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Forgiveness and the Law
Newspaper headlines cried, “Protesters demand forgiveness for killer.” Article after article proclaimed that citizens believe that criminals should be forgiven. One person quoted said, “As a society, we must forgive those who are sorry for their crimes. We are taught to forgive.”
For years the above attitude concerned me, but I wasn’t able to give concrete reasons as to why I disagreed. However, I finally have the answer: Only people who are wronged can forgive the criminal, and forgiveness and legal consequences are two different things.
If a reckless speeder hits me in front of my house, I can forgive the driver since I was the one hurt. However, if the speeding car strikes my neighbor, I cannot forgive, nor not forgive, because I was not the person harmed. Plus, if the person suffering from the accident forgives the speeder, the driver must still face the legal consequences of his or her actions. My “forgiving” the one who injures my neighbor is not really forgiveness because I am a by-stander, not anyone involved.
Jesus stated that the people of His time were to render under Caesar what is Caesar’s (Caesar representing the government) and unto God what is God’s (God being the moral, the righteous). In other words, people are to follow the law and take the consequences if they don’t.
In our permissive world, we have mixed the two: What is God’s and what is the government’s (the law’s) are intermingled in areas that they shouldn’t be. Forgiveness by individuals or even the church leaders does not negate the penitents’ obligation to face their fates according to the law.
In countries or states with capital punishment, murders know the penalty if caught, found guilty, and given the death penalty. The family and friends of the victim do have the right, and maybe even the obligation, to forgive the killers; however, that forgiveness does not mitigate the fact that the criminal deliberately took the life of another person and faces the consequences. Nor should forgiveness by those harmed take away the blame and resulting punishment.
The argument that a criminal repents is not a valid excuse for his not facing the results of his actions. As someone with a close relative who has spent much of his adult life in prison, I know personally that prisons and jails are filled with repentant inmates, and with many who claim they to be innocent. (On a side note, I realize that some innocent people do end up in prison, but the large majority of inmates are guilty as charged.) I also know from first hand experience that many that repent are sorry they were caught. Also for a large number, jail house religion soon disappears after the prisoner is released. Therefore, being sorry for one’s actions or being forgiven by the victim or victims should not erase the consequences of a crime. Legal consequences and moral forgiveness are two different components of life.
I may forgive the man who murdered my niece, and I may forgive the relative whose actions brought “shame” to my family, but I cannot and should not change the legal rendering. We all need to render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s and unto God what is God’s.
After teaching composition for twenty-five years and becoming an author on http://www.Writing.Com/ a site for Poetry, Vivian Gilbert Zabel, also writing as V. Gilbert Zabel, produced Hidden Lies and Other Stores, Walking the Earth:, and The Base Stealers Club, which can be ordered through most book stores and on Amazon.com.
Source: www.isnare.com