Law and order: What would Jesus do?

"He'd demand to see your two witnesses"

Don't know about other kinds of crime, but following that simple dictum would scuttle most if not all rape and sexual harassment cases.

Considering how easily accusations are made in such cases, I think that's part of the point of that requirement :)

I've pondered applying that standard to modern times every now and then. Regarding rape, would the testimony of the victim and the DNA expert count? Or would it have to be two eyewitnesses?

DNA evidence would be unacceptable in such a case as a "witness" because all it would do is corroborate the charge that the defendant had sex with the "victim." DNA itself does absolutely nothing for proving the "mens rea" aspect of the case. That is the part that really matters. Society cannot afford to punish people for such a serious crime on such flimsy evidence.

It would make sense to lower the standard of evidence for less serious crimes like theft, however, for something like rape which carries often a decade or two in prison, I think the standard should be higher.

WWJD?

When that comes up as I question, I have to answer, he would turn himself (essentially) in to authorities who will falsely prosecute him, punish him in a long drawn out and torturous manner for his "crimes", and then he would be executed in the most painful, gruesome, and public of a manner possible. Then he would die, and rise on the third day. I think what I am saying is the idea behind WWJD is blatantly false. We cannot do what Jesus would do or he would not have been needed. Nor was everything he did to be our way. If someone starts walking on water, healing the sick, and raising the dead, I might allow him to bring the topic up. Until then, I will back shelve such hubris. I will stick to my (am)mortal humility, and merely attempt to allow Him to guide me as He will.

As far as justice, not only should it serve the crime, past crimes by the criminal, and the nature of the particular criminal, it should primarily serve the current, past, and potential victims (even if the current victim is afraid or not interested). Christ allowed for the forgiveness of the prostitute specifically and several times, and he did extol the virtues of forgiveness even saying that forgiveness was required in order to receive his grace in this vein. He spared her life through his wisdom, influence, and grace. Yet he said nary a word about slavery or the men being put to death with him. So, I do not think we can draw conclusions. Christ did not say how far the church should go, or where it should stop (is there such a thing as heresy?). And never did Christ indicate that forgiveness forbade punishments. Beyond that, did he not chase out moneychangers with anger and a violence or a threat of violence (depending on how you look upon it)? And did he not indicate that there would be various levels of heaven and hell? If purity of forgiveness was indeed his lot, then why would He indicate that He Himself will not forgive all equally?

There are people who need to be put in prison. It should be a punishment, not merely a separation from honest people. If a man continues to commit crimes, he may be not only detained but judged to death. The commandment "Thou Shall Not Kill" is actually more like 'thou shall not murder', where 'murder' means to kill outside of a judgment or right war. (Which means people who believe the war in Iraq, or on Terror in general, is a corruption and are false wars do indeed, by necessity of logic, believe by default that US and other coalition soldiers are murders).

Anyway, I do believe in true justice, just not stupidity. Grace, forgiveness, mercy? Certainly. But forgiveness does not negate punishment. For some crimes there should only ever be one punishment. Political correctness has irreparably blinded justice, for the time being.

Yeah, I know. But it is how I see things.

Still, I think Jesus would uphold the essential truth that shortcuts cannot be taken to secure justice because too often human evil perverts the course of justice when the rules are bent in order to make things easier for the authorities. The Mosaic Law, which He did fully support, provides very powerful protections to the accused that many law-and-order conservatives would find obscene if proposed for our legal system.

Let me get this straight, you are saying Jesus would uphold the legal system that saw him tried by both religious and secular courts, found guilty, tortured near to death, then murdered, while allowing a murder to go free, over todays courts? Well, if you insist. I am just trying to get this straight in my mind? Are you saying that court system was better yourself?

Apart from that, I cannot agree that the courts of his day were better than those of today (in the US, generally). Simply put, who could be a judge, lawyer, or such in those times and how much weight did religious and political affiliations (on top of wealth, which seems to plague all human justice systems) play in the meting out of justice in those courts? I daresay more people of any background can and do become a part of our legal system, and there is a universal attempt to offer colorblind justice (so much so that, unfortunately, prejudice for the minority is becoming rampant).

As well, when, exactly, was the last stoning we had for mentioning God's name? When was the last crucification? Even our death penalty was on hold recently, and when it is carried out, we try not to hurt those we are killing (how absolutely silly we have become).

It is not better in every respect, but it is far superior in the protection that it provides to the accused. You forget how lax our own system is at narrowly defining crimes. For example, rape is anything from having consensual sex with a drunken woman, to brutally screwing a woman who is thrashing hysterically, trying to get away while you threaten to kill her. In other words, rape is practically meaningless under our law. We also execute people based on circumstantial evidence, something that the Mosaic Law doesn't do.

And yes, being the Son of God, I think He would prefer the law His father instituted to our own corrupt system which changes whichever way the wind blows.