How are justice and mercy related to on another? Is our sense of justice and retribution for crimes against humanity from drunk drivers, to rapists, to mass murdering terrorists at odds with the impossible duty to love our enemies as Christ commands? It seems that Chuck Colson may say no to this. But what is curious is that his sense of human justice and retribution seems to predominate the witness of Christ's forgiveness who asked not for justice, but mercy upon those who tortured him – even as he was being tortured. To wit, Chuck Colson offers this little bit of logic:
But we should only support compassionate release in cases where it does not injure justice, and so long as further confinement serves no penological purpose.
The question is who justice? It seems quite obvious that Colson places a human desire for justice above the mercy of God as revealed in the cross. The question is, if we are bringing God into the mix as Colson does, what is the theological relationship between the humanly derived penal code with the clear witness of mercy that we see in Christ who is to be the foundation of faith?
If we reduce the scale of the trauma here, to follow Colson's logic consistently, we also ought to say "Shame on the Amish." Why? Recall their response to the terror inflicted on their community by a killer at a school in Nickel Mines. As Donald Kraybill writes:
What we learn from the Amish, both at Nickel Mines and more generally, is that how we choose to move on from tragic injustice is culturally formed. For the Amish, who bring their own religious resources to bear on injustice, the preferred way to live on with meaning and hope is to offer forgiveness—and offer it quickly. That offer, including the willingness to forgo vengeance, does not undo the tragedy or pardon the wrong. It does, however, constitute a first step toward a future that is more hopeful, and potentially less violent, than it would otherwise be.
While many Christians are absolute in the clarity with which they read passages on homosexuality, divorce, and other pieces of "the law", it is a true testament to the radicalness of the witness of Christ when the very clear commands to forgive and act with mercy are set aside or ignored. Justice in service of the law oddly takes precedence over the clear witness of Christ who radically revealed a different law, a new covenant of mercy and grace.
Christianity is defined first and foremost through the law revealed by Christ and no other. The very event of the work and person of Jesus Christ culminating in the crucifixion and resurrection reveals the force of the law as he preached. Perhaps Colson needs to reframe his desire for retribution and human justice with this very God-man he claims saved him from sin in an act that tore the need for human justice asunder with an act of divine grace.
(HT: The Daily Dish)
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While I agree with the commenter quoted at the Dish (about the Christian witness of mercy), and understand the critique you are trying to make of Christians who prize the law above grace (especially in regards to capital punishment) your post here seems to indicate that any sort of punishment/justice is antithetical to Christian teaching. Would you support, for instance, forgiving Cheney, Yoo, et al and forgoing any sort of call to account for their actions during the last administation? Where do we draw the line between mercy and justice?
there is a call to account. however, in the context of colson's comment his understanding is to let this person rot in jail with no possibility of release. so where do you draw the line between satiating human justice and practicing god's mercy? that's the question as you also ask and what i am probing here.
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While I agree with the commenter quoted at the Dish (about the Christian witness of mercy), and understand the critique you are trying to make of Christians who prize the law above grace (especially in regards to capital punishment) your post here seems to indicate that any sort of punishment/justice is antithetical to Christian teaching. Would you support, for instance, forgiving Cheney, Yoo, et al and forgoing any sort of call to account for their actions during the last administation? Where do we draw the line between mercy and justice?
there is a call to account. however, in the context of colson's comment his understanding is to let this person rot in jail with no possibility of release. so where do you draw the line between satiating human justice and practicing god's mercy? that's the question as you also ask and what i am probing here.