Given our state's recent offical seal of approval of Ritze's faith-based initiative to graft Mosaic law onto the Oklahoma Capitol grounds, and given the wide array of crimes warranting death in the Old Testamant, one must wonder to what extent patriotic Christians believe that Mosaic laws ought to be made applicable to modern criminal codes, by those who vote and believe as Ritze does that we ought to exemplify Judeo-Christian morality in the laws that we pass for our state and our nation.Surely some Mosaic laws (such as those against perjury, theft, and murder) must remain on the books for so long as men are not angels. Others, however, seem a bit more culturally-contexual and best left to the bygone theocracy that was ancient Israel. The question here is how devout Christians who are patriotic enough to vote and serve on juries can systematically and rationally place crimes listed in the Bible into one of three categories:
- Should be criminalized with the Biblical punishment
- Should be criminalized with a lesser level of punishment
- No longer criminal, but merely a matter of personal conscience
Bear in mind that the laws of the OT were given by one who is (by definition) a perfectly moral and immutable lawgiver unto his chosen people. That said, I would think that most Jews and Christians would tend to prefer the first of these three choices, but I find in practice that they almost always choose the latter two, except for the most severe of crimes.
Why is this?
No comments:
Post a Comment