An Article From Early July Of This Year

I suppose I could have been more organized in this new effort to preserve my writings; but priority responsibilities in the material world force me to grab opportunities like this at miscellaneous times. One consequence is that I can more easily post my stand-alone articles here, than articles that were part of a series.

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LET US NOT OMIT FORGIVENESS...
BUT DON'T ALLOW FORGIVENESS
ITSELF TO BECOME AN OMISSION


I have read or heard public statements from a number of Death Row
convicts over my 36 years as a Christian. Terribly often, they fail
to show any genuine remorse for their crimes, even when they
ADMIT to having committed the crimes. Instead, they go in for
self-serving pomposity, solemnly criticizing this country's justice
system for executing guilty murderers--which, in their egocentric
minds, they somehow manage to see as WORSE than their own
act of murdering innocent victims.

Some, certainly, come to genuine repentance and salvation. I
particularly recall the Texan murderess Karla Faye Tucker. She
bore fruit that befitted repentance: she DIDN'T pretend that the
justice system was the "real" villain--rather, she admitted freely
that her crime was HER OWN fault, and that she DID deserve
to be put to death. It is that real contrition which assures me
that Karla Faye is now dwelling joyously in Heaven among the
ransomed saints. And when the parents of her victim publicly
declared their forgiveness of her, I could see that their act of
Christlike love and mercy was not in vain.

But this is only one of countless instances of people in such
a situation going to great lengths to trumpet their forgiveness.
The forgivers appear to outnumber the repenters. Now, I could
almost recite in my sleep all the standard lines about how hate
imprisons us and forgiveness releases us, yada yada yada;
every preacher who repeats them seems to think that no one
else ever thought of preaching forgiveness before. I don't want
anyone to think that I'm AGAINST forgiveness. But what I am
against is a harmfully incomplete understanding of any issue.
Sometimes it seems to me as if my fellow Christians cannot
see ANY other significance in a murderer besides an opportunity
to go offer someone forgiveness.

Forgiveness here, forgiveness there: that's all well and good, as
each element of Godly conduct is well and good. But if all that's
ever talked about is forgiving the murderers...what becomes of
the idea of PREVENTING them from committing their murders
in the first place?

If all that counts is the "closure" that comes with forgiving
the murderers of our loved ones, what becomes of the idea of
PROTECTING our loved ones so they don't GET murdered? If
your seven-year-old daughter is being strangled in front of your
eyes, does God command you to lean over the killer's shoulder
and say to your daughter, "Don't worry, honey, as soon as he's
done killing you I'll forgive him, and that's all that counts"?

An omission can be a horrible thing. Modern Americans have been
exhaustively trained in processing grief, but too few of us grasp
the fact that many griefs could be prevented by a timely use of
justified force against those who would cause the grief.

I remember how the TV series "M*A*S*H" tried to convince us
that running away, or surrendering, is ALWAYS enough to
protect us from suffering violence--as when a couple of the
characters were out in a jeep and Communist soldiers fired
off some rifle shots at a distance but never chased them as
they fled. Focussing all our attention ONLY on forgiving our
enemies, with no thought for maybe STOPPING them now
and then, is a form of running away.

There's a reason why we have police departments, not
just forgiveness departments. The reason can be found in
Ecclesiastes 8:11--"Because sentence against an evil deed
is not executed speedily, the heart of the sons of men is fully
set to do evil"; and in Isaiah 26:10--"If favor is shown to the
wicked, he does not learn righteousness." It was in the spirit
of these Scriptures that our Founding Fathers, all of whom
were either Christians or well versed in Christian thought,
gave us the Second Amendment--which confirms our lawful
right to be equipped with firearms in addition to being equipped
with love and forgiveness. (And anyone who thinks that both
types of equipment cannot coexist must not have heard of the
Civil War incident in which a Confederate soldier went around
a battlefield giving water to wounded men of BOTH sides, and
the Union troops who saw him doing this held their fire.)

In case anyone has failed to notice, we have some vicious
enemies right now, whose ONLY reaction to an offer by us to
forgive them would be to hack off our heads. I don't think we
can afford anymore to let military personnel be the only ones
who understand this conflict. It may yet come to our own soil
in full force, and we may ALL have to fight. We can still forgive
any terrorists we capture alive--AFTER they've been rendered
powerless to kill any more victims. That same combination of
warlike prowess and mercy to the defeated made an enormous
impression on Muslim Barbary Pirates of the early 19th century,
when America was forced to kick their collective butt. A sugary
forgiveness that is not part of a more complete understanding
of moral issues will only come across as weakness, to be
laughed at by today's Barbary Pirates.



Yours for Jesus and America,

P.O.1 Joseph Ravitts, U.S.N. Ret.