Crime and Punishment
My personal experience with inmates has been through prison ministries
where I preached and taught inmates as they transition into civilian life
again. Many of the inmates recognize their mistakes and have remorse
while others had anger and had in revenge their heart. In either case, they
are people that are not any different than me. I have never been in jail,
but I have committed sins just as well. The grace of God allows me (and
others) the opportunity to repent, forgive and be forgiven. I believe part of
restoration of inmates- in this case, is education and the reality of life. For
example, the reality of life is hard, and at times heart breaking and yet, it
can be an experience that can be amazing and wonderfully awesome. We
make discussion and yes, good ones and bad ones and we reap what we
sow. I once heard a story where a woman was put in prison for stealing
food and the punishment was unjust. The reason for her theft was to feed
her children due to their poverty-stricken circumstance and she was
sentenced to jail for a period, which obviously made things worse for her
children. Many agreed that her punishment was unjust, and the system
should have helped her and her children.
The fact that she stole was the focus and not humanitarian help. In my
view, that was an evil unjust punishment. Punishment for petty crimes
needs and should be dealt with accordingly, but what is “accordingly”?
Who dictates the punishment and why? In the case of this women, the
punishment could have been for her to recognize other ways to acquire
food and not allow desperation to overcome her better judgement. We all
know that desperation leads to misjudgment, and I can name a huge list
of Christians who fall into that category. Ultimately, people make wrong
choices and base their decisions on human instinct at times. Since our
moral and ethical values have plummeted here in America, leaders need
to exemplify moral and ethical character and lead by example.
Government, entertainment, and the public media portrays a sense of
false reality and certain individuals and people groups have bought into
the lie of a particular way of life, love and how people are to be treated.
The end results, chaos, confusion, mayhem, etc.
