kevin J. Vanhoozer and Owen Strachan (Grand Rapids: Baker
Academic, 2015). Kindle.
